Warning: Major To All The Boys book series spoilers are ahead.
Netflix has us hooked and they know it. After the tremendous success of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, based on the book by Jenny Han, the streaming service jumped on creating movies for the remaining two books in the series. The second, To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You just dropped and we will likely be watching and rewatching until the final film is released. The third book, Always & Forever Lara Jean came out in 2017, so if you're dying to know how the To All The Boys books end for Lara Jean while the final TATBILB movie is still in production, you're in luck.
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While the TATBILB movies haven’t been exactly the same as the books, they’ve been quite close, so it’s safe to say that looking at the book will give us a lot of answers as to whether Lara Jean (Lana Condor) and Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) will go the distance.
And if you want to know who Lara Jean ends up with but not how: Search your heart. You already know. But if you want the details, read on.
Warning: This is where the big spoilers start.
In the book Always & Forever Lara Jean, Lara Jean is coming up on a big life change. She is graduating from high school and going off to college, which could mean leaving her family and the boy she loves behind. It's also a big summer for the Covey sisters: Their father just got engaged to the girlfriend he met in P.S. I Still Love You, Trina.
Big changes pose a challenge to any relationship, no matter how stable, but Peter and Lara Jean know that. So to give their relationship the best shot of lasting in the long run, they apply for the same college. Peter is accepted early on a sports scholarship, but Lara Jean doesn’t get in. She does get into other colleges: One near Peter and one in another state. This is obviously a recipe for stress. But Peter, sweet Peter, isn't deterred; he suggests they visit each other every weekend and after a year, Lara Jean can transfer. We love an internet boyfriend who is focused on solutions, but that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?
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Yes, that would be too easy. Cue the plot twist.
Lara Jean gets off the waitlist at one of the other schools — the one in a different state. And twist: She actually falls in love with it. Peter is bummed and they both know this puts a strain on their relationship, but hey, at least they still have the summer.
Wrong.
Lara Jean’s father, in an attempt to help his daughters connect with their Korean heritage since their mother is gone, announces that he will be sending all three of them to Korea to visit their grandmother for a month. Now, Lara Jean and Peter only have a month or so to spend together before they head off to different states for school.
In light of that, and in a move that feels quintessentially John Hughes, Lara Jean and her friends decide to rent a beach house to celebrate graduation. Lara Jean decides this will be the trip that she and Peter have sex for the first time, but they don’t go through with it because Peter becomes uncomfortable. He has a lot on his mind that he’s not telling Lara Jean, namely that he is considering transferring colleges to be with her, despite the fact that he has a scholarship at their first choice. Peter’s mother wants the best for her son, and later asks Lara Jean to consider breaking up with him so they can each start college unencumbered by a long-distance relationship.
No time to sort that out though, because Lara Jean has to turn her attention to Trina’s bachelorette party. She gets drunk for the first time, and nothing good happens when you get drunk, have a lot on your mind, and decide to call your boyfriend. Lara Jean breaks up with Peter. They say a bunch of things they don’t mean, and the morning after, they are both devastated. But in a perfect romantic dramedy resolution moment, Peter comes to Lara Jean’s father’s wedding and she tells him she loves him and doesn’t want their relationship to end. With all the uncertainty of college in separate states, Lara Jean and Peter decide to stay together and make it work.
And while you may not have guessed the beach house bits and Peter's mom pulling an '80s villain move, we'll bet deep down, you knew where this was all going.
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