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:

MamaKitty said...

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.

Lynette said...

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.

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