I LOVED this story!

This Story was wonderful. I was unsure if I would enjoy this or not, since it is intended for a younger audience. but ohmygosh, I enjoyed this so much. It is sweet and precious. and the love that persists and grows is so enchanting. I cannot wait to listen to the next audiobooks in this series. I have not seen the movie yet but plan to soon! the narrator is young and her male voices are all the same, but she does a really good job besides that. As long as you pay attention it is not hard to differentiate the characters. I cant wait to hear this narrator progress. overall I am happy with this story and performance. I dont know if you will like this story as much as I do! but if you like mild unadulterated stories then this is a great story to start with. I loved that it was clean and nonsexual. this audiobook was enticing. I appreciate that I gave it a shot for myself. xoxo

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The movie was better

I disliked both Laura Jean and Peter I thought their characters would be more developed more dynamic and have more depth in the books but they were not. I guess as an adult reading a teenage love story I expected too much.

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Obsessed

A little late to get hooked on the books, but I love them so much!!

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Great RomCom

Super sweet book! Takes me back to high school. Would highly recommend if you want to take a trip down memory lane.

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I loved this story!

Even though this was a story about high school kids I loved it as a 31 year old. It had a good story about family and character development. I liked it so much I got the next book because I have to know what comes next.

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AGREE THAT THE MOVIE WAS BETTER...

I have never really been the type of person who reads a book and then watches the movie, or watches the movie and then reads the book. In my secondhand experience that I have gathered from others, you usually end up disappointed with one or the other. Sigh. I should have stuck to my normal rhetoric.

I fell in love with the movie on Netflix. I had never heard of the book, and once I did, I decided to give it a go. As much as I loved the movie, you could tell that there were certain themes/threads of topic that they didn't pursue. For instance, once Josh got his letter, there were romantic 'what-if' undertones (like what if Laura Jean had told him her feelings BEFORE he dated Margot, while he and Laura Jean were 'just friends'?). How Laura Jean's mother died was never explained in the movie, yet it was integral to the home life of the Coveys (which had been depicted quite often throughout the movie). So that was my reasoning to go to the dark side and become one of those people who watch the movie and then read the book...

And I disliked it EXTREMELY. First of all, it seems like Netflix Disney-ed up the movie, which I appeciated because it was family-friendly for all ages. My 9 year-old niece LOVES the movie as much as I do! But the book is so much more dirty and raunchy. Chris was sleeping around as a teenager and stripping at parties drunkenly in the 9th grade (keep in mind, in the 9th grade you're 14 or 15, much too young for that). Every other word out of her mouth was the B word or the S word or the F word. We watch the movie together, but I could never let her read or listen to this book. Which takes away some of the appeal for me.

Second, Laura Jean was a bit much in the movie at times, but in a cute way. Like how she second-guessed everything. But in the book she just GOT ON MY NERVES!!! Like in the hallway on the ski trip when Peter was telling her how he felt about her. She had to go and start this huge fight even though she knew she felt the same about him! Her attitude, unnecessary dialogue at times, lack of personal accountability, and knack for causing unnecessary arguments and disagreements like the Christmas Talent Party at the end just drove me nuts! It was so bad that several times I had to leave this audiobook and try again later because she annoyed me, and the only reason I kept coming back was because of my love for the movie. I had to see the book to the end.

Peter in the movie came across as the cool guy who at least treated the uncool kids like Laura Jean as humans and then ended up liking her. He seemed like a genuine, kind-hearted, extremely LIKEABLE guy who ended up liking the girl he probably least expected to. In the book, there's hardly a thing that's likeable about him. He seems like a genuine jerk and he had his annoying times, too.

One of my biggest gripes (and this may not bother you as much as it bothered me) was the ending. In the end of the movie, obviously PK and LJ got together, which made it heart-warming and sweet and set things up for the sequel. For these types of books, you usually do have a fairytale ending that warms your heart and makes you want more. But in the book, she gets out her infamous paper to write the dumb words of her infamous letters--a second letter to Peter. This indicates she decided to say good-bye to Peter because she didn't know how to own up to the drama SHE CAUSED that ended up spilling over into her family life. Remember, she only writes letters to say good-bye so she can get her feelings out.

As for the narration, I think her attempts at a guy voice were abysmal. They should have gotten actual male leads to sub for those parts. And all of her voices sounded the same to me. So when she would read the parts of different characters who were communicating with one another, I lost track of who was supposed to be talking. But she was tolerable.

Sigh. Long story short, if you've seen the movie and you liked it, then just like the movie. You don't have to do anything else. You definitely DO NOT need to read this book. Because now I'm disappointed with both of them. The movie told the story better and was more likeable and engaging. But the book had more background so a lot of things made more sense. But it was such a terrible tragedy....

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Great!

I love the movie & the book. I can’t wait to read the next two books!

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Loved it!

I wasn't read ready for the teenage drama, I knew it would make cry. And the family drama too. Urgh!
I loved Ali Ahn narration, she does know how to tell a story. ❤️

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Made For the Movies

I kept thinking this is the female counterpart of the movie Can't Buy Me Love. Lara Jean and Peter try to avoid the pitfalls of teenage romance by entering into a contract. Said contract will give them the appearance of a legit couple. Both of them would like to escape the scrutiny of their peers. They aren't strangers. As a matter of fact they once were friends, but middle school cliques and jealousy tore them apart. What happens when the jock discovers the quirky girl thinks she loves him?

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Interesting Premise but Poorly Executed

NOTE: This might be more of a 3.5, but I would rather round down than up. Most of this is fun! But I found the ending rushed, certain elements unsatisfying, and too many characters under-developed.

Lara Jean Song-Covey is a junior in high school in a classic American suburbia neighborhood, and her priorities and internal processes are highly relatable. A dreamy young woman, Lara Jean writes love "goodbye" letters to her crushes when she falls out-of-love with them, and keeps the letters as mementos. The main drama stems from her letters getting out and reaching some of her crushes, and she comes up with a plan to fake-date someone so her current crush doesn't think she still likes him.

Lara Jean's voice, thought processes, and perspective are the strengths to this novel. I feel so close to her, and Jenny Han handles the fluctuations in her emotions really well. She's sweet and real and I wanted good things for her.

I had to cut one star from my review because so many other characters are under developed, so I never felt like I cared what happened to anybody else. The father and older sister are so absent from the main narrative that their contributions when they are around are so inconsequential. The love interest Lara Jean ends up with doesn't address his emotional baggage from a previous relationship and his confession scene is not satisfying. Lara Jean has so few meaningful scenes with the love interest she doesn't end up with, that it doesn't seem like she had a choice at all. Her best friend and former best friend have NO redeemable qualities. And lastly, the new circle she's supposed to be "accepted" into only has one scene with her, during which she is made fun of for her petite size and her personal physical space is violated.*

I had to cut another star from my review because of the sloppy ending. The storyline with the love interest she ultimately rejects is never completed. The "big reveal" of her letters is so predictable and handled so late in the story that it is no longer relevant. The big climax is supposed to be the confrontation with the older sister, but she is so unlikable, absent, and unexplained that the fight between them just comes off as stupid and unjustified. And then the book just ends while still during winter break, when the hugely consequential rumor-bullying plotline has no closure until she confronts her accusers at school.

Overall, I really wanted to enjoy this and I did really like a few scenes. I noticed the parallels with Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women". I want to watch the Netflix movie adaptation to see if some of the issues with the book have been corrected. Lara Jean is really cute; her American-born half-Korean identity is handled really well! But the ending is so rushed, and open endings so obviously pan handling to a sequel, that I am left with a sour taste.

* - Not sexually. She's picked up and carried around and dumped into the bed of a pick-up truck against her will. "Because she's just so cute and tiny!" It's supposed to be funny. I saw it as disturbing bullying.