Lara Jean is having the best senior year a girl could ever hope for. She is head over heels in love with her boyfriend, Peter; her dad’s finally getting remarried to their next door neighbor, Ms. Rothschild; and Margot’s coming home for the summer just in time for the wedding.
But change is looming on the horizon. And while Lara Jean is having fun and keeping busy helping plan her father’s wedding, she can’t ignore the big life decisions she has to make. Most pressingly, where she wants to go to college and what that means for her relationship with Peter. She watched her sister Margot go through these growing pains. Now Lara Jean’s the one who’ll be graduating high school and leaving for college and leaving her family—and possibly the boy she loves—behind.
When your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to?
- ISBN13 9781407177663
- Publish Date 4 May 2017 (first published 2 May 2017)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Scholastic
- Format Paperback
- Pages 336
- Language English
Reviews
Kat @ Novels & Waffles
Things I Liked:
✑ Lara Jean has matured a lot → she's so much more confident in herself and in her relationship. You go, girl!
✑ There was so. Much. CUTENESSSSS. The lovey-doveyness of it all made me very happy, tbh.
✑ It wrapped up a lot of loose ends. Yay for closure!
✑ There were so many baked goods in this book! Reading it made me hungry (and that's a good thing).
✑ It was a very STRESS-FREE read.
Things I Liked... Less:
✑ For the first half of the book, there wasn't any real conflict or antagonist → everything was just sunshine and rainbows in Lara Jean Land. And although it was super nice to see all of the cute stuff with Peter, it sort of left me wondering, "What's the point?"
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Stephanie
I was so excited to finish the final installment of the Lara Jean series. I had read both To All the Boys I've Loved Before and P.S. I Still Love You in a pretty brief amount of time. I think I had pretty high expectations going into Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han.
We have the same cast of characters but now most of them are trying to find resolution. I really find that Lara Jean resonates with me. We're both old souls who love to bake and want to hold on to our memories; almost to the point of being afraid to make new ones. I was really happy that Lara Jean was able to find a path that worked for her and didn't require sacrificing the most important things to her.
Always and Forever, Lara Jean got knocked down a whole star because the plot seemed to move so slowly. The previous two books absolutely flew by but this addition to the series seemed to drag for me. I think I was in week two of reading when I finally sat myself down and just read the last half of the book. Some of this may have to do with the timing of when I started reading this book and may not be the book's fault.
While the pacing of Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han was a bit off for me I found it to be a very satisfying conclusion to this trilogy.
Stephanie
Rowena
kymmiejournals
Sam@WLABB
"It snuck up on me -- growing up, I mean."
This was a very sweet conclusion to Lara Jean and Peter K's story. Lara Jean was dealing with a lot of changes. It was quite a roller coaster ride as Lara Jean tried to figure out what comes next. I as pleased with the ending, but am secretly hoping Kitty will get her own books, so I can catch up with the other Song sisters and see what the future held for them. Team Peter K. forever!
"so what's ours, then? I suppose I'll say it all started with a a love letter."
Jo
Because I loved the previous two books in the series, I was really excited for Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han. However, having finished it, I'm not so much disappointed as wondering what the point was?
Always and Forever, Lara Jean was a enjoyable, light read, but it didn't feel like one about characters I really cared about. Lara Jean, Peter, Kitty, they could have been other characters in another book, one that didn't affect me very much. I could take them or leave them, which seems odd, considering I loved the two previous books. I also found Lara Jean a little annoying in this one. Her baking was cute in the previous books, but it gets too much in this one, and I just didn't care about her finding the perfect cookie recipe. I also didn't like how she seemed to try and take over her dad and Trina's wedding, as if it were her own to organise. And there was more detail than necessary about clothes; Lara Jean is a lot more interested in clothes than I am, and so there was so much detail about what it all looked like, and it just got irritating.
The book overall is about decisions for the future. When Lara Jean doesn't get into the college she wants, she can't have the life she planned with Peter. So they change their plans. He'll go where he's going, she'll go to the place she did get into, and they'll make it work. But then life throws another curve ball Lara Jean's way - one that might be awesome for her, but perhaps not so much for her and Peter. So most of the book is Lara Jean trying to decide what to do, and her and Peter not communicating properly. Around all these decisions she's trying to make, she's baking, organising a wedding, and describing clothes. Nothing much of any real import happens. There's a school trip to New York, there's Senior Week, there's prom and graduation, and Beach week - but more than be essential to the plot, they all felt more like everyday things. Nothing hugely major happened at any of these things, except an argument with Peter at one. But otherwise, it's just life stuff, rather than things that move the plot along. So really, nothing much happens.
And for this to be the last book, where nothing really happens, I felt a little disappointed. I cared less, was more irritated, and nothing much happened. It was enjoyable, but in a way that didn't really impact me. Also, it didn't feel like the end to the story. Lara Jean makes her decision, and it feels to me like there should be another book showing us how that actually works out. Did she make the right choice? Are things going to be harder than she thought? Are things going to work out the way she planned? No idea. And nor are we going to know, because the story is over. I feel that would have been a lot more interesting a story, really. Always and Forever, Lara Jean felt like a middle book rather than an ending. I enjoyed how it ended, but I became interested again at the end, and there's no more story to come.
So yeah, it was kind of disappointing overall. Especially as I loved the previous two books so much. This one, however, I can take or leave.