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Extend Your ‘To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before’ Feelings!

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Extend Your ‘To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before’ Feelings!

By this time, we’re sure that you’ve fallen in love with Lara Jean Covey, Peter Kovinsky, and the entire cast of characters in Netflix’s teen rom-com To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, released a few weeks ago. If you haven’t yet, please stop reading and go watch it. Go on. Go now. We’ll wait.

Everything about the movie is charming, from Lara Jean’s shy ‘Hi’ in the hot tub to Peter’s trip across town to buy yoghurt smoothies to our new favourite sheet-mask buddy, Trezzo Mahoro.

 

It’s been a long time since we’ve fallen so fast for a romcom, so we thought we’d break down the elements to figure out what it is that made this movie our perfect match.

1. Fake Relationship Tropes

All the intimacy, but none of the risk. Fake relationships are like testing the waters, with all of the closeness of a real relationship and all of the ‘but do they like me for real’ tension of flirting. When Lara Jean and Peter finally really talk in the hot tub, it comes with all of the risk – and all of the reward.

 

Books with this trope: Play by Kylie Scott, Act Like It by Lucy Parker, The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, A Whole New Ball Game by Lauren K McKellar

 

Read an exclusive excerpt from another Women of WAR novel by award-winning author Amy Andrews!

2. Siblings

Nobody can drive you crazy like siblings, but no one knows you better. The relationship between the Covey sisters is sweet but they each have different personalities that sometimes brings them into conflict. “Before you murder our sister…” begins Margot at a crucial point in the narrative, but you know that everything they do, they do with intense love.

 

Books with this trope: The Bridgerton Series by Julia Quinn, Brothers of the Vine by Jacquie Underdown, The Sullivans by Bella Andre, The Kowalskis by Shannon Stacey

Jacqui Underdown, author of the Brothers of the Vine series, writes about the relationship between love and food

3. Romances with Asian characters

We need diverse romance – and we especially loved that Lara Jean’s family had Korean heritage but the story wasn’t about her Asian-ness, but relied on her high school experience. And hopefully the mid-credit scenes suggest the possibility of more Covey stories. Can we request Margot’s adventures in Scotland as well?

 

Books with Asian characters as love interests: Bonds of Justice by Nalini Singh, Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin, Short Soup by Coleen Kwan, Trade Me by Courtney Milan

4. Popular & The Outcast

Chris refers to Peter Kovinsky as ‘The head of the cafeteria crowd’ and Josh refers to him as a Jock. Lara Jean has few friends and prefers to be invisible. But when they get together, Lara is able to come out of her shell, and Peter finds someone he can be real with. Their diverse experiences make them perfect for each other.

 

Books with this trope: Girl Least Likely to Marry by Amy Andrews, Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas, Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid, The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

5. Love Letters

 

Making it Facebook (or Twitter or Instagram) official is a big relationship step, but there’s something delicious about private correspondence. The little notes that Peter writes for LJ had our hearts melting, and we only wish that she’d read them all out loud!

 

Books with this trope: Burn Me Once by Clare Connely, When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare, Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park, Goodnight Tweetheart by Teresa Medeiros


Why did you love ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’? Tell us below in the comments.

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