Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Publisher: Dutton

Release: September 29th 2011

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Pages: 338

Source: Bought

Goodreads Summary:

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded 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.

My Review:

Favorite quote from this book: "It's easy to talk about things we hate, but sometimes it's hard to explain why we like something." - pg. 55

To say that I liked this book would be an understatement. I LOVED it. Lola and the Boy Next Door is the companion novel to Anna and The French Kiss (which was a superb book) so I had high expectations for Lola and I am glad to say that my expectations were exceeded.

Lola and The Boy Next Door was a magical read for me. It just evokes in the reader all of the feelings that come from falling in love. You literally feel like you have entered a relationship when you read this book. It just whisks you away on a pink cloud of awesomeness without you even knowing it. The highs. The lows. The misunderstandings. Everything that you would expect when establishing a relationship, you feel while reading this book. What's even more interesting is that this book covers really heavy issues (family drama, alcoholism, extreme perfectionism, abusive relationships, bullying, stereotypes, insecurity, drug addiction, etc) but you never feel like the book is dark or depressing or too raw. It always remains quite charming and adorable and I just don't know how Stephanie Perkins manages that but it's quite an amazing feat.

The main characters of this book are quite amazing. I loved Lola and Cricket. I know that some people might feel like Lola is an unrealistic character because of how extravagant and unique she is when it comes to dressing but I have to say that she is not that at all. Stephanie Perkins truly captured the essence of a person who has a true love of costume and design and a knack for art and creativity. I loved that Lola's wardrobe was so eccentric and expressive. The wigs, outfits and makeup Lola would use sounded like so much fun. She totally reminded me of a younger Lady Gaga. I thought she was a very brave and unique character. I just loved how she didn't want to be the same person everyday, that she experimented with her style. Cricket on the other hand was such an adorable character. I loved how he knew so much about inventing new things and was such an amazing brother, friend, and son. Overall he was just a charming guy.

The secondary characters in this book were also very fun to read. I really love how Stephanie Perkins creates such well rounded and fleshed out secondary characters in her books. They always have a unique talent or interest and I just think that it's great that her secondary characters never fall flat or feel boring. We also have guest appearances from two of our favorite characters from Stephanie Perkins' first book, Anna and Étienne, who are always so cute and adorable and fun (Étienne is hilarious and witty).

The romance in this book. Wow. Stephanie Perkins is a master at YA contemporary romance. I just love that her characters never fall in love in perfect conditions. That you always meet her characters in other relationships or confused or in denial about their feelings. It's as if you know that these characters are meant to fall in love but you never are quite sure if it will happen. It creeps up on you and Lola and Cricket were just such sweet people. They had what I would call, a refined sensibility. The really cared for what their loved ones thought about them and what they thought of each other. There were just some scenes between them that were beautifully written because they just evoked such genuine love. Such sweetness. Lola and the Boy Next Door is just a really lovely lovely book and the setting of San Francisco was so much fun to read about. San Francisco felt like a character of it's own in this book.

My advice: Read this book. You will fall in love with it.

Rating: 5/5