This is book #3, in the To All The Boys I've Loved Before series.  This book can be read as a standalone novel.  For reader understanding, and to avoid spoilers, I recommend reading this series in order.

Lara Jean' story continues in this book with her deciding where to go to college.  She has so much going on with finishing her senior year in high school, planning a wedding, and figuring out where she stands with Peter and other boys in her life.

Peter just wants to enjoy being with Lara Jean.  He wants to hear words of forever and always.  While they are having to decide where they stand as a couple and what they will do for school, there are outside commentaries that seem to effect the status quo.

This last installment in the series made me want to beg the author for just one more book.  I love the characters.  I have grown to love their families, the community, and I am so grateful to have taken the time to get to know these characters.  There is so much that this story brings to life.  So many surprises in store for the reader.  I give this read a 4/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

Lara Jean Song has a lot on her plate as a sixteen year old girl in high school.  She lost her mother when young, and lives with her father and two sisters.  Her older sister is going away to college, and Lara Jean feels like this could be her year.  Until love letters she has kept hidden somehow get sent to the boys she wrote them to.

Along the way she rekindles a friendship with Peter, and maybe Josh.  She intends to solve the mystery of how the letters got out.  She also finds out what makes a teenager popular.  This is a story of more than just romance.  It is a yearning and a growth.

I was a bit sad to find that the book itself is quite thorough and varied and had split the attention away from more than just the main character.  After a while it grew on me and I just enjoyed the humor and "cultural" and teenage funnies.  As for what happens, well there are more books to this series, and I intend to read them.  I give this story a 3/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

Audience: Adult

Format: Audio

Library Copy

Once upon a time, not so long ago, a monster came to the town of Castle Rock, Maine.

- first sentence

This is a reread for me and I didn’t remember many details. I think I avoided it because of my love of dogs. I listened to the audio; Lorna Raver gives an excellent performance and helped me get lost in the story.

I was surprised by the beginning stuff about the monster (serial killer) Frank Dodd. I found myself wondering what that had to do with the rabid dog. But this story isn’t about a rabid dog. It’s about evil… evil and coincidences. It’s also a look back in time at what was once thought acceptable in a marriage.

As the story progresses, the parts with Cujo are separated by the stories of the Trenton family and the Camber family. Each family is dealing with their own issues, and these ultimately lead to the events which conclude with the showdown of mother and child trapped in a Pinto by Cujo.

It broke my heart to listen to Cujo’s thoughts as the disease progressed and he gradually went mad. But it was easier to read/listen to than it was to watch the movie. All I really remember from the movie is the part with Cujo and the car. I might have to watch it again just for comparison.

So, is an Evil force controlling the events that lead to the heartbreaking conclusion, or is it just coincidence? Does it even matter?

I'm using this for "C" in the Goodreads HA A-Z challenge.

This is a hard book for me to review. It’s got great creepy atmosphere and the mystery at its heart is fun to unravel. At the same time, it’s a hot mess of disjointed reveals, cartoonish villains, unconvincing romance, and a murderous revenant that I felt more sympathy for than almost any other character. Plus, the author gets unpleasantly meta, with the (author) main character musing on the injustice of fiction writers everywhere killing off their characters as a convenience when they aren’t sure what else to do with them, then… you guessed it. Unlike most SK books, I was ready for this one to be over long before the final pages.

Hardcover version, which has been on my shelf since I bought it brand new in 1998. I’d never written a review, so this is a re-read for the 2018 Halloween Bingo. I’ve decided to use Stephen King for my Wild Card author, but I’m holding onto it for now until I decide where best to play it.

Maybe even better this time than it was on the first reading. Now I can take The Outsider off pause, and start from the beginning. 

Original review here. I was re-reading the Bill Hodges trilogy before I go on with The Outsider, since there is supposed to be at least one character making a reappearance.