P.S. I Still Love You Review

P.S. I Still Love You

Jenny Han

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

May 2015

4/5

Quotes:

“People come in and out of your life. For a time they are your world; they are everything. And then one day they’re not. There’s no telling how long you will have them near.”  

“I know now that I don’t want to love or be loved in half measures. I want it all, and to have it all, you have to risk it all.”  

“There's a Korean word my grandma taught me. It's called jung. It's the connection between two people that can't be severed, even when love turns to hate. You still have those old feelings for them; you can't ever completely shake them loose of you; you will always have tenderness in your heart for them.”  

“So much of love is chance. There's something scary and wonderful about that.”

“I say, “In the contract we said we wouldn’t break each other’s hearts. What if we do it again?” Fiercely he says, “What if we do? If we’re so guarded, it’s not going to be anything. Let’s do it fucking for real, Lara Jean. Let’s go all in. No more contract. No more safety net. You can break my heart. Do whatever you want with it.”  

This was a delightful companion novel to the wildly popular "To All The Boys I've Loved Before." I'm going to start things out a little differently by recapping the book since it's been awhile since the first book was released so some who read it then may not remember all the details. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you check it out before you read any further.

Towards the end of the first book, Lara Jean and Josh kiss and she also realizes that it's really Peter who she wants to be with. She makes out with Peter while they are away on a school trip and Lara Jean hears that Peter is telling people that they had sex. Regardless of how betrayed she feels, she still knows that it's Peter who she is in love with. The book ends with Lara writing a letter starting with "Dear Peter" and that's it.

In "P.S. I Still Love You" it picks up directly with the letter which I think was really smart of Jenny Han since readers were desperately wondering what Lara Jean would say to him. In the letter, she admits that she loves and cares about him. She goes and delivers the letter to him herself and the two end up getting together. Drama then pretty much goes down again and again in the book. The most important drama that happens between them is that Peter starts hanging out with his ex girlfriend Gen, while a blast from both of Peter and Lara Jean's past gets in contact with Lara. John is one of the guys who received the letters from the first book but he just now got back to her. Lara will have to somehow make a choice between two boys that she has loved for a long time now.

The thing about Jenny Han's writing is that you get automatically swept up in every character but sometimes you may not always absolutely love that character. Honestly, I found Lara Jean to be beyond 

irritating and whiny at times. She also really let her insecurities take over as she attempted to push people she cares about away. However, she does grow so much as a character and I think it's great that she has these completely relatable flaws. Peter is a complicated character but I'll talk about him more in the next paragraph. My favorite character is definitely Kitty, Lara Jean's little sister who is so mature that it's easy to forget she's still in middle school. One of the funniest moments came from Kitty confessing that she watched The Sopranos, I literally laughed out loud. She's the comic relief of these books for sure. 

I don't understand why Jenny Han has to have love triangles in the majority of her books. (Besides the Burn for Burn books)

If you can't already tell, I can't stand love triangles. I love the relationship between Peter and Lara Jean although it does have it's flaws, but they still make sense together. Lara Jean's fascination with John, a sweet childhood friend of both Peter and Lara Jean, also makes sense in its own way. Although it's over, Peter and Gen also made sense together and Lara Jean struggles with seeing them together, even though Peter picked her. The boy has communication issues and he doesn't stand up for her like he should, but it's clear that he cares for our girl Lara. I won't lie, at times I was rooting for John and I'm sure you might feel that way as well. The ending is just completely satisfying and that's the main reason why I rated this a 4 instead of a 5. 

I know fans of the book are probably hoping Han will write another novel since all of her others are trilogies. Personally, I'm more than happy with her closing this story here because I think we were given more answers and no more questions. Regardless, I'll always love these stories and will continue to buy any book written by Jenny Han!