Lola and the Boy Next Door (Stephanie Perkins)

Lola Nolan is a budding costume designer, and for her, the more outrageous, sparkly, and fun the outfit, the better. And everything is pretty perfect in her life (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood. When Cricket, a gifted inventor, steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

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After reading and loving Anna and the French Kiss, I had high hopes for Lola and the Boy Next Door. Despite having liked this one slightly less than the first book, I still loved it and thought it was a great read.

Once again, the writing is wonderful. Lola is such a funny protagonist, but comparing her with Anna, i couldn’t notice how she was  a little bit more immature, which was fine, because she IS younger than Anna. She did get on my nerves in the beginning, especially about her relationship with Max, which I could write a whole post about how wrong that one was…

I actually thought that the message of this book was stronger. Lola has to come to grips with who she is and accept it, while accepting everyone else too. It’s a lovely story, really.

I loved Cricket Bell! And Cricket and Lola as so sweet and cute, my heart was exploding with happiness whenever they were together. I loved that he didn’t shy away from his feelings anymore, and he told her from the start how important she was to him. I loved how slow their relationship progressed and how sure they both were about each other, before anything else happened.

One thing I absolutely adored in this book – that was lacking, for obvious reasons, in Anna – was the involvement of family! Lola’s parents are super awesome! I loved them. I loved how she loved them. Even when they were being overprotective and almost beating the crap out of Cricket… I still loved them. I loved Andy especially, though Nathan was a riot. I really liked Norah’s role on the story, and how Lola manages to start a real relationship with her. Equally, I liked the role of Cricket’s family, especially the importance of Calliope in his live, even if I wasn’t a big fan of hers in the beginning.

Friends were also super important in this book, and I loved Lola’s relationship with Lindsay – there should be more friendships like theirs in YA. But I was ecstatic when two familiar characters became a recurrent appearance… yep, Anna and Étienne were there, and they were glorious! I love them so so much!!!! I loved how close they were, and that they were practically living together 😀 ❤ !!!!

Ultimately, I loved reading about Lola and Cricket, the only thing that put me off a bit about this book was how irritable Lola was at some points, and sometimes she was just a tiny bit over the top… I still loved her! 😀