Read this review on my blog! --> Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Anna and the French Kiss was without a doubt one of my favorite books last year. With its incredible setting, characters, and realistic romance, it was hard not to put it at the top. Well, Lola and the Boy Next Door had all of those same amazing qualities.

It’s safe to say there’s not one thing I disliked about this book. I ADORED everything!! All the complicated relationships between the characters were very realistic, as were the emotions that came with them. It was refreshing to see Lola have such loving, supportive parents who cared enough about her to set boundaries. And I liked that Lola respected her dads enough to obey them most of the time. :) Lola is a good kid. She’s also unique, fun, and caring. I felt her relationship with Max, who was older than her by five years, was also very realistic and painful to read. I wanted her to dump him! He was such a jerk. Ugh!

But then we had Cricket. [Insert HUGE smile here.] He’s SO going in my favorite YA guys list! He’s earned a permanent spot there, right above Etienne St. Clair. That’s right! Above! I can’t even come up with the right words to describe him. Well, actually, here’s one: INDESCRIBABLE. He was just so genuine and sweet that you can’t help but love him. And he was so nice! But not wimpy, which is sometimes hard to do when someone is that nice and sweet.

Anna and Etienne are in this book. SQUEEE! :D I knew they would be, but I was not expecting them to be in this book as much as they were! They are very involved with our main characters.

You know how in Anna, St. Clair was the one in the relationship but we really never got to see what it was like for him and what he was struggling with? Well, Lola is kind of in his situation, and we get to read what it’s like for the person in that predicament. It’s not always easy to make the right decisions for ourselves. We don’t want to be wrong or hurt people we care about. Lola does the best she can do, and I loved her for that.

This book’s rating cannot be measured in a mere number of stars...because like our boy Cricket, it’s entire galaxies (thank Stephanie Perkins for that little gem). Page after page, it mesmerized me. So, prepare yourself, you’re going to love it...its amazingness leaves no room for doubt in this matter.