Lola and the Boy Next Door 

Can I just say how cute Stephanie Perkins' books are. The romance is always so cute and I just love the fun that always comes into these books. Lola and the Boy Next Door takes place in San Francisco (WHOOOO! NorCal! :D) and I really enjoyed Lola but I think Anna has to be my most favorite book out of this trilogy. (Yes, I've read Isla by the time I'm writing this review) See the thing about Stephanie's books is that we all know how it's going to end okay? We're not here to see how these books end, we're here for the adventure and the path it took to get to the ending of the book. If you haven't started this trilogy, I definitely recommend you get to it.

Lola and the Boy Next Door is about a girl, Lola, who loves to dress up. She wears wigs and crazy outfits and they seem like the most awesomest things ever. Honestly this girl is pretty committed to this everyday-Halloween if she can wake up every morning and spend so much time to look like a different person. She has a boyfriend her parents disapprove of and her life isn't exactly perfect. Then the Bells move in next door again. They have been moved out of the house a few years ago and when they moved out Lola didn't want to see the Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket again. For reason in which you will find out when you read the book.This story is basically what happens with Isla when the twins move back into the house next door.

I actually really liked Lola. I thought she was confident, kind, and just a person I would love to be friends with. Throughout the book, you see her really experience drama and she could have made better decisions but that is just the learning process. I really liked reading about the character development she went through in the book because things are changing around her and the changes she had to make within her personality was so great to read about. She become more confident (not that she wasn't already), was able to figure who she was, and just the experiences she went through really defined her talents and abilities. 

Max, Lola's boyfriend was someone I don't really like. He was a bit possessive, kind of a jerk, and definitely the jealous type. Don't get me wrong though, there were times where he got his head out of his ass for a minute and he was such a decent person at those times.

I really did like Cricket though. He was just a sweetheart. He had such great respect for the fact that Lola had a boyfriend and she was already taken. They still continued to be friends though and I really loved that. One thing I have noticed about him is he is a very shy and quiet person. Cricket's sister has been the big factor in the family. They move to different places because of her and he just goes along with it and that has caused him to become a quiet person. He never really was a person who got a lot of attention in his family so I am not surprised if he has a very introverted personality.

"I know you aren't perfect. But it's a person's imperfections that make them perfect for someone else"
- Stephanie Perkins, Lola and the Boy Next Door

The plot for this book was a great one to read about. I just loved how it had it's dramatic parts but there were fun times as well. Lola and the Boy Next Door had so many huge things going on left and right it was a book jam-packed with things going on. I didn't feel as things were moving too fast but I also didn't feel as though this book was too slow for my liking. If anything, it flowed very nicely. The ending was just so great. The book has been building up to this one event and this event really said something about Lola's relationship with *person* how good of a person this person is.

I gave this book 4.5 stars because I loved the characters and plot but I just didn't enjoy it as much as the other books in this series.


Oh where to start with this book? For one thing I feel as though the ending really just cut the line between Max and Cricket. Of course there are so many things that define Cricket and Max in two very different ways. Max never really cared for what made Lola happy; he just shot down the idea of going to Lola's prom but then put a said he would but acted like it was attending a funeral, hoping to make Lola feel better. Cricket was all for the prom idea. We all knew Cricket liked Lola and that gesture just brought the hammer down to the final nail.

I'm actually really satisfied with the fact that things between Calliope and Lola were brought to good terms and they can become friends sooner or later. I understand Calliope's fear of losing someone but really, Cricket wasn't going to ditch his twin sister. I was quite surprised to see that Calliope would ask Lola for help with her costume because of the fact that these two were exactly best friends. Plus, if Cricket and Lola were going to get very serious, becoming friends with Calliope was essential.