Jenny Han

Giving this a 3 stars may even be a little too generous. First off, am I the only one who didn't really like this book? It seems to have received a lot of high ratings, which is beyond me cause honestly this book did NOT need to happen. If the first book was a little longer and came to a resolution instead of leaving us with that cliffhanger ending, we wouldn't even need this book. This book reminds me why I don't read much contemporary, they're so BORING! Seriously, nothing worthwhile happens in this book. At least if the characters were captivating it would make up for the lack of plot. I've read books where not much happens in terms of plot but because the characters are amazing you don't really care, for example Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout. But the characters in this series are nothing special and sometimes are annoying with how immature they can be. My favorite character is Kitty, which is a huge difference from the first book cause I thought she was such a brat in the first book. I think it goes to show how much she's grown up between the first book and this one (even though not much time has passed). In the first book, I thought she would grow up and become one of those mean girls like Gen, but after this book I think there's hope for her yet. Sometimes I think she's the most mature one in this book....sometimes. Kitty is strong, fierce, and isn't afraid to tell you how she feels. Also, she's not doing things out of spite anymore, which is one of the big reasons I thought she was a brat in the first book.

I really didn't see a need for the love triangle in this book. I think it was just there to create more drama and for this book to seem like it had somewhat of a plot but it really didn't need to be here. I will say that I'm glad we finally found out why Gen was such a... as Kitty would say "witch with a B". However, the reason she gives Lara Jean further proves how immature these characters are. I understand that all of this started when they were in middle school so it would be normal for them to act so immature but they're in high school now and it seems like they haven't grown up at all.

There were some funny moments in this book. That plus the fact that I really liked Kitty's character is probably the only reason I'm giving this a 3 stars.… (mer)

Representation: Biracial main character
Trigger warnings: Death of a mother, grief and loss depiction

6/10, I've been wanting to read this for a while since I first saw it in one of the two libraries I go to and I didn't know what to expect considering I've never read this series before and now there's a Netflix adaptation but I found myself feeling indifferent at best and iffy at worst due to the issues I found. That being said I won't be continuing with the series. Where do I even begin? Did I mention this had an interesting concept as well but it didn't work out? It starts with the main character Lara Jean Song Covey or Lara for short and she has a quirk that no other character I know of has yet, she writes letters to every boy she ever loved but she never sends them out since she always keeps them in her hatbox and only a few pages later the book starts to get going when the first event that kicks it all off happens when her hatbox disappears with no explanation other than it got sent alongside some other unused antiques to Goodwill. The book then talks about how Lara developed an attraction with Peter Kavinsky or Peter for short and this takes up a big chunk of the book but unexpectedly I discovered it was nothing more than a farce as I'll see later on. Not long after some dramatic event happens but when I look retroactively, it was predictable and a cheap way on behalf of the author to make a love triangle, I must say I couldn't relate or connect to any of these characters. Margot is barely there and Kitty is one of the few characters I liked, that is such a shame since if the author put more time and effort into these characters I would've given this a higher rating than three stars. The last 100 pages are about a shocking scene and an easily resolved confrontation later the book ends on a cliffhanger. Wow.… (mer)