Review: P.S. I Still Love You - Jenny Han

Title: P.S. I Still Love You
Author: Jenny Han
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 337 pages
Published Year: 2015
Rating: 4/5

Paperback Synopsis:
Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter.

She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever.

When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?

.....

"P.S. I Still Love You" is a sequel to Jenny Han’s “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”. The story revolved around Lara Jean Covey who, in the first book, found her secret love letters to her five crushes got sent out unintentionally. One of them was Peter Kavinsky. Things, then, happened between Lara Jean and Peter that they had to fake a romantic relationship.

This second book started right where we left off in the first book. Lara Jean was upset because everybody thought she and Peter had sex in the hot tub when they were having a ski trip. And she didn’t expect to really fall for Peter. But she was still upset, remember? So she tried her best to lower her ego and came to Peter’s house to talk things out. They finally decided to be together for real this time. At first, things seemed going on very well…. until a video of Lara Jean and Peter making out in the hot tub was somehow out on the internet. Lara Jean was so assured that the person behind all of this scandal was Genevieve, Peter’s ex-girlfriend, since it looked like Genevieve still had feelings for him. But Peter defended Genevieve instead, making Lara Jean started to wonder, did Peter really get over Genevieve?

To be honest I was a bit irritated by Lara Jean at this point, because I thought she was just feeling insecure about what might happened between Peter and Genevieve. I’m not saying she wasn’t allowed to feel that way, what she felt was very natural, but I think she was just thinking too much. She let her own negative thoughts got into her and it only made things worse. But despite all of those, I still could relate myself to Lara Jean. She was the kind of girl who liked to keep herself to herself. She enjoyed being alone without having to feel lonely. She was clumsy and quiet. She cares about her family so much. And I think this is one of Jenny Han’s specialities. I may only read two of her books so far, but she has nailed creating such amazing characters. Her characters feel so…. human. They’re easy to relate to. Even Peter got me mesmerized. In fact, he’s one of my favorite characters from the book. Peter was cocky, to be honest. He knew he was good looking and popular among their friends, that was why he acted the way he did. But he tried! He tried his best to be a good boyfriend for Lara Jean, and that was made him so adorable and sweet.

I remember this one scene when Kitty, Lara Jean’s 10 y/o sister, had a birthday and Peter surprised her by giving her a ride to school. Lara Jean didn’t even come along with them, just Peter and Kitty riding Peter’s car to Kitty’s school together. Right before Peter got into his car, he said to Lara Jean, “Don’t be jealous, Covey.” And Lara Jean just stood there, watching the car went by, as she silently said to herself, “I’ve never liked him more than in this moment.”

FREAKING HELL DID YOU SEE MYSELF MELT INTO A PUDDLE OF TEARS?

Okay. Sorry.

I also love Lara Jean’s relationship with her sisters: Kitty and Margot, who was already off to college. In the first book, Lara Jean and Margo had some serious fights but I was glad they’ve already mended their relationship, and it made them even closer. Kitty, on the other hand, I felt like she was tougher than Lara Jean. Her character was so witty and adorable. She was in the phase of growing up and busy dealing with her own stuff. I love to see their relationship, it just reminded me of my own relationship with my younger sister. They balanced each other out.

One day, all of a sudden Lara Jean got a letter from another one of the boys who received her secret love letter. It was John Ambrose McClaren from middle school. They kept exchanging letter, then, and this activity somehow felt like a guilty pleasure to Lara Jean. John was a very kind boy, he was so sweet and polite and seemed really knew how to treat a girl right. With Peter seemed pretty distracted by Genevieve, Lara Jean found comfort in John’s sudden appearance. John made her feel like she was the only girl in the world. He was the kind of boy who was easy to be fall in love with, but to be honest I couldn’t love him the way I loved Peter. I still liked Josh, I just think his character was too perfect and I, as a reader, didn’t get that much time to get to know him better, so I didn’t really know his flaw and it was hard to feel empathy with such flawless person.

I still love this book, though. I love it just as much as I love the first one. This book gave me this warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach and my heart hurt from all the sweetness and the cuteness. I literally had to stop reading and close the book once in a while when things just got too much (by too much I mean adorable) that I couldn’t handle it. Corny, I know. But really, reading this book is like eating a cotton candy and floating around the fluffy clouds! It was just so heartwarming.

I just wish it was longer, because we don’t know if there’s gonna be a third book and I felt like there were some things that haven’t been resolved. And about the ending…. I think I’m kind of split between “OMG YAS I LOVE IT” and “yeah it was okay”…. I guess? Because I kind of expected the book to end the way it did yet I wanted the author to prove me wrong and give me more. Does that make sense?

Still…. hands down. This book was very fun I enjoyed reading it so much. SO FREAKING GOOD.