Book Review: P.S. I Still Love You

[osprey_archer]

I had mixed feelings about the book To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, possibly because I saw the movie first and the book is a somewhat different animal. But I persevered to the second, P.S. I Still Love You, which is a strategy that sometimes doesn’t pay off but in this case REALLY did; I really liked the second book and now I’m all invested in seeing the end of Lara Jean’s story.

One of my disappointments with the first book was that I didn’t ship Lara Jean and Peter as much as in the movie, and the second book remedied this both by making them more shippable… and also by giving Lara Jean a second love interest, John Ambrose, who special orders a World War II uniform costume to take her to the USO-themed dance that Lara Jean is throwing at the nursing home where she volunteers, and I’m not saying that Lara Jean should ditch Peter and marry John Ambrose…

But maybe she should think about ditching Peter and marrying John Ambrose or at least dating him. He showed up in a red convertible to drive you to the USO dance, Lara Jean! He cares about the same kind of romantic little details that you do! Unlike Peter, there's no weird awkward baggage about an ex-girlfriend he still seems a little too into!

Also, Peter’s ex-girlfriend Gen posted a video of Lara Jean and Peter making out in a hot tub on the internet, and when Peter learned for sure that she’d done it (at first he refused to believe it) he didn’t tell Lara Jean and also continued speaking to Gen, and no, I don’t think the fact that Gen’s father was dating an eighteen-year-old at the time makes it okay or even understandable. That was a jerk-ass move and Peter should have told Lara Jean, apologized for not believing Lara Jean when she said Gen did it, and stopped speaking to Gen holy mother of God.

...I feel that the series is going to have endgame Lara Jean/Peter and I have mixed feelings about this at this moment, but I also suspect that if anyone can win me back over to it, it's Jenny Han. Only #22 on the hold list!



I also feel that this book has more baking/crafting shenanigans than the first one, and I am HERE to read about other people’s baked goods and holiday rituals. You make those homemade Valentine’s, Lara Jean!

Comments

[littlerhymes]

John Ambrose is a dreamboat, that's a fact.

I still haven't read the third one so I look forward to hearing about it, after those 22 other people have read it!

[osprey_archer]

Which boy do you think will make you happier, Lara Jean?? The one who thinks he's too cool for the USO dance at the senior center, or the one who buys himself a replica World War II uniform and borrows his dad's convertible so he can take his girl to the dance in style????

Even if Lara Jean and John Ambrose don't end up together at the end of book three, I can always headcanon that (after Lara Jean and Peter date for a couple of years) Lara Jean and John Ambrose reconnect in college and the timing is finally right for their love to blossom.

[littlerhymes]

Beautiful headcanon, A+ would read!

[ladyherenya]

I also feel that this book has more baking/crafting shenanigans than the first one

That might explain why I thought the film should have had more baking/crafting. I read the two books back-to-back, so maybe that gave me the impression that there was more of that sort of thing in the first book than there actually was.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, I could see that, especially because the first two books really have the feeling of one looong book cut in half for marketing purposes. The movie semi-stole the second book's ending because the ending of the first book offers so little resolution. (They left the John Ambrose plotline alone, though, so I imagine that will crop up in the sequel movie.)