When Jenny Han’s novel To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before was published in 2014, readers fell in love with the sweet, heartwarming story. This story is about hopeless romantic Lara Jean Covey. She is always tending to fall in love too quickly (including with her older sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh), but the only thing she ever does about her feelings is write a letter to each boy she’s fallen in love with. However, Lara Jean would never in a million years think about mailing her crushes these letters, so she puts them in her hatbox for safekeeping where no one will ever find out. Somehow, though, the letters get out, and so do Lara Jean’s feelings about every boy she’s ever loved. Surprisingly, when Peter Kavinsky, the most popular, admired boy in school approaches Lara Jean after receiving her letter, he proposes a deal: in order to cover up her feelings about Josh and the fact that he received her love letter, Peter says he will be her fake boyfriend (making his ex-girlfriend jealous being his main motive). When Lara Jean accepts, she has no idea the crazy adventure she is about to get herself into!

Something I personally just love about the book is it is a feel-good story. You don’t get done reading it and wish you had never picked it up; you want to just jump in right to the next book in the series! It isn’t a long read, either. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is relatively short and sweet, and is the type of story that makes you want to read more! Recently, Netflix even released a movie based on the best-selling book. The movie is also great because it accurately portrays the same thing Jenny Han does in the book. There are very few things in the movie that stray away from the original plot. Most people get skeptical about seeing a movie based on the book, for fear it might be too different from the story. With this story, I personally was so excited to be able to put faces to characters when the movie came out and to see how they were portrayed on-screen. I had no reason to be worried or concerned about major differences between the story and the movie.

Even though I just really love both the book and the movie, I am willing to admit it might not be for everyone. The story is a feel-good, heartwarming one, but I also think it is a little cliché. Some people aren’t fans of romantic stories and would prefer a different genre. If that’s you, then maybe this isn’t the book for you. It has a plot line where you know just about everything that will happen; in other words, it is a bit predictable. Also, a good friend of mine watched the movie with me, and she said she didn’t like it simply because everyone else did; so there is the factor that it is kind of a trend right now, and perhaps she expected more out of it due to the hype.

Personally, I prefer the book over the movie. While the movie is great and I do enjoy it, there’s something about the original story that is sweeter to me. There are moments in the book where going into greater detail is necessary (such as with Lara Jean’s mother), whereas the movie doesn’t quite pick up every aspect of the backstory. Overall, the book is extremely entertaining, and the author’s way of introducing the characters makes you fall in love with them! Two more books have now been added to the series continuing Lara Jean and Peter’s love story, so if you decide you absolutely love To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, there are two more books that you’ll be dying to read next