To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

First book in the Lara Jean series by Jenny Han

 

(taken from Amazon.com)

Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control in this heartfelt novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer I Turned Pretty series.

What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them…all at once?
Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

I picked this book up back in 2015 on a whim while wandering aimlessly through Target. I ended up binge-reading it in bed for five hours that night. Though not a profound piece of literature by any means (I mean, it's YA romance, so, you shouldn't expect it to be), I found the characters realistic but compelling. They certainly felt more balanced? than we sometimes see in YA lit. Often the main characters are majorly damaged or psychotic, which makes them interesting, but also distances them from the reader. You get a sense that there are some broken parts of the family in this book, but also they have a "normal"-ness to them that makes them seem more real, and more relate-able.


In some ways, this book reminded me a little of a modern-Austen-esque story. The family of the main character in the book is comprised of a dad with three daughters, his wife deceased. Laura Jean is the middle sister, and much of the action of the plot and the character development and relationships center around her and her sisters, which I thought was cool. The romance was not always center-stage, much of the story was really about how sisters relate, and how families cope with the loss of a parent, which was really honest, but also sweet and touching to read. 
(I also may have just enjoyed some of this story, because the characters live in a similar area and community to mine, and the older sister goes off to college where I studied abroad.)



One other thing I liked about this book: The main character is half-Korean, which gives an interesting dimension to her life and her relationships. In fiction, particularly YA, we tend to see either a white Caucasian front-row main character, or a "diverse" protagonist, but I liked how this story showed a different take on that. There are some aspects of Lara Jean's life (like, for instance, her double name, which I can totally relate to) that seem more "All-American" or even "Southern-ish" at times, but then there are other moments when the sisters have Korean experiences (with relatives, in their shared middle Korean names, etc.). I also like that the author was, in some ways, having these three girls exploring and trying to figure out what it means to be half one culture and half another growing up in the U.S. That was a unique side to this book that really impressed and interested me.

Overall Rating: 8 / 10 Stars 

I would never give a YA romance novel ten stars, so this comes pretty highly recommended, for all the reasons listed above. Really, the book does quite a lot with family and cultural relationships for being supposedly a primarily romance novel, so it rates high in my opinion.