Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door (Anna and the French Kiss, #2)

by Stephanie Perkins

In this companion novel to Anna and the French Kiss, two teens discover that true love may be closer than they think

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.

Reviewed by Kelsenator on

5 of 5 stars

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Originally posted on my blog Kelsey's Cluttered Bookshelf

Lola lives with her two dads in a cute house and has a very big fashion sense. Her mother isn’t a big part of her life, and you’ll see why when you read this. She is 17 and dating a more hardcore guy from a small band, and he’s 22, which does not sit well with her parents. While dealing with one of their Sunday’s where her family judges Max, she notices a moving van, and the Bell family moves back in after being gone for a few years. Lola isn’t happy about this though, since the Bell twins both ruined her in different ways. Caliope is mean and a figure skater and possessive of her brother. Cricket was her first love and an inventor of sorts, but that got shattered years ago just before they moved away. Now he’s back, and she’s moved on, and he’s of course still in love with her. Now Lola has to deal with the fact that she might still have feelings for him, while being with her current boyfriend who’s turning out not to be what she had thought.

I loved Lola’s character, she was different than others and it didn’t seem like she cared what people thought of her as long as she could make a statement. With her many costumes and design ideas and wigs, she was definitely fun to read about! I just loved the idea of her trying to make a Marie Antoinette dress too, and her awkwardness towards a certain boy was just so cute.

Cricket, aside from having an awesome name, was just adorable. Always moving, very tall yet elegant and the geeky next door neighbour, he’ll have you wanting to give him a hug! As well as rooting him on so he ends up with Lola of course.

Anna and St.Clair from the author’s other book (Anna and the French Kiss) are in this as well, which was kind of cool since I got to see where they were going with life after the first book. Anna works at the same place as Lola, and so they get a good amount of time in the book, even helping Lola and becoming her friend. It just shows how small the world can be that they would meet!

This book had me in tears at the end, there’s so much awesomeness and cuteness and I just loved everything about it. I think I loved it even more than the other book.

Definitely recommending this book to everyone! It’s a great contemporary read.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 2 August, 2012: Finished reading
  • 2 August, 2012: Reviewed