To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Goodreads 

The Invisible Girl, The Jock, and The Mean Girl (+ The Boy Next Door)
I read this book because of all the hype surrounding it and I am glad but mostly regretful that I read it. Lara Jean was a Korean-American 16 y/o, who might as well be passed off as 12. She was childish - "kiddish", in her own words - whiny, and spoiled. Most of her decisions were rash and impulsive then she complains about the consequences of said decisions afterwards, especially when it comes to her younger kid sister, Kitty. Hell, even Kitty is more mature than Lara Jean sometimes.

I just let people believe what they please. I don't feel like it's my responsibility to quantify myself for them.

Here comes Peter Kavinsky, the popular, handsome boy in the entire school. Athletic, member of the lacrosse team, and of course, one of the recipients of Lara Jean's love letters. Basically, the "perfect" guy. I feel like I should include douche in the description. After a certain happening with Lara Jean, besides receiving the letter, he decided to be part of a fake boyfriend-girlfriend relationship with her, to finally cut ties with the "evil", drop dead gorgeous, and equally popular ex, Genevieve.

All the cliches can write a book! Oh wait...it did!

The letters were portrayed in the synopsis and at the beginning of the book as important elements but they were easily forgotten as the book decided to focus on the budding romance and lousy love triangle. Am I the only one who figured out who took and sent out those letters? I think not.

Romance, you say? 
Between, Peter K and Lara Jean, the romance was predictable yet undeniably adorable at times, especially the instances where it was just them, being truly real. Those were the most bearable and even sweet and pleasant to read.

I don't think relationships are just about physicality. There are ways to show you care about someone, not just using your lips.

Lara Jean's dynamic with Josh, however, was merely confusing and wrongly placed. Yes, Josh was Lara Jean's past love and the main reason she started a fake relationship with Peter in the first place, but throughout the book, it felt like he was being treated simply as property -  a possession war like a pair of boots being fought over by 2 sisters with  one of them captivated by the rest of the items while the other was slowly but surely undermining the other sister. "I saw him first so he belongs to me." "But I got to him first so he's mine now." "So unfaaaaaair!"

So what did I like about this book that stopped me from rating it 1? 
I didn't hate TATBILB 100% and I do not wish to go out on a negative note, so heare I am stating what I enjoyed reading the most: Margot Covey. Jenny Han created Margot to be the "big sister/mother replacement", the uptight, high strung figure of the family and out of all the characters, she was the one who felt real and whole - on par with Kitty. She was strict, in a good way, and rational and at the same time, caring and loving, putting her sisters and Dad before her. College in Scotland was her chance to think of herself after so long and coming back to being left out and betrayed by none other than her Lara Jean was painful. Margot's characters lifted off the page and my heart went out to her struggles more than Lara Jean's love letters.

A lot of my friends really loved and enjoyed TATBILB. It is fairly well written with a good exposition but the characters and storyline simple fell apart for me. They were uncharacteristically brittle like undercooked cookies. Maybe it's all about preference - if you enjoy a quirky romance and tolerate cliches, then TATBILB offers its pages for you. Even though Jenny Han, in a sense, summed up first loves and true loves beautifully, it just didn't work out for me and I have no plans on reading the sequel, whatsoever.

I think I see the difference now, between loving someone from afar and loving someone up close. When you see them up close, you see the real them, but they also get to see the real you. 

P.S. (Ha, see what I did there?) Scroll up and see my fail of a book photography. The orange hue is killing me huhu but that's what I get for taking pictures after sundown.