To All the Boys I've Loved Before (32 page)
Read To All the Boys I've Loved Before Online
Authors: Jenny Han
Tags: #Young Adult, #Juvenile Fiction, #Social Issues, #Dating & Sex
The stars are out by the dozen; they look like faraway gems. We’re so lucky to live by the mountains the way we do. You just feel closer to the stars. To heaven.
I light up sparklers for each of us, and Kitty starts dancing around the snow making a ring of fire with hers. She’s trying
to coax Jamie to jump through but he isn’t having it. All he wants to do is pee around the yard. It’s lucky we have a fence, or I bet he’d pee his way down this whole block.
Josh’s bedroom light is on. I see him in the window just as he opens it and calls out, “Song girls!”
Kitty hollers, “Wanna light a sparkler?”
“Maybe next year,” Josh calls back. I look up at him and wave my sparkler, and he smiles, and there’s just this feeling of all rightness between us. One way or another, Josh will be in our lives. And I’m certain, I’m so suddenly certain that everything is exactly the way it’s supposed to be, that I don’t have to be so afraid of good-bye, because good-bye doesn’t have to be forever.
When I’m back in my room in my flannel nightgown, I get out my special flowy pen and
m
y good thick stationery, and I start to write. Not a good-bye letter. Just a plain old love letter.
Dear Peter . . .
To All My Literary Loves:
To Zareen Jaffery, fairest of them all. I think you and I might just be meant to be.
To Justin Chanda, for putting a ring on it.
To everyone at S&S and especially Paul Crichton, Lydia Finn, Sooji Kim, Chrissy Noh, Lucille Rettino, Nicole Russo, Anne Zafian for being my main squeeze(s). And hello there, Katy Hershberger, we’re about to get to know each other very well.
To Lucy Cummins, I lay flowers and chocolate-covered hearts at your feet for all the beauty you bring to each book.
To Adele Griffin, Julie Farkas, and Bennett Madison—readers, writers, and friends—sonnets for you all. I’m so in awe of your talent and so honored to be your friend.
To Siobhan Vivian, my dearest, if there is such a thing as literary soul mates, you are mine.
And to Emily van Beek, for everything, always.
All of my love,
Jenny
www.mobilism.org
© ADAM KRAUSE
Jenny Han
is the author of the
New York Times
bestselling books
The Summer I Turned Pretty, It’s Not Summer Without You, and We’ll Always Have Summer.
She has also written two middle-grade novels,
Shug and Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream.
Her latest books,
Burn for Burn and Fire with Fire,
were co-written with Siobhan Vivian. Jenny lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her at
dearjennyhan.com
.
SIMON & SCHUSTER © NEW YORK
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Also by Jenny Han
Shug
The Summer I Turned Pretty
It’s Not Summer Without You
We’ll Always Have Summer
Cowritten with Siobhan Vivian
Burn for Burn
Fire with Fire
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2014 by Jenny Han
Jacket photograph © 2014 by Anna Wolf
Jacket hand-lettering copyright © 2014 by Nancy Howell
Jacket design by Lucy Ruth Cummins
Jacket photography copyright © 2014 by Anna Wolf
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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.
Book design by Lucy Ruth Cummins
The text for this book is set in Bembo Std.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Han, Jenny.
To all the boys I’ve loved before / Jenny Han. — First edition.
pages cm
Summary: “Lara Jean writes love letters to all the boys she has loved and then hides them in a hatbox until one day those letters are accidentally sent”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-4424-2670-2 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-4424-2672-6 (ebook) [1. Love—Fiction. 2. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 3. Sisters—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Title: To all the boys I have loved before.
PZ7.H18944To 2014
[Fic]—dc23
2013022311