TATBILB

“The letters are OUT!”

1. TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE by Jenny Han

SYNOPSIS

What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them…all at once?

Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. These are not love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

“Lara Jean’s personality—goofy, awkward, prone to strong emotions, and entirely naïve when it comes to boys—give this touching story an individuality and charm all its own.”

2. P.S. I STILL LOVE YOU by Jenny Han

SYNOPSIS

Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter.

She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever.

When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?

In this charming and heartfelt sequel to the New York Times bestseller To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, we see first love through the eyes of the unforgettable Lara Jean. Love is never easy, but maybe that’s part of what makes it so amazing.

3. ALWAYS AND FOREVER, LARA JEAN by Jenny Han

SYNOPSIS

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?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jenny Han is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of young adult fiction, as well as children’s fiction. She writes books of immense warmth and sweetness so that reading them feels as soothing as sinking down into a hot tub (if you know what is referenced here, wink wink).

I read that the book’s plot was inspired by you writing these very emotional love letters yourself. I’m really interested in this idea of writing for the public versus writing privately.
When you write something by hand, there’s a sort of intimacy that is just intrinsic to that act. You don’t get to delete something in the same way, where it’s like it was never there. When you handwrite something, you’re writing your most raw, pure thoughts. If you want to change it, then you have to mark it out, and people can see you laboring over that thought. I think even the act of hand, pen, and paper is much more intimate than with a computer screen.
It’s funny, because when the book first came out, I thought it would be really fun to bring one of my letters on tour with me, and read it out loud. People were loving it, and laughing, but then I could feel my face was so hot. I didn’t realize until I was up there reading it that I was actually really embarrassed. It was as if the emotions were as fresh in that moment as they were when I wrote them. For me, embarrassment or humiliation is maybe one of the only emotions that you experience in the moment as if you were experiencing it all over again. It’s always fresh. Love can fade, and hate, but embarrassment — you lie in bed and you still remember a horrible thing you said to somebody, or something that made you feel ashamed. I never brought the letter out again. I was just done with that.
- Jenny Han