Always and Forever Lara Jean by Jenny Han

Summary from Goodreads:

Lara Jean is having the best senior year. And there’s still so much to look forward to: a class trip to New York City, prom with her boyfriend Peter, Beach Week after graduation, and her dad’s wedding to Ms. Rothschild. Then she’ll be off to college with Peter, at a school close enough for her to come home and bake chocolate chip cookies on the weekends.

Life couldn’t be more perfect!

At least, that’s what Lara Jean thinks…until she gets some unexpected news.

Now the girl who dreads change must rethink all her plans—but when your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to?

Review:

This is what I said on Goodreads as soon as I finished this book: “Finishing this series was like taking a deep contented sigh after finishing a hot drink on a cold day. Maybe I need to track down everything this author has ever written. Really, so much love for this!”

I took my time reading this one. Aka: I didn’t finish it in one sitting or one day even. I think it took a few days. I just really didn’t want this to end. I was also super nervous going into the book because I was so afraid of what the “unexpected news” would be. I was also a little weirded out by how much time had passed between this book and the second one.

I am clearly way too involved in this story. But, I am also so surprisingly pleased with the way it all ended. I thought there’d be no way this book can be both believable and have the ending I was hoping for. I was wrong. It can definitely accomplish both.

I loved how much more developed Peter and Lara Jean’s relationship was. They both had definitely grown up a lot since the previous book. I loved that Peter’s ex and Josh were barely even mentioned much at all. And Lara Jean just seemed so much more confident and strong. The decisions she had to make and the way she came about making them felt so genuine. I loved her road trip with Chris and how that helped her make up her mind. I loved her need to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie. And I even loved watching Lara Jean and Kitty be the mature sisters and help teach Margot to want their father’s happiness.

Margot was kind of a snot, but in a believable way. I just wanted to slap her a couple of times. But, Lara Jean’s wisdom eventually got through to her. I loved how Margot handled things at the bachelorette party. Watching Lara Jean get drunk for the first time weirdly reminded me of Anne of Green Gables, a book this series has quoted in the past. Oh, and I love that Peter read books for Lara Jean. He read all of the Harry Potter books!

I never stopped being nervous that they would break up. I know how seriously Lara Jean takes her older sister and her mom, who both made clear that you don’t want to be crying over your high school boyfriend in college. And the suspense of that drove me crazy and kept me reading into the late hours of the night.

All in all, this was amazing. The characters have come a long way –especially Lara Jean. I wish there were more books in this series. Yet, I also love how things ended. I definitely need to track down more Jenny Han books.  And I know this will be a series I will read over and over again. I give this one a 10/10.