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Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han

Sunday, May 17, 2020



Synopsis from the Publisher:

Lara Jean is having the best senior year a girl could ever hope for. She is head over heels in love with her boyfriend, Peter; her dad’s finally getting remarried to their next door neighbor, Ms. Rothschild; and Margot’s coming home for the summer just in time for the wedding.

But change is looming on the horizon. And while Lara Jean is having fun and keeping busy helping plan her father’s wedding, she can’t ignore the big life decisions she has to make. Most pressingly, where she wants to go to college and what that means for her relationship with Peter. She watched her sister Margot go through these growing pains. Now Lara Jean’s the one who’ll be graduating high school and leaving for college and leaving her family—and possibly the boy she loves—behind.

When your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to?



Review:


I'm well aware that this review might come out of nowhere, given I had given TATBILB a 5 star rating, and P.S. I Still Love You 4.5 stars. And believe me, I'm not thrilled with this either. But Always and Forever, Lara Jean was a major disappointment for me. I really do love this series, and I was excited to see how it all ended. 

Lara Jean and Peter Kavinksy are still going strong as they near the end of their senior year. They both play to attend UVA where Peter will play lacrosse and Lara Jean will be close enough to be able to visit home often. When Lara Jean doesn't get accepted into UVA, it throws her plans into upheaval and her relationship with Peter becomes uncertain. Along the way are prom, graduation, a beach trip, and a wedding. It sounds like a lot, doesn't it? Unfortunately, those are only small parts of this book. The rest seems to be a lot of filler. Lara Jean baking. Lara Jean planning her dad's wedding. Lara Jean helping Margot decide which shoes to keep or give away. Everyday routine things that aren't terribly exciting and don't really equate to a plot. Because... there's not much of a plot. 

And maybe that's part of what disappointed me. I wanted more of Peter and Lara Jean, especially since Peter was dealing with his estranged relationship with his father. But since the books are from Lara Jean's point of view, and Peter tends to shut down things he's uncomfortable talking about, we just don't get a lot of substance between these two. We don't get a lot of anything between them, which is a shame because their interactions were so charming, at least in the first book.

My biggest gripe with Always and Forever, Lara Jean was the lack of character development for Lara Jean. She's seventeen/eighteen, but still seems to have the mindset of a child. She has very few friends - Chris occasionally pops up but Lara Jean basically hangs out with her 11 year old sister - and she has no desire to rock the boat or do anything remotely exciting. I don't think all teenagers have to be having sex in high school, but she and Peter have been together for a year and she gets uncomfortable even kissing him in public. I guess it just didn't feel realistic to me.

Kitty was cute, as usual, but Margot remained insufferable. I did enjoy Mr. Covey and Ms. Rothschild relationship, and I do think the author touched on the doubts and insecurities that come with high school relationships transitioning to college. But... it just wasn't enough to make the book all that interesting. It wasn't even terribly romantic. 

I'm just bummed the series ended this way. 


Rating: 2/5

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