P.S. I Still Love You and Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han

In To All the Boys I've Loved Before, Lara Jean Song Covey's life is turned upside down when her younger sister sends out a series of love letters that she had written to the boys she had overwhelming feelings towards. One letter, to the popular and handsome Peter Kavinsky, led to a fake relationship that sparked real romance. The second book starts with Lara Jean deciding to make a play for Peter, for real this time. They get back together, or rather finally get together, and all is well...or is it?


Meanwhile, another letter finally reaches its recipient: Jon Ambrose McClaren. He used to live in their neighborhood when they were in junior high, and he and Lara Jean start a correspondence. In these letters, she conveniently never mentions that she is dating Peter now. For his part, Peter is always hanging out with his ex, Lara Jean's former friend Gen. He claims that she is going through something, a family issue that he doesn't want to divulge. To make matters worse, Peter and Lara Jean's infamous hot tub video from the school ski trip is still circling around. Lara Jean is certain that Gen is responsible for putting out the video, but Peter denies it.


In less dramatic news, Lara Jean starts to volunteer at the local nursing home. She spends a lot of time with a sassy resident named Stormy. Stormy is always trying to set Lara Jean up with her great-grandson, who turns out to be none other than Jon Ambrose-McClaren! They have some romantic moments between them, especially when Peter and Lara Jean break up for a bit.

I also watched the Netflix version of P.S. I Still Love You. I really enjoyed their To All the Boys I've Loved Before, especially Noah Centineo as Peter Kavinsky. The second movie was a pretty decent adaptation. The kids are still cute, and I enjoyed the romance. Jordan Fischer made for a charming Jon Ambrose, and made it a little hard to be completely Team Peter, though I still completely am. Even though the movie won't be released for a bit, I also read the third and final book in the series, Always and Forever, Lara Jean.

At the start of the third book, Lara Jean and Peter are together and better than ever going into their senior year. They even plan to stay together in college. Peter was accepted to UVA to play lacrosse. UVA is also Lara Jean's top choice, her dream school since childhood. It seems inevitable that she'll get in...but she doesn't.

Lara Jean decides to go to her second choice school, William and Mary. It's a bit of a drive, but still somewhat manageable. Plus they decide that Lara Jean can always try to transfer to UVA after Freshman year, and everything will be perfect again...then Lara Jean finds out she got into UNC. She had been waitlisted at first, so she never gave it a second thought. He best friend makes her take a road trip to check out the campus. They end up having a big adventure with a concert and burritos, and Lara Jean falls in love with the school.

Alas, UNC is much farther than William and Mary. What should Lara Jean do? Their mother told Margot (LJ's older sister) not to go to college obsessing over your high school boyfriend. Margot keeps telling Lara Jean to give whichever college she picks a fair chance, to choose what's right for her and not what's best for her relationship. Peter's mom even secretly asks her to break up with Peter. She worries that Peter will give up his full scholarship to stay with Lara Jean, and Lara Jean would never let him destroy his future for her.

It's sort of nice that there is less "I'm worried you're going to cheat on me" drama in this book. It adds a certain maturity. Part of me was very proud and excited for the kids heading off to college, but I was also jealous because they are young, in love, and looking forward to the future while I am none of those things. Anyways, my sad life aside, I am looking forward to seeing the movie adaptation when it comes out and more of my inappropriate crush Noah Centineo.

Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz

Sick Kids in Love boasts the tagline, "They don't die in this one." This snort-inducing line was a big selling point for me, along with how much I enjoyed Moscowitz's Teeth. It sounded like a refreshing change of pace from weepy dramas about terminally ill teens from Five Feet Apart to vintage Lurlene McDaniel to The Fault in Our Stars (Although that book is amazing and I love it, and I will hear nothing bad about it or John Green).

Isabel, AKA Ibby, is sixteen years old and has rheumatoid arthritis. It's not fatal, but it is a lifelong illness. She writes an advice column for her school newspaper where she asks her friends, family, and even strangers questions and compiles all the answers. Her pseudonym for the column? Sick Girl. One person she always gets an answer from is Claire, her imaginary best friend who died of cancer. It's a little strange, but it makes sense later. Otherwise, Ibby is normal, and has normal friends and a normal dad who works too much at his hospital.

One day at her treatment for RA, Ibby meets a boy. Sasha is receiving treatment for his Gaucher disease. It's a not very fun genetic disorder that means fatigue, easily broken bones, and a possible future ruptured spleen, but is mostly not fatal. They have a very charming encounter, but don't exchange contact information. Ibby counts out how long until their paths cross again when they come in for future treatments, but is surprised to meet Sasha while volunteering at the hospital. She brings him water, and they talk and make plans. Of course, Ibby has to warn him that she doesn't date.

Soon, though, they are "not dating" a lot. The two are in the same boat in that they are sick. Ibby's normal friends don't understand how difficult her RA can be. They invite her to go skiing, even though she can't do a lot of physical activity without suffering for it later. She counts out how far she has to walk to get from the subway to her apartment, how many stairs to climb, etc. She wants to just take a taxi sometimes, so she can just be dropped off at her building, but she never does. Her legs sometimes give out under her, and Sasha urges her to get a cane to help, but she can't do that. She can't let other people see her with a cane, can't let her dad see her with a cane, because she doesn't want a big billboard letting people know she is sick.

The saddest part of Ibby's story is how long it took her to get diagnosed. Doctors said it was growing pains, even accused her of lying. That uncertainty was where Claire came from, a proxy who had a defined illness and was always the same age as Ibby when she died. Sasha was diagnosed much earlier than Ibby, though his doctors believed he had leukemia. As if it wasn't bad enough that Ibby has to pretend to feel okay for her dad and her friends, she also doesn't feel as though she can complain about being sick because Sasha is always sicker.

Sick Kids in Love was a very good book that brought up a lot of important issues. The romance could be sweet, but those kids were also very cringe-inducing at times. I very much liked how Ibby ended up growing through the book. She learned to stand up for herself with her friends and with her dad. True to the tagline, neither one of them dies. What more can you ask for?