Always and Forever, Lara Jean
Always and Forever, Lara Jean (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before #3)
By: Jenny Han
“Right now, today, he’s still a boy, and I know him better than anybody, but what if it isn’t always this way? Already our paths are diverging, a little more every day, the closer we get to August.”
This is the final book in this trilogy and I really enjoyed it. Definitely better than the second one. Not sure between this and the first one.
There is no love triangle in this book unless you count Lara Jean’s potential college prospects. And no Gen drama! Whoop whoop!
This book brought on some nostalgia as Lara Jean finishes up high school and is preparing for college. All the excitement of heading off. Picturing the campuses! Sigh. I loved college.
Plus Peter and Lara Jean’s love is just sweet. This is weird for me to say because after book two I was Team John Ambrose and didn’t like Peter, but this book made me like Peter again (mostly).
Just be prepared that if you read this book you will want to bake all the things. Except I didn’t because I have four littles who all cry when I go in the kitchen. Pity.
Content Advisory: there were a handful of f- and s-words and some talk of sex, but it seemed different than the second book. I don’t completely agree with her philosophy on sex but I do appreciate that she holds her ground on it (at least as of this series)
The brief synopsis:
Lara Jean and Peter are in a good place, super in love, and have made plans to go to UVA together. They have their whole future ahead of them.
Until Lara Jean doesn’t get into UVA.
And now she has choices to make and Peter to consider or not consider.
Can they do this long-distance? And what about going to college without a boyfriend like Lara Jean’s mother had told Margot?
We follow the couple through their NYC senior trip, prom, Beach Week at Nag’s Head, Stormy’s funeral, Lara Jean’s dad’s wedding, and the rest of the end-of-the-year festivities with decisions and college looming over their picture-perfect high school romance.
My Thoughts
Characters:
Still love Kitty and her bluntness. She was cast well in the movie so I just pictured that girl the whole time during the book which was good.
Liked Margot much less in this book. She’s so negative and angsty. I mean I get she probably feels left out of so much and doesn’t know Trina like the others, but I just didn’t like how Margot handled it all. I don’t think Lara Jean even needs her advice anymore these days.
Liked Peter more. He finished reading all of the Harry Potter books so that tells me a lot about him actually. Plus his birthday surprise for Lara Jean, him planning her dad’s bachelor party. Just a lot of thoughtfulness. I don’t know if that’s characteristic of high school boys these days, but I don’t care. He had some ground to make up from last book and I accept.
Liked Chris a lot less. Seems like she’s given up on a lot of life. It didn’t help her any when she is smoking and complains about America- “Ugh. America is so annoying about smoking. So basic.” Okay, Chris, let’s be logical. There is really no good reason for anyone, especially her age, to be smoking. The facts are the facts and she is an idiot for doing that to her body. Not smoking is basic because it’s basic common sense and people should all be following along on this one. (I could have a soap box about this apparently.) I will also say that I like how Lara Jean recognizes the dysfunction of Chris and is still her friend but doesn’t allow Chris to corrupt her.
And, of course, still loved Lara Jean. I love that she is unapologetic about who she is and is not trying to conform into the ‘typical’ high school girl. She is comfortable in her skin and likes her hobbies and owns it!
“I’m actually not that quirky, lots of people like to stay home and bake cookies and scrapbook and hang out in libraries. Most of them are probably in their fifties, but still.”
“Instead of giving him a sexy picture of me, I’ll make him a scrapbook!” [I did this. It’s so much more meaningful. I am definitely on Lara Jean’s wavelength.]
I also like how she breaks the whole ‘hate the stepmother’ stereotype and genuinely likes Trina and seeing her dad happy. She also picks up on the ways her dad sets aside his own preferences and interests for Trina and I like that she recognizes that selflessness and calls it a good thing.
One thing I’m undecided about is her ‘motherliness.’ She goes and buys all of Margot’s favorite foods, changes her sheets, makes a French toast breakfast for a whole house of boys by herself of her own volition. I don’t know, man. Maybe it’s because they’ve been so long without her mother that she’s learned to take on these roles? It’s quite possible. But there is no way I see my high school self doing a lot of things she does.
Randoms
Trina goes to SoulCycle… hahaha. If this doesn’t mean anything to you. Read Cultish— SoulCycle makes a little debut.
I learned that the phrase ‘knock on wood’ comes from Greek mythology because dryads, whom people would call on for protection, lived in trees. (It’s at least one theory.) So that’s a fun fact I’ll whip out for sure.
I like that they use Mr. and Ms. for all the neighbors. We don’t really do that here in the Midwest. At least where I grew up. But there’s something charming about it.
A couple thoughts on high school romance. I understand the dilemma of not knowing if a relationship can last through college, especially long distance. It’s quite rare. No impossible, but not necessarily probable.
High school is a bubble of life and college opens up the world in so many ways and you realize how many other people are out there. You change a lot as people because you’re really learning who you are and what you believe. You have a freedom from expectations. Diverging paths is normal and common. You're building new and meaningful bonds with different people and it’s hard.
I felt like the book captured the dilemma well. And even though you know the statistics, this book makes you hope for them to last. Without giving too much away (not sure if that even matters for a book like this) but I was happy with the ending. I think it was wise and right.
Book/Movie Comparison
Okay, I’ve watched the movie now. There are quite a few differences.
For one, the movie STARTS OFF with Lara Jean in Korea. And not only with her sisters but with her dad and Trina too. I can see why this was a production choice in terms of the movie because it’s a fun and exciting intro, but it takes away from the implications of this trip in how it was portrayed in the book.
I guess I didn’t realize this in the first two movies, but they set them in Washington. In the book they live in Virginia. I’m not sure why they chose Washington. Because then they had to change what colleges they were trying to get into (Standford instead of UVA) and and the other college Lara Jean applied and got into (NYU instead of UNC).
Piggy-backing off this then, instead of a spontaneous friends road trip that Chris convinces Lara Jean to take, they have Lara Jean convince Chris to go to an NYU party (with Gen) while they’re in NYC for their senior trip.
Again, I can see the appeal of this for a movie but it doesn’t appropriately reflect Lara Jean and Chris’s personalities to switch it to this scenario. Lara Jean is supposed to be the hesitant rule-follower and Chris is supposed to be the irresponsible, impulsive one. So that bothered me. It just didn’t make sense to me that they would change the setting of it so drastically. I don’t follow that choice.
Another big difference is that Peter breaks it off with Lara Jean, not the other way around. They don’t include Peter’s mom pressuring Lara Jean to do that. But I feel like that changes the story too because then it makes Peter seem like kind of the bad guy but really it was Lara Jean struggling with that decision.
Some other things they left out:
No funeral for Stormy which means no re-entrance of John Ambrose.
Since they weren’t in Virginia, there was no friends trip to Nag’s Head which takes out a lot of the drama between Lara Jean and Peter.
There is no scrapbook. Instead she just puts some pictures and memorabilia into a hat box.
There is no post-prom birthday surprise which is a bummer because I thought that was sweet of Peter to think of. Instead they had him do a grand prom-posal at the diner. However to do that, then we don’t have the prom-posal attempt at the top of the Empire State Building to replicate Sleepless in Seattle.
Her dad’s proposal. They have it but it’s a private affair. I liked how the book did it better because the sisters were part of proposal and I think that’s meaningful since Trina is marrying into a family, not just a man.
Margot doesn’t come home with a boyfriend and she’s not really that mean to Trina. The book made me really not like Margot but the movie gave her a better image.
The letdown of Peter’s dad. In the book his dad leaves him hanging but the movie portrays their interaction more positively and make it seem like his dad is trying to be better and actually wants a relationship with him.
A couple additions:
Kitty has a boyfriend. When they left out all the above things I was annoyed that they tried to add this storyline.
They actually have sex in the movie. Not a fan of that. I liked that they put it off in the book.
They go bowling. And also, Peter kisses his bowling ball and that’s pretty gross.
Per usual, the book is better than the movie. But with these movies, I still enjoy watching them. I like who they cast and Peter and Lara Jean are cute together. My husband also liked the movie (I mean as much as a man can like a chick-flick) and he didn’t read the books.
I really liked the song they chose for ‘their song’ in the movie.
I also liked that they emphasized that love is a choice. You choose love.
This was a fun movie series to watch and even though the books are better, I was still able to enjoy both without being too annoyed at the differences.
Conclusion
I’ve really enjoyed this series. It’s a fast and light read. Even though there are some things in it that I don’t like in reference to teenage love, I do like the character of Lara Jean— there is a wholesomeness to her. And it’s very family-centric which is also a big plus.
The movies have also been a good addition to visualize the story.
I’m sad to see it end, but I think it’s for the best. This book wrapped things up nicely and I wouldn’t want any future books to taint where I’m sitting with it right now.
Farewell Peter and Lara Jean!
Brittany
XOXO
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