Book Review: To All the Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han

To All the Boys I Loved Before #1

Published By: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 288
Rating: 4/5

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.

To be honest I don't think I would've liked this book as much as I did IF I was not a fan of K-Dramas because this book reads like one. In fact I probably would've disliked this book but this is my life:
 




















So for those of you who do not watch K-Dramas, they tend to be very formulaic to the point that you can guess how it will probably end and identify the tried-and-tested plot devices. So why are they so addictive and why do I watch them, well...



So because of my drama watching I found this book on the predictable side of things. It uses one of my favourite K-Drama plot devices, the contract marriage (or in this case contract dating), and as soon as that appears you know where it's gonna lead and you know you'll probably end up with a case of SLS (second lead syndrome). And while SLS didn't affect me that much this time, I was liking the OTP. What I did like and what is usually absent in K-Dramas of the same vein is that Peter wasn't a complete tool bag to her and he did put in effort, even if I wanted to slap him every time he went crawling back to Gwen And I was excited when this happened:

While I found the overall experience of reading this book enjoyable it was not without it's faults. I really disliked Margot. I found her to be really selfish and self-absorbed. I did understand where these feelings were coming from but there were times she just grated on my nerves. Furthermore, there wasn't enough Gwen. I expected her to have a bit of a bigger role, making Lara Jean's life hell and being the bitch we were told she was. Finally Josh. There was a chance for SLS to hit hard but he fell a little flat as a love interest. By the time he became a possible competitor it was too late, he was too absent from Lara Jean's life after his breakup with Margot to be convincing. That being said I was kinda glad I didn't have to deal with another Ji Hoo...

Seriously I'll never get over this case of SLS, it was devastating :(

That being said there is another is sequel so there is plenty of time for characters to up their game, for romance to blossom fully, an amnesia scene  and a brooding shower scene with the male lead...

Wait what was I talking about?

Overall, this book is a quick fun read. Not everyone is going to enjoy it as you do have to set aside the idea of the events being realistic but if you can ignore that you might just like it. Also that ending is kinda horrible even if I can somewhat predict what will happen

Now I'm off to re-watch Boys Over Flowers because Ji Hoo! and procrastinate over homework.