Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
Series: Anna and the French Kiss #2
Publisher: Speak
Publication Date: July 9th 2013
Source: Bought

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.

Why did I wait so long to pick up this book?! I read Anna and the French Kiss in March this year, and I'd intended on picking up Lola and the Boy Next Door very soon after that. But I didn't! And I wish I had. This was such an adorable book! I loved the characters, their development, the storyline and especially the romance.

So Lola and the Boy Next Door follows our main character Lola Nolan who has an eccentric fashion style. Lola is always wearing a wild and fun outfit along with one of her wigs. She's also dating a guy in a band who is a few years older than her, and her dad's don't approve. But then the Bell twins return to the neighborhood, and Lola isn't too happy. But then Cricket steps back into Lola's life and all of her feelings for him come rushing back, and Lola has to decide what she wants and who she really is.

I can't even express how much I loved this book. It was so adorable and sweet. I loved ever second of this book. It only took me a couple of hours to read this book because I just couldn't put it down!

Lola is such a fantastic character! I adored her! She was so eccentric and wild, she didn't care what anyone thought about her and I loved her for that. She was so creative and such an amazing designer. She had brilliant and fantastic ideas. She also seemed like she wanted to rebel slightly from her life, mainly because of the fact she had a much older boyfriend who was in a band. That's what her relationship with Max felt like to me. Lola is such a friendly, sarcastic and just such an amazing character. 

And then we have Cricket Bell. Where do I start with Cricket? He's adorable, smart, geeky and is living in the shadow of his figure skating sister. But Cricket never makes a fuss. The second that he and Lola started talking again, I fell for him hard. I think it's pretty hard not to fall for him when he's such a sweetheart. He always comes back from college to see Lola and he'll spend time with her doing things that he doesn't even have to be doing - like helping Andy bake pies. He was under-appreciated in his family because they were so focused on Calliope and I felt really bad for him because of that. But Lola always made him feel special. Cricket is an inventor and he's always tinkering with things. I adored hearing about some of the things he made when he was younger. Cricket is just such an amazing character and I love him.

I adored Lola's family aswell. Andy and Nathan were fantastic parents. They were complete opposites when it came to dealing with situations. Andy was more calm and collected whereas Nathan got angry and flew off the handle. But together, they were just amazing. They had me cracking up throughout the book. I loved finding out about Lola's mother too. It was nice to see them actually starting to build a relationship.

I loved that we got to see Anna and St Clair too! I just adored those two so much and it was nice to see them again and see that they're still as loved up as they were at the end of Anna and the French Kiss. St Clair was still his usual cocky self and I still loved Anna.

I loved everything about the storyline in this book. Learning about Lola and Cricket; Seeing Lola's relationship with her mother; Learning about Cricket's life; Andy and Nathan making secret plans, but mostly, I just adored the relationship. Lola and Cricket are so damn cute together and I just loved them! Cricket was willing to wait for Lola until she was ready and I thought that was so sweet.

Overall, I just adored every single thing about this book. Writing this review has actually made me want to go a read it all over again! This is definitely one of those contemporaries that I'll read every single year and it's earned a place on my favourite shelf right next to Anna and the French Kiss.