To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

Name & Author: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: February 4th 2014

Genres: YA, Contemprary Romance

Summary:

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. -Goodreads

My Thoughts:

I have not had the best of luck with Jenny Han’s writing. I have read The Summer I Turned Pretty and didn’t really like it. But I decided to give her newest book, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, a go and didn’t have high expectations for it. It turned out that the book exceeded my expectations and I quite liked it.

As the name of the book states you would expect it to focus mainly on the results of Lara Jean’s letters being sent, but it is more than that. The book isn’t the typical YA contemporary romance. It focuses more on getting to know and be yourself and about the family relationship, rather than the romantic relationship.

The book also takes on traditions. Lara Jean is half Korean and she struggles to keep the traditions from her mother (who was Korean) after she passes away. I really liked that the main character had a mixed heritage and that she wasn’t the typical white girl with blond hair that is very often the main character in books like this one.

I wan’t sure what to think about Lara Jean in the beginning. I found her to be very naive and depended on the sister, Margot. But when Margot leaves for Scotland Lara starts to change, but the change isn’t major. She always seems like she is about 14-15 years old and bit childish. Her younger sister, Kitty, seems more mature that Lara is.

There is only one scene from the book that was rememberable and that was the scene were Lara drives for the first time herself and crashes the car.

The book is overall only OK. I found the storyline lacking and there wasn’t really any resolution in the end. The book isn’t bad. It’s fluffy and fun but nothing more.

3,5/5 stars!

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Name & Author: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Publisher: Delacorte Press/Hot Key Books

Release Date: May 6th 2014

Genres: YA, Contemporary, Mystery

Summary:

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.  
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.   -Goodreads

My Thoughts:

How do you write a review of a book that doesn’t have a summery without revealing something? I have no idea. As a reader you go in completely blind. You don’t know anything. I wasn’t even sure if the main character was a girl or a boy. The whole book is like that. You never really know where you stand. I think that is the thing that makes this book work – you don’t have a clue what’s going to happen.

I wanted to give up on this book in the beginning. It was confusing and I didn’t know what was what. But what kept me going was the writing. It’s beautiful and it sucked me in. You get addicted to the story. You have to know what happens -weather you like the book or not is a whole other story.

The namesake of the book “We Were Liars” has a lot to do with the storyline. The kids call them selfs the Liars. It doesn’t really change the storyline, but it changes the readers view of the storyline. I never knew when they were telling the truth or not. I still don’t at parts.

This book really took me by surprise. I did NOT see that ending coming. If you want to know more you have to read the book. I recommend you do so. It is a short read, but a very powerful one.

5/5 stars!