Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door (Anna and the French Kiss #2) By: Stephanie Perkins

Title: Lola And The Boy Next Door (Anna and the French Kiss #2)

Author: Stephanie Perkins

Published: September 29th, 2011

Source: Bought

Buy The Book: Amazon/Barnes and Noble

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!

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 Thoughts:

Stephanie Perkins did again for me, Lola and the Boy Next Door was amazing. I was wondering if this book was going to be too much like Anna for me to enjoy it but, it wasn't and we had a cameo from St. Clair and Anna that I loved because we got to see a bit more of their college life in San Francisco and who doesn't like to see the future of the characters that they loved so much.

Lola loves fashion but not just fashion but, costume, she has a room full of wigs and crazy dresses that she isn't afraid to wear every day.  She has two dads who she loves but, are very strict. Lola has rocker boyfriend who is much older then she is and although her dads let her date him they have a million rules to make sure that Lola and him are exactly where they say they are. For Lola, the day she has dreaded for two years has finally happened,  The Bell twins and their family move back in next door, Calliope the beautiful Olympic hopeful figure skater and her brother Cricket who was Lola's first love who broke her heart and then moved away.

Lola was an awesome character, I will admit that I was a bit jealous of her but, I was jealous of her in a good way. I wished that I had enough guts to dress as creatively as she did and to wear all kinds of crazy colored wigs. But, she was just like every other teenage girl and I completely related with her, she liked her older boyfriend Max and he was older and more experienced and she loved him or at least she thought that he did. She was upset when the Bell's moved back in because her and Cricket had started to become close and she was falling in love with him but, his sister got in the way like she always had while they were growing up and she never completely got over that. She was very observant of Anna and Etienne's relationship, Anna was her boss at the movie theater she worked at (I loved that Anna worked at movie theater, it completely makes sense for her character.)

Cricket was adorable, he was definitely a guy in YA that I loved. His family was descendants of Alexander Graham Bell and when he was young he was so proud of that, he built all kinds of awesome inventions like an elevator for Lola's Barbie doll house. He has always been in Calliope's shadow moving to new places whenever she  needed a new ice skating coach. But, he still supported his sister completely even though he wished that he had a family that noticed him more and did more things together.

Overall, Lola and the Boy Next Door was another great contemporary from Stephanie Perkins, she is definitely on my auto-buy list and I can't wait to read Isla and the Happily Ever After.  I also want to note that you don't need to have read Anna and the French Kiss to read this one it is a completely new and amazing story so, definitely check this one out!

Want some more thoughts on Lola and the Boy Next Door? Check out the links below!

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