I Wonder...

If anyone remembers this song.  When I saw the title of the new Jenny Han book, To All the Boys I've Loved Before, I was instantly reminded of that song.  And then it hit me...probably no one else who reads this book will think about that song.  Because the song is super old!  True it has its own wikipedia entry, but 1984 was a long, long, long time ago.  Even Jenny Han herself is too young to remember the song, really.  She was only four when it came out!
But that is neither here nor there.
To All the Boys I've Loved Before is the first in a series.  I wonder if it will be a trilogy like The Summer I Turned Pretty.  I loved, loved, loved that series.
I did love this book, too, but I wasn't as goo-goo, madly obsessed with it as I have been with other Han books.  I am not sure why.  I still gave it four of five stars and it will be totally easy to recommend it.
What I loved about this book is that it is just so true to life.  Han has once again created believable characters.  Yes, some teens are having sex.  But some are not.  Some of the teens in this book have sex (but it is not described at all) but the main character doesn't.  She doesn't want to.  And yes, she is still normal!  The other thing I loved about TATBILB is that Lara Jean, the main character, really grows during the story.  She does a lot of realistic self-evaluation.  Her growth as a person is shown so well, not overbearing and obvious, but just an evolution, just like in real life, not a made-for-tv movie.
Once again, as in The Summer I Turned Pretty, loss plays a part in this novel.  Lara Jean's mother died when she was young and you can see how she, and her older and younger sister, and their father have been impacted by that.  It is great to see a really great father figure in this book, too.
This is a great little book and I am looking forward to the next one, which I will read for sure.