Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

I absolutely adored Stephanie’s debut novel Anna and the French Kiss. Such a light, clean romance in these times of dark and dreary subjects. I awaited Lola with great excitement, and after many tries and fails to get my hands on an ARC it was released and I got it from the library. I did ponder purchasing it, but now I’m glad I didn’t.

Summary: Lola, a high school girl who never wears the same crazy outfit twice, adores her rock star boyfriend Max, a “man” of 22 years. But when her first crush Cricket – who broke her heart – and his family move back in next door, Lola finds that she – and her old crush – have more feelings for each other than they should.

Reality Check: My expectations for Lola were great, which may have been part of the reason I was so disappointed. Lola is the complete opposite of Anna, the MC from Stephanie’s first book, which wouldn’t mean much but it’s because they are complete opposites that it felt forced. Like Stephanie made her as “Anna’s opposite” instead of a unique, individual character. The whole story was like that, actually – setting, situation, family, relationships. It felt like Stephanie was so afraid to have similarities with Anna that she was meticulous that every detail be completely different.

And then there was Anna and St. Clair as secondary characters in the story. Sure we loved them and wanted them to make an appearance, but it was like Stephanie was “giving the reader what they wanted,” which isn’t always what’s best for us. Anna and St. Clair’s story was over – we didn’t need a running epilogue of them cutting into Lola’s story. Especially when all we’re being told is they’re blissfully happy. Bor-ring.

Character-wise, I found Lola annoying and didn’t take to her. Max made my skin crawl, and Cricket – what a name… – was a wimp. As for the story, it was very bland and melodramatic. Where Anna shone with simplicity and romance, Lola fell flat. It was too simple, and any romance was drowned in carnal passion that made me roll my eyes. There are times to be hands-on, but there are also times to be still. Lola (and her boys) had never heard of the concept of being still, and that made both relationships feel cheap and temporary.

All that said, Stephanie is a very good writer and while I was disappointed by the content I breezed through Lola in three days (quite a feat right now).

Conclusion: Compared to Anna, Lola is a horrible flop of a second book. But by itself, it is a well written, relatively light and (relatively) clean teen romance that should not be overlooked. And I will still give any future Stephanie books the excitement and anticipation they deserve.

out of 4 Paws Up

Rating: PG-13 for suggestive content and situations, and some language

Genre: Young Adult Romance