To All the Boys I've Loved Before & P.S. I Still Love You | Jenny Han Duology Review

Photo credit: @nadeethequeen on weheartit.com

About To All the Boys I've Loved Before: 

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

Genre: YA contemporary/romance

Pages: 288 | 337

Publication Years: 2014-2015

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Ratings by the book:

To All the Boys I've Loved Before

4.5 stars

P.S. I Still Love You

3.75 stars

Overall Rating:

4 stars

My review:

To all the readers who love contemporary, 

For what it was, for everything it was, To All the Boys I've Loved Before and P.S. I Still Love You are lovely, perfect stories. The family dynamic, the cultural standpoint, the teenage woes, the 2015 relevance, the first-love butterflies, and the different, yet, equally great romantic interests... they were all wonderfully relatable and charming story elements. Jenny Han's words read with such ease that it's always a fun experience to read her work.  

The best part of this duology is its moral of living life to the fullest. To opening yourself up to a whole world of possible experiences and opportunities if only you took them; risking the lows and the heartbreaks for moments filled with excitement and love. And even when things don't turn out for the best, at least you feel their effects in full. At least you're not living a half-life. If this hadn't been the message and Lara Jean hadn't learned this throughout the course of the series, I would label this duology as "just another YA contemporary". And I would demand more romance, damn it. I love experiencing and feeling those exciting and joyous moments alongside the main characters of a story. I need to develop strong, emotional connections to characters in order to LOVE a story, you know?

Maybe I'm still demanding more romance, but I suppose I'll concede because of every other lovely aspect this story has going for it. 

Sincerely, 

Holly 

P.S. But seriously, Jenny. Please show us more romance next time! 😘

My Summer TBR | 2015

Now that my winter classes are finished (woot woot!) all I wanna do is read! You'd think I'd be tired of reading with all the reading I've had to do for school these past 9 months, but the deprivation of reading for my own enjoyment needs to be compensated. I'll be heading to Italy on Monday so reading will be put off for two weeks, but once I come back, it's game on. I own most of the books on my summer TBR so I decided to do a little summer photo shoot to show you what I want to read! ;)

1. Confess by Colleen Hoover

This was the first book I picked up when I got back from school. I have to be honest: when I first started it, I was a little wary. Colleen is my favorite contemporary romance author and possibly my favorite author of any genre so of course I go into her books expecting to love them. But as I was reading this, I noticed that Colleen was repeating or overemphasizing some things that didn't need further explaining. It threw me off because that's not typical for her, but as I continued, I didn't come across that anymore. Now I'm about two-thirds of the way through and absolutely engaged in the plot! Loving it! I'll be posting a full review, hopefully before I leave for Italy.

2. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

I fell in love with Hosseini's The Kite Runner and have been eyeing this bad boy up ever since it found a home in my bookshelf LAST spring (Oi!) but just haven't been able to devote the singular attention I know it deserves. But it's going to happen in the next couple months. I'm prepared to love this book so hard it won't know what it had coming.

3. Kristin Lavrensdatter series by Sigrid Undset

My grandmother gave this series set to me years ago and I never read them because as a 13 year old, they didn't interest me at all. Then my creative writing teacher this past semester said it was brilliant and was her all-time favorite series so now I'm thinking I need to reconsider. I might only get to the first book, which I'm okay with. As long as I start the series, I'll be happy.

4. When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle

I received this as a gift from Trina in a care package she sent me this past year! She says it's a cute contemporary romance, which I love reading during the summer months so I'm definitely looking forward to it.

5. Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty

I'm going to be reading this series along with my lovely friend Trina from Between Chapters on BookTube! This is an oldie but goodie series we've both had on our TBRs for a while. Since I love doing buddy reads, she agreed to read the series with me, despite my past history of not always being reliable when it comes to buddy reads. Thanks for the second (third? fourth?) chance, Trina!

6. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Another gift I received from Trina, this time for my birthday! I enjoyed Nelson's The Sky is Everywhere and she loved IGYtS when she read it last year so I'm excited to read it. I also promised her I would read it after my classes ended, so this will for sure be a book I get to this summer.

7. Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

I ordered this at the same time I purchased A Thousand Splendid Suns. I fell in love with Morgan Matson's Second Chance Summer, really enjoyed Amy & Roger's Epic Detour, and have only heard great things about this one! So I simply must read it as soon as I can.

8. The Westing Game by Ellen Haskin

My librarian from high school gave this to me in a bag of books (the sweetheart!) and I feel inclined to read it this summer.

9. After the Funeral by Agatha Christie

Another book gifted by my HS librarian, which I completely forgot to photograph, but I'm excited to read this too! And this will count as part of my yearly goal, of reading a classic.

 I also have three books to help me with my writing:

10. Wild Ink: Success Secrets to Writing in the Young Adult Market by Victoria Hanley

This is a book my friend Sabrina from I Heart YA Fiction picked up for me last year after I told her I want to publish books. I've scanned it here and there, but I know it's going to be a book that deserves my detailed attention so I can get the most out of it so I've been postponing reading the whole thing. This summer I have a goal to write the majority of a first draft (if not completely finish the first draft) of my main story I've been building on forever so this summer is the perfect time to read this! By the way, Sabrina is awesome,

as is her book blog, so go show her some love!

11. Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Smooth out my writing skills with grammar corrections and such.

12. Grammar Girl's 101 Words to Sound Smart

This is more of a fun book I bought to improve my vocabulary because for a writer, I do not have an expansive diction. This (and the other Grammar Girl book) will be something that I read a couple pages a day and finish within a couple weeks.

If I'm being honest, I probably won't have time for all of these books, considering two of the goals are series. While working part-time, writing a book, training for a 10K, keeping in touch with my friends, and accomplishing daily tasks, I'll be happy if I'm able to read one book a week, which will equate to 13 books this summer. I'm also a mood reader so we'll see how all that comes into play.

But what books do you hope to read this summer?

Thanks for reading, and until next time,

Holly

Reviews You Might Like:

Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover

Never Never by Colleen Hoover & Tarryn Fisher

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

Review: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

*In place of my Top Ten Tuesday this week (whose topic is "Beach Reads") I'm choosing one book I'd qualify as a "beach read" and reviewing it because I don't really like this topic, lol.

Official Synopsis: 

A gorgeous debut about family, friendship, first romance, and how to be true to one person you love without betraying another. 

One thing my mother never knew, and would disapprove of most of all, was that I watched the Garretts. All the time.” The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, numerous, messy, affectionate. And every day from her balcony perch, seventeen-year-old Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs her terrace and changes everything. As the two fall fiercely in love, Jase's family makes Samantha one of their own. Then in an instant, the bottom drops out of her world and she is suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself? 

A dreamy summer read, full of characters who stay with you long after the story is over.

Pages: 394
Published by: Dial Books For Young Readers (June 14, 2012)
Genre: YA contemporary + romance

My rating for My Life Next Door:

+ summer kisses

This book was a beautiful summer romance, but it was also so much more than just romance. 

My Life Next Door wasn't a fast-paced read. It wasn't action/drama packed. It's written at a casual pace that isn't boring to read. Even though it wasn't full of action or even dialogue, I still was filled with satisfaction at what I was reading. Every word held a purpose and kept me reading.

Romance is involved throughout the whole book, but I wouldn't say it's a romance novel. A huge part of this book is on the dynamics of a family and each family controls their lives and handles situations differently. In this story, there are two families: the Reeds, a mom and two daughters, who are wealthy and successful and live in what seems to be a close to perfect life, and then there are the Garretts, a mom and dad and their too-many-to-count children, who are barely making ends meet, never see a clean family room, but where smiles even when they want to kill each other. 

Over the course of the book, Sam, the 17 year old daughter in the Reed family, really got a taste of what life was like for someone not like herself. She grew to love the Garretts and so did I--I couldn't help but smile at the silly things the little Garrett children said--and, of course, I loved Jase Garrett: the cute, summer love interest.

This book didn't have any extraordinary elements in it, but the casual, realistic approach that Huntley Fitzpatrick took (with the story line and the characters and their actions) still managed to wow the crap out of me! I loved that their wasn't particularly anything special about the characters. Jase wasn't the stereotype "bad boy"; Sam wasn't a snotty rich girl. Those two had awkward moments, didn't always speak eloquently, and things didn't always turn out as planned for them, and while I can't label these things as being "romantic", they DO happen in real life and I loved and appreciated these aspects immensely. All of the characters had room to change and grow, or go further downhill, just like real life. And then when the relationships and bonds changed for the better, that's when my heart really started to warm. This story resides in a deep, soft spot in my heart.

Recommended to readers who like: a casual, contemporary read about friendships, relationships, family, change, and simply just life. Great for the summer too!

Sexual content: Medium (fade-out).

~

Show Huntley Fitzpatrick some love on her website, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Goodreads account!

Add on Goodreads.

Buy on Amazon and B&N.