Always And Forever, Lara Jean

[Jordan]

Summary:
Lara Jean finally has her life figured out. She knows what school she wants to go to, life is good at home, and she’s dating her dream guy, Peter Kavinsky. Lara Jean plans on going off to college along with Peter. Until there is a sudden roadblock in her plans. What started off as perfect suddenly became messy and confusing. With the new problem, Lara Jean also learns an important lesson- sometimes change can actually be good.
Response:
I enjoyed this book very much. There are three books in this series and I read all of them. I personally think this one was my favorite. I liked the overall plot of this story. This book kind of had a lesson in it which I thought was good. I liked how it also had a problem in it that needed to be solved. There wasn’t really anything in the book that I didn’t enjoy. I think the author portrayed the characters very well and I got a good idea about what they all look like and their personalities. This book made me think about what I would do if I was in the same situation as Lara Jean, which I think is always a good quality of a book. This book is definitely a book I would normally read. I read a lot of teen romance which is exactly what this is. The book that this reminds me of is the other books in the series. Overall, I enjoyed this book very much and I would love to read any more books by this author or any books that are like this one. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys young adult books with romance.
Big Idea:
I think a good word that would fit this book is the word “change.” A lot of things are changing in Lara Jean’s life. Her father is getting married, she’s graduating from high school, and she did not get accepted to what she believed to be her “dream school.” Later on in the book however, Lara Jean realizes that what seemed like a big problem, might have actually lead her to something great, if not better than her original plans. This book teaches a good lesson about change. It teaches that sometimes change can be good. Something can seem bad when it first changes, but in the end, it might not be as bad as you had thought. “She’s going to be our stepmom, and I’m so glad for it” (Han, 314). That quote in the book is a good example of the lesson being taught. Mrs. Rothschild is marrying their father. That will bring many changes to their lives, but they are positive changes. While it may seem scary at first, the kids learn that it is a good thing and a positive change. “This week will have to be the most perfect, the best ever, to make up for the fact that I’ll be gone all summer” (Han, 266). That quote also shows another important lesson portrayed in the book. The book teaches that things change so you should make the best of every moment before things do change. Lara Jean knew that things were going to change soon so she decided that she should make the best of every moment. She wasn’t going to be with Peter for most of the summer so she wanted to spend as much time as she could with him before she couldn’t be with him again. Lara Jean had a lot of things change unexpectedly in her life. That’s when she learned that she had to be ready for anything and that she shouldn’t take advantage of anything in life because you never know how things are going to end up. That’s something we can all take away from the book. Although we all will experience change in our life, they aren’t always as bad as we think. Depending on how we look at it, change can actually benefit us a have a positive effect on us. We need to appreciate and not take advantage of anyone or anything because you never know when things can change.