Completed On: April 22nd
# of Pages: 355
Bingo Category: The First Book In A Series
Time to play some more catch-up! As I wrote in a previous post, I got the chance to meet the author who wrote To All The Boys I've Loved Before, Jenny Han. Before I went to the reading, I wanted to finish reading her book, which had been published only a couple of weeks before the reading would take place at the Chapters bookstore in Brampton. Lucky me, I finished it the night before the reading :)
When reading this book, early on I remember thinking that the main character, Laura-Jean, was in some ways a mix between my mother and myself: my mother is a die-hard scrapbooker, to the point where she turned my old bedroom into her scrapbooking room. Laura-Jean also loves scrapbooking, Han's latest female protagonist also shares an interest with myself, and that is the art of letter writing! Laura-Jean specifically writes love letters, only they aren't the type that get sent out in the mail. What she does is she writes a letter to a boy she loves, around the time that she's ready to stop being in love with him. Then she seals it away, addresses it, and puts it away inside of a teal hat box that her late mother gave her.
What drives the plot of the book is that these letters somehow get sent out, and Laura-Jean has to deal with the consequences. One of the letters belongs to her friend, her next door neighbor, and her older sister's ex-boyfriend, which is one of the biggest obstacles, especially since Josh was the latest person for Laura-Jean to write a letter to. Josh is not the main love interest in this book, although he is far from a secondary character. One thing that I enjoyed about this book was the emphasis cast on the bond between the three sisters, aka the "Song Girls." You've got Margot, the older and more responsible sister who has just moved to Ireland for school, and Kitty is the younger, slightly annoying sister, making Laura-Jean the middle child, all of them raised by a father who lost his wife, the girls' mother, far too soon, and the mother also continues to remain a constant presence for the family.
One thing I learned at Jenny Han's reading is that this book, while it could easily stand on its own, is only the first book in a new series she plans to start. The second book will be titled PS, I Love You, and Jenny Han is writing it now. I'm definitely looking forward to see how this series will evolve. Laura-Jean is an intriguing character, surrounded by other interesting characters that don't easily blend into the background, and I'm looking forward to finding out what will happen with them next.
When reading this book, early on I remember thinking that the main character, Laura-Jean, was in some ways a mix between my mother and myself: my mother is a die-hard scrapbooker, to the point where she turned my old bedroom into her scrapbooking room. Laura-Jean also loves scrapbooking, Han's latest female protagonist also shares an interest with myself, and that is the art of letter writing! Laura-Jean specifically writes love letters, only they aren't the type that get sent out in the mail. What she does is she writes a letter to a boy she loves, around the time that she's ready to stop being in love with him. Then she seals it away, addresses it, and puts it away inside of a teal hat box that her late mother gave her.
What drives the plot of the book is that these letters somehow get sent out, and Laura-Jean has to deal with the consequences. One of the letters belongs to her friend, her next door neighbor, and her older sister's ex-boyfriend, which is one of the biggest obstacles, especially since Josh was the latest person for Laura-Jean to write a letter to. Josh is not the main love interest in this book, although he is far from a secondary character. One thing that I enjoyed about this book was the emphasis cast on the bond between the three sisters, aka the "Song Girls." You've got Margot, the older and more responsible sister who has just moved to Ireland for school, and Kitty is the younger, slightly annoying sister, making Laura-Jean the middle child, all of them raised by a father who lost his wife, the girls' mother, far too soon, and the mother also continues to remain a constant presence for the family.
One thing I learned at Jenny Han's reading is that this book, while it could easily stand on its own, is only the first book in a new series she plans to start. The second book will be titled PS, I Love You, and Jenny Han is writing it now. I'm definitely looking forward to see how this series will evolve. Laura-Jean is an intriguing character, surrounded by other interesting characters that don't easily blend into the background, and I'm looking forward to finding out what will happen with them next.
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