Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Dutton Books
Publication date: September 29th 2011
My rating: 4 stars

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.

Stephanie Perkins sure knows how to write a book which leaves you with a big smile on your face and a warm fuzzy feeling inside. She’s talented at creating instantly likeable characters that I wish they existed in real life, so they could be my friends too!

There’s always the worry in the back of your mind when you’ve adored an author’s first book, that will you enjoy the companion novel too? I had pretty high expectations going into Lola and the Boy Next Door and so was glad that my expectations were met.

Lola and Max have been going out for some time, for most of their relationship they have a great time, except when Lola’s parents go on at her about the 5 year gap and feel the need to interrogate Max at every Sunday brunch that makes Lola have little doubts of Max staying with her. But then the Bell’s move back next door. Lola has just got over her two year heartbreak since the last time they abruptly left, so it’s quite a shock to the system to see them back. Also things are quite different from the last time Cricket and his sister Calliope were here. Such as Lola is with Max now, their relationship is strong, but then as soon as Lola see’s Cricket she’s not sure, he’s the same sweet guy with mile high hair and ever since they missed their chance Lola’s in two minds, is she even with the right guy at all?  

Sometimes books that are often cheesy and predictable in places I can easily overlook. I knew what would happen in Lola and the Boy Next Door but I really didn’t care, sometimes these books are completely necessary especially when you’re having so much fun!

Lola was a cool mc, she was quirky, strong, funny, and she ended up ticking a lot of my boxes of what I like to see in a mc. Cricket where do I even begin with this guy? Firstly I honestly thought St. Clair was my favourite, but when you get a geeky charming boy with an adorable difficult equation face, it’s really hard to choose between the two. Don’t get me totally wrong I still totally love St.Clair, his appearance in this book made this book even more perfect, but being from the UK an English accent doesn’t do it for me, I’m more likely to melt into a puddle by hearing an American accent, so that reason alone quickly pushed Cricket up my favourite list. Also his sweet adorable gestures spoke such huge volumes compared to Max’s knee jerk reactions; I didn’t know he could be such a jerk. I had originally really liked Max, but as soon as Cricket had made an appearance I was like Max who?

All in all Lola and the Boy Next Door had everything that I love about contemporary ya. I recommend reading this when you need a quick pick me up or when you’ve had a crappy day, it will certainly cheer you up in no time!

Thank you Sam for reading this with me, you can read her lovely review here.