P.S. I still love you - Book Club

One day I will look back on all of this fondly ~ Lara Jean Covey

If you've had a little look around my blog you may have noticed I have started a book club. The first book in my list to read is Jenny Han's P.S. I still love you. Continuing Lara Jeans story with the darling Peter Kavinksy that many of us witnessed via the Netflix movie last year.

For this review I will be going over plot points, my thoughts of what I liked, what I didn't and general predictions for the next book, Always and forever, Lara Jean. Beware, there will be spoilers!

The plot of this book being based around a game that all of them are playing following the announcement that their childhood treehouse is being removed. We also follow the return of John Ambrose McClaren, Peter and Gen sneaking around and Lara Jean planning a post war themed party at the retirement home. Unlike the other book we don't hear much about Josh, other than he has a new girlfriend. Lara Jean's family takes sort of a backseat, as we only really hear about Kittys efforts to get their dad a girlfriend in this book.

Firstly, I want to talk about John 'sunshine hair' Ambrose McClaren. He is another past love of Lara Jean's and boy does he seem better than Peter. I was surprised to think this because I was such a spokeswoman for Peter 'good with the family' Kavinsky ~ as was everyone that summer after the movie came out~ and now here I am, confused as to (SPOILER) why Lara Jean went back to him following him disappearing off with Genevieve throughout the past two books. I know these are just characters, but, throughout the two books Lara Jean has expressed her annoyance of Peter and Gen being so close and how Peter was keeping secrets from her the entire time, especially in regards to the hot tub video being Gens doing. Which she did break up with him about.

Speaking about Genevieve. Her storyline in this book was one I liked but also didn't like. Gen as a character embodies the mean girl who's mean to you for one inconsequentual thing you did as a child. The reader finding out that Gen hates Lara Jean because Peter kissed Lara Jean at a party years before, before Gen and Peter had even started dating. I found this annoying, but I know this stuff does happen in real life and I find it annoying then too. I did like the reveal that Gen's dad was the reason Peter was keeping secrets, as Lara Jean is following Gen to tag her out she sees Gen leave a building following her dad and a woman not much older than her and Gen themselves. I thought this was a good twist as it showed that Peter did have his reasons and Lara Jean could understand a little bit more of the situation having past experiences with Gens family when they were children.

Next I want to talk about John. He was Peters best friend in lower school, he was described as Peters 'sidekick', which Lara Jean mentions when she see's him again and he's grown out of it and become his own person and we find out that he is Stormy's grandson. Stormy being Lara Jeans closest friend at the retirement home she volunteers at.

I do like how Hann brought John into the story with more than just that he was Peters friend that Lara Jean had a crush on when they were younger, and I found the relationship she built between John and Lara Jean played out well, even if Lara Jean did go back to Peter at the end. I loved how, unlike Peter, John spent time with Lara Jean at the retiremt home after he found out she hung out there on the weekends, even helping her set up her USO Party and going all out on the costume, borrowing a vintage car for the night so Lara Jean could feel like the was in the 1950's later in the book. This dedication to a party Lara Jean decided to host made me feel like Lara Jean should be with John because in the last book, no matter how many times she mentioned the home Peter would never even go with her, although we see him go there with Gen on the night of the party, even though he's not attending the party. When this happened I thought Lara Jean would never go back to Peter because she could see where his loyalties lay but alas, she did, and I was upset because in the few weeks John had been in her life again he had done so much for Lara Jean without a contract to make him stay.

On the topic of Lara Jean going back to Peter, I think I understand why she did when she realised all he was doing was helping Gen with her dad and her dads girlfriend but I was sure she would never forgive him for not telling her that Gen was the reason their video had been circulated so much and that he essentially gaslighted her when she was telling him that it was Gen who sent the video around. Hopefully we see more into why she did go back in the next book.

I highly recommed reading the book for yourself as it is quite an enjoyable read.

That's all for now folks. I'll be reading the 'Always and forever, Lara Jean' in an effort to get the next installment of my book club out!

Tell me what you thought about this book if you've read it!

~ Terry xx