07 November 2011
REVIEW: Lola and The Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
lola
and the boy next door
Stephanie Perkins
ISBN #: 978-0-525-42328-7
Publisher
Name: Penguin Group/Dutton Books
Date Released: September 2011
Genre: YA
BACK COVER BLURB:
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.
COVER SNARK:
This
is actually a very pretty, intriguing cover. I would definitely pause as I
passed it while shopping and pick up the book to read the back cover blurb.
FIRST LINES:
I have three simple wishes. They're really not too much to ask.
LYNETTE'S TWO CENTS:
I
really, really, really wanted to read LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR. I wanted to
read this book from the moment I closed her debut Anna and the French Kiss.
I must say that I'm glad that I waited until my library ordered a copy of LOLA
AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR because if I had actually paid money for this book, I
would've been very angry. It wasn't the writing, which was great. It was the plot and the characters that drove me crazy.
Maybe
I expected too much? I'm going to try to articulate why LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT
DOOR was a letdown for me. The main reason was that Lola didn't connect with me
as a character. Probably because she spent the whole book lying to everyone
around her and deception/lying is one of my biggest romance pet peeves. I know
that as a teenager that your emotions are haywire and you often lie to yourself
and others without meaning to, but that still doesn't make you the best possible
choice for the heroine in a romance novel. I needed deeper motivation to
justify why Lola spent so much time lying to everyone.
It
wasn't only Lola that I had trouble with but I had trouble with the majority of
the main characters. The book seemed forced, as if she was trying to live up to
the success of Anna and having trouble doing so.
I
mean really, what was wrong with Max. He started out like this great character.
The only issue that seemed wrong with him was his age (he's 22, she's 17).
While that is something to raise an eyebrow about, in the beginning (before the
novel went down into lala land for the sake of trying to get Lola and Cricket
together) I didn't get why everyone around her freaked so much about it, even
she and him. Granted, I might have felt this way because when I was 16/17 I
dated a guy while not 22, was 19/20 and out of school. I was annoyed that Max suddenly morphed
into this bad guy. I mean really why wouldn't he, Lola had been lying to him
forever. When she finally went and broke up with her and he got nasty with her,
I was actually cheering for him and he was supposed to be the 'villain' in all
this. LOL.
This
love triangle Lola/Max/Cricket bothered the heck out of me. It was not well
executed like the triangle in Anna. I think because she was working too hard to
make Max appear to be a bad guy and Lola spent so much time playing games that
I lost a lot of respect for her. While I see how Lola and Cricket were actually
good for each other, I thought Max if she hadn't went down the very obvious are
you kidding me trying to obviously make him the villain road, would have worked
just as well. In the end, I agreed with Max's parting shout about Lola. In the
end, with all the costumes, Lola was just a little girl with a lot of issues.
WHERE PURCHASED:
Borrowed
from my local library.
RATING:
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2 people posted their 2 cents:
Well, boo. Judging from the blurb, I'd think this would've been a good book. Thanks for the review. I think I'll steer clear on this one.
It's a nice story, but I actually liked the ex-boyfriend and was very annoyed that he was made out to be the bad guy just because he was 22 and she was 17. It was obvious the author was just clearing a path for the hero. It wasn't done in a realistic way.