Thursday, January 5, 2012

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Source: Won in a giveaway from Greadsbooks

My summary:

Lola, short for Dolores, has a very unique style.  Her goal is to never wear the same outfit twice.  She is a genius at putting the vintage pieces with current trends, add a wig and call it a costume.  Both her dads love her self-expression.  Her rocker boyfriend thinks it's cute.  As for her classmates, not so much.  Then there's the twins who used to live next door.  It was clear that Calliope didn't appreciate Lola's style and Cricket...well he's not there anymore so what does it matter.  Until one day, he's back and Lola has to deal with the pain of seeing him again.  Lola has loved Cricket Bell all her life.  Now he's back.  What will that mean to her unusual style, ordered life and older boyfriend?


My Thoughts:




3 stars - A good read 

I absolutely love Anna and the French Kiss so it was a must that I read Lola and the Boy Next Door.  But I was so over the costume descriptions by chapter 2.  It's really a part of who Lola is and I understand why they were there, but they bored me to pieces.  I guess I just couldn't get into the world that Lola lived in.  She's so different from anything that I have or ever will be that I couldn't really connect with her.  I did feel bad for her a few times.  She had some hard growing pains that were unfair.  I didn't like her rocker boyfriend at all.  He was possessive, selfish, and angry.  I think he was portrayed that way on purpose so I was okay with it.  Her dads were interesting and I liked the strong family connection they had with Lola.


What I really, really, really liked about this book was Cricket.  Unique for different reasons than Lola, he is tall, smart, and family centered.  I couldn't get enough of him.  He supported his twin sister even though Calliope hogged the family spotlight leaving Cricket unappreciated.  He helped his older brother when things went bad for him.  He helped Lola even when she tried to ignore him.  He cared what Lola's dads thought of him and tried to follow their rules.  He's this great guy that has a lot more struggles than anyone would notice from the outside looking in.  Forced to move around a lot to support his twin, he was home-schooled and missed out on lots of things.   But he wasn't angry or bitter.  Cricket is why I keep reading costume descriptions because I really needed to know what happened to him. 


I had hoped for more from this book because I loved Anna and the French Kiss so much, but I'm glad I read it for Cricket.

This is a fun contemporary read that you will love if you're into fashion or Cricket (like I was).



Stephanie Perkins | Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

I am not compensated for any of the links in this post.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review. I haven't read either Anna or Lola. I just recently started reading contemporary. I was thinking about picking these up.

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  2. Thanks for the review. I haven't read either Anna or Lola. I just recently started reading contemporary. I was thinking about picking these up.

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  3. I really loved Anna too and a bit wary on this one the reviews seem very mixed. I'm really curious to meet Cricket though!

    Giselle
    Xpresso Reads

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  4. It's too bad you didn't love this more, especially seeing that you liked the first book. But I can understand your reasoning behind it. I haven't read either book yet but I can't wait to meet both Etienne and Cricket!

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  5. I keep reading about this one and can't wait to get my hands on it. I think I'll be much like you in that I would probably get over the costume descriptions quickly but hopefully Cricket will keep me reading.

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