Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
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?
MY OPINION: *****
I absolutely loved this book! It did take me a little longer to finish than the others. It set a different tone from the other books, in my opinion.
This is the last book of the series. I think it was a good finale but I also thought it was really different from the other two books of the series.
I think we can see the growth of Lara Jean throughout the series. However, there are some things about her that cannot change: the very fact that she hates change, in the first place. When applying to colleges, she has a lot of indecisions and she just wants to go to the place nearby to home so that there will be the least amount of change possible. However, in the end, she realizes that change is inevitable and that even though some things are going to be different, others are still going to be the same.
Peter, my favorite character of this particular series. I loved him so much and he, like Lara Jean, didn't want things to change either. He wanted to stay with Lara Jean and I admired his determination for them to stay together even through college. He wanted to give up his own career and college to transfer to her college, though they talked themselves out of it. I loved him. He's sweet. He's nice to Kitty, something that I don't think even I could do (I'm not the most fond of little kids). He tries to be a "good kid" in front of Margot and Lara Jean's dad, someone that he looks up to and wants to be accepted by. Peter doesn't his friends before his girlfriend or the other way around. He spends time with both of them and he's very committed to being a good boyfriend/friend. However, he's not perfect and he does things that Lara Jean doesn't love. That's to be expected and I loved him for his imperfections.
Margot. I still did NOT like her. I can't help it. Her character was just so contradictory to Lara Jean's happiness and I thought she complained a lot about Trina. Yes, maybe she doesn't like her taking the place of her mom, but it's not like she's a new mom. She's just filling the space that leaves the dad really lonely. And Margot should not feel sad about being left out: she's the one who wanted to leave to Scotland in the first place. Maybe in a few years when I reread the series, I might understand Margot better but for now, I think she complained too much and was not at all accepting and every little thing that Kitty said to her that made her cry was SO true.
Kitty. She has definitely grown up and she seems even more responsible than Lara Jean at some points. Kitty was still as funny as ever but she showed real emotion in this book which showed her maturity. She was also able to make strong relationships with people, including Trina. She does know how to point the little things of life out which was important.
Josh. I missed him. In the first book, I did not at all like him but I thought he was a good buffer between the three Song girls and I ended up wanting him back. However, he was not in this book at all other than a few mentions of his name which really disappointed me.
John Ambrose McClaren was back and he still managed to cause problems with Peter and Lara Jean! I loved him in the last book and I was SO close to shipping them but no, he caused way too many issues and I will forever love Peter. However, I think that it was nice to see how he had moved on and gotten a new girlfriend and accepted change.
This book made me think a lot about college. Lara Jean has so many choices and when she doesn't get into the college she wants to get into and instead goes to a better one, it shows that what you want may not always be what's best.
I would recommend this book to readers who are looking for a fun read for the summer.
Main Character: Lara Jean
Sidekick(s): Peter, Margot, Kitty, Trina, Dad, Chris, etc
Villain(s): Change, growing up, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was very real to life.
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