The third and final installment, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before: Always & Forever finally came out on Feb 12. I finished reading all 3 books last month and while the movies are definitely different from the books, they still incorporate a lot of elements and cute Easter eggs throughout.
My honest review? I fell in love with the first movie, I wasn’t absolutely crazy about the second, but I loved how the last one ended. It wrapped it up rather nicely. While I am a fan of bittersweet endings, I also am a fan of really cute sappy happily ever afters. I am a Disney girl after all.
I love these movies for a few reasons, but most of all, I love that it was a unique and clean love story. Everything about it was very soft. It wasn’t overtly catty, sexual or over the top like the OG teen movies of the 90s. It was good clean fun, humor and story. I’ve been loving movies like this and Sierra Burgess Is A Loser. Being a straight edge girl for basically…all of my life, I really relate to Lara Jean’s high school experience. While everyone else is out being sexual and going to tons of parties, besides being sheltered and not allowed to go, when it comes down to it, my idea of ‘fun’ is not the same. I enjoy cooking, reading, writing, fashion, and all the ‘boring’ stuff that LJ enjoys too. I had a similar style and fashion sense growing up. I wore a lot of cutesy and kawaii style clothes but was still eclectic and very versatile with my fashion. I didn’t really like to wear what “everyone else was wearing” at the time, which was a lot of Abercrombie and Fitch and Uggs. I wore my hair in pigtails and had a box of tons of cute hair accessories that my mom had sent from Vietnam for me. While watching the second movie, I realized I had a similar dress with red bows on the shoulders and it inspired to work on a small project of my own recently in recreating 3 of her looks from the second movie, while marrying it with my own personal style. I wanted to do it since last year but I only had the one dress. Just recently I came across the Valentine’s outfits from one of my favorite brands and then serendipitously stumbled upon the mint dress as a suggestion from one of my favorite Instagrammers. It all worked out perfectly in time for the 3rd movie release. Sometimes you just get lucky like that at a certain moment in time for a reason. My hubby helped me with this small project and I really loved how it turned out.
I remember being just as dramatic and emotional as a teenage too. I find her antics hilarious. I had similar daydreams. I worried about the same things. I have a similar relationship with my sisters and family is very important to me too. I also love that the third movie incorporated elements of New York. And if you haven’t seen it yet, stop reading here because *spoiler warning* I LOVE that the conflict in the third movie is not another love interest or ex insecurity, but that she falls in love with New York City itself, and puts her in a pickle on where to go for college. I related to this too as I wanted to go away for college, but I didn’t want to go too far because I didn’t want to be far from my boyfriend. Ultimately, I wasn’t as brave as Lara Jean, but I didn’t really need to be, because I didn’t really find any out of state schools I really wanted to go to. Looking back, I don’t regret it but not because of the boyfriend aspect, but because I honestly would’ve hated moving back and forth every semester and in between semesters, lol. I hated that part a lot about college. It was always a hassle moving in and out. But I digress. I also really enjoyed the storyline between LJ and Gen. I loved that they took it a different direction than the books and it was really heartwarming to see the jung connection come full circle. Their relationship was definitely complicated but I loved the ending it got. It was a storyline that is really nice to see in this day and age, especially for female empowerment and women uplifting other women and supporting each other.
I also love that Lana Condor is Vietnamese American because representations really matters. It’s very rare to see a Vietnamese girl as the star and to see that she killed this was amazing to me. I hope that it paves the way to see more Vietnamese stars and Asians on the big screen because I would love more relatable stories to be picked up and told.
If you haven’t watched it yet and are interested in starting the series, they ‘re all available to stream on Netflix, and I honestly really recommend it if you love cute love stories and romcoms. It’s a perfect series for the Valentine’s season. I wasn’t in love with the Beginning Middle End song at first just like Peter, and then somehow later on in the day, it hit me hard and now I’m in love with it. Funny how music can be like that sometimes.
Happy Valentine’s Season!
