Jenny Han’s sophomore entry in the “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” trilogy arrives with the challenging task of sustaining the magic that made her debut so irresistible. P S I Still Love You picks up where readers left off, plunging Lara Jean Song-Covey into the messy reality of actual relationships rather than the safe fantasy of unrequited love letters. While this sequel doesn’t quite capture the lightning-in-a-bottle charm of its predecessor, it offers something equally valuable: an honest exploration of what happens when the honeymoon phase ends and real feelings get complicated.
The Heart of the Story: Beyond Fake Dating
The story opens with Lara Jean navigating her newfound relationship with Peter Kavinsky, the golden boy lacrosse player who started as her fake boyfriend but became something much more real. Their transition from pretend romance to genuine feelings creates the foundation for a story that’s less about the thrill of new love and more about the work required to maintain it. Han excels at capturing those awkward moments that feel universally recognizable—the uncertainty about physical intimacy, the pressure to define the relationship, and the constant comparison to past loves.
What makes this installment particularly compelling is Han’s decision to introduce John Ambrose McClaren, another recipient of Lara Jean’s infamous love letters. His arrival doesn’t feel like a contrived plot device but rather a natural consequence of Lara Jean’s past catching up with her present. John represents everything Peter isn’t: thoughtful, gentle, intellectually curious, and completely focused on Lara Jean in a way that makes her feel like the center of someone’s universe.
Character Development: The Growth and the Growing Pains
Lara Jean’s character evolution throughout the book reflects the authentic messiness of teenage emotional development. She struggles with jealousy, insecurity, and the weight of being someone’s girlfriend for the first time. Her internal monologue reveals a young woman caught between her romantic ideals and the complicated reality of human relationships. Han writes these moments with particular sensitivity, never mocking Lara Jean’s inexperience while also gently pushing her toward greater self-awareness.
Peter Kavinsky emerges as a more complex character than his initial golden boy persona suggested. His past with Genevieve becomes a source of tension that Han handles with nuance. Rather than painting him as either completely innocent or irredeemably flawed, she presents a teenage boy struggling with loyalty, guilt, and the difficulty of moving forward when the past refuses to stay buried. His relationship with Genevieve isn’t just about romantic history; it’s about the bonds formed through shared trauma and the confusion that comes with trying to separate care from love.
John Ambrose McClaren serves as more than just a love triangle catalyst. He represents the road not taken, the gentler path that might have been Lara Jean’s if circumstances had been different. His character brings out different aspects of Lara Jean’s personality—her intellectual curiosity, her capacity for service (through their volunteer work at Belleview), and her desire to be truly seen and understood.
The Complexity of First Love vs. Deep Connection
One of the novel’s strongest elements is its exploration of different types of love and attraction. The relationship between Lara Jean and Peter carries the passionate intensity of first love, complete with physical chemistry and the thrill of the forbidden. Meanwhile, her connection with John represents something deeper and more intellectually satisfying—conversations that matter, shared values, and the feeling of being genuinely understood.
Han doesn’t present either relationship as inherently superior. Instead, she allows readers to feel the genuine pull of both connections, making Lara Jean’s eventual choice feel earned rather than predetermined. The scenes at Belleview Assisted Living, where Lara Jean and John volunteer together, provide some of the book’s most touching moments. Their interactions with the elderly residents, particularly the spirited Stormy, add depth to their relationship while showcasing Han’s ability to write intergenerational friendships with warmth and authenticity.
Family Dynamics: The Song-Covey Foundation
The Song-Covey family remains one of Han’s greatest strengths as a writer. The dynamics between Lara Jean, her younger sister Kitty, and their father continue to feel genuine and lived-in. Kitty’s precocious observations and unwavering loyalty to her sister provide both comic relief and emotional anchoring. Their father’s gentle guidance and obvious love for his daughters creates a family environment that feels supportive without being unrealistically perfect.
The absence of their mother casts a gentle shadow over the story, particularly in moments when Lara Jean most needs maternal guidance. Han handles this loss with subtlety, allowing readers to feel the shape of the missing piece without overwhelming the narrative with grief.
Genevieve: The Complicated Antagonist
Perhaps the most sophisticated aspect of the novel is Han’s treatment of Genevieve, Peter’s ex-girlfriend who could have easily been written as a one-dimensional mean girl. Instead, Han reveals layers of pain and vulnerability beneath Genevieve’s antagonistic exterior. Her family’s dysfunction and her father’s affair create context for her behavior without excusing it. The revelation of her struggles adds moral complexity to the story, forcing both Lara Jean and readers to grapple with the difference between understanding someone’s actions and accepting them.
Writing Style: The Evolution of Voice
Han’s prose maintains the conversational, diary-like quality that made the first book so appealing, but there’s a slight maturation in Lara Jean’s voice that reflects her emotional growth. The writing remains accessible and engaging, with Han’s particular gift for capturing the small, telling details that make teenage life feel authentic. Her descriptions of physical attraction manage to be both innocent and genuinely stirring, appropriate for the character’s experience while still conveying real romantic tension.
The pacing moves efficiently through the central love triangle while making time for quieter character moments. Han’s ability to balance plot advancement with character development ensures that even when the romantic drama feels heightened, it never loses its emotional authenticity.
Themes: Love, Choice, and Growing Up
The central theme revolves around the idea that love isn’t just about feeling but about choosing—choosing to trust, to be vulnerable, to work through difficulties rather than running to something easier. Lara Jean’s journey involves learning to distinguish between the safety of fantasy and the risk of reality. Her relationship with Peter requires her to confront her own insecurities and jealousies, while her connection with John offers the tempting possibility of starting fresh with someone who has no complicated past.
The novel also explores themes of loyalty, forgiveness, and the way past actions continue to shape present relationships. Through the character of Genevieve, Han examines how hurt people often hurt others, and whether understanding someone’s pain obligates forgiveness.
Areas for Improvement
While P S I Still Love You succeeds in many areas, it doesn’t quite achieve the effortless charm of its predecessor. The love triangle, while emotionally engaging, occasionally feels mechanically constructed. Some readers may find themselves frustrated by Lara Jean’s indecision, particularly when John clearly offers a more mature and considerate relationship dynamic.
The resolution, while emotionally satisfying, arrives somewhat abruptly. Peter’s character development accelerates rapidly in the final chapters, and his grand romantic gesture feels slightly disconnected from the person he’s been throughout most of the book. The climactic confrontation scene in the tree house, while symbolically appropriate, resolves complex emotional issues perhaps too neatly.
Additionally, certain plot elements—such as the hot tub video scandal—feel more like obstacles inserted to create drama rather than organic developments arising from character choices. These moments can pull readers out of the otherwise naturalistic flow of the story.
Connection to the Series: Building Toward Forever
As the middle installment of the trilogy, this book successfully bridges the gap between the wish fulfillment of the first novel and what promises to be the more mature concerns of Always and Forever, Lara Jean. It establishes important character growth while setting up future challenges around college choices and long-term commitment. The book works both as a standalone story and as part of the larger narrative arc, though readers will definitely benefit from starting with To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
The novel also deepens the world Han has created, expanding beyond the high school setting to include the nursing home volunteer work and glimpses of adult relationships through the elderly residents’ stories. These elements add richness to the narrative while providing Lara Jean with adult perspectives on love and loss.
Critical Reception and Cultural Impact
The book maintains the series’ reputation for authentic representation of Asian-American family life without making that identity the central conflict. The Song-Covey family’s Korean heritage is woven naturally into the story through food, language, and cultural references. Han’s portrayal of a mixed-race family feels genuine and unforced, contributing to young adult literature’s growing diversity.
The novel’s treatment of physical intimacy deserves particular recognition for its age-appropriate handling of teenage sexuality. Han acknowledges the reality of teenage physical relationships while respecting her characters’ individual choices about pacing and boundaries. This approach makes the book accessible to a wide age range while still feeling honest about teenage experiences.
Comparison to Similar Works
P S I Still Love You shares DNA with other contemporary young adult romances like Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park and Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything, but Han’s particular gift lies in her ability to make the ordinary feel extraordinary. Where some YA romances rely on dramatic external circumstances, Han finds the drama in everyday emotional experiences—the agony of seeing your boyfriend comfort his ex, the confusion of realizing you might have feelings for someone new, the complexity of choosing between safety and risk.
The book also bears comparison to classic coming-of-age narratives, sharing themes with novels like Anne of Green Gables in its focus on a young woman learning to navigate social relationships while staying true to herself. However, Han’s contemporary setting and diverse characters bring fresh perspectives to these timeless themes.
Recommendations for Similar Reads
Readers who enjoyed P S I Still Love You might find similar pleasure in:
- The Summer I Turned Pretty series by Jenny Han: Another trilogy exploring first love and complicated relationships
- Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli: For its authentic voice and family dynamics
- Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: For complex first love relationships
- What’s Not to Love by Jonathan Pinnock: For quirky romance with heart
- The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith: For meaningful connections and family themes
Final Verdict: A Worthy, If Imperfect, Continuation
P S I Still Love You proves that second books in a series don’t have to be weak placeholders. While it doesn’t quite recapture the magical discovery of first love that made the original so special, it offers something equally valuable: a mature exploration of what comes after the meet-cute. Han’s commitment to emotional honesty elevates what could have been a simple love triangle into a meaningful examination of choice, growth, and the courage required for real intimacy.
The book succeeds most when it focuses on the small, quiet moments that reveal character—Lara Jean learning to drive stick shift, the elderly residents sharing their own love stories, the awkward navigation of physical boundaries with Peter. These scenes demonstrate Han’s understanding that the most important romantic moments often happen in the spaces between grand gestures.
For readers who fell in love with Lara Jean in the first book, this continuation will provide emotional satisfaction even as it challenges some assumptions about what she needs versus what she wants. The book earns its emotional moments through careful character development and genuine conflict, making it a solid middle chapter that sets up the final installment while telling a complete story in its own right.
P S I Still Love You reminds us that love isn’t just about finding the right person, but about becoming the right person—for yourself first, and then for someone else. It’s a lesson worth learning, even when the path gets complicated.
