Lola and the Boy Next Door, by Stephanie Perkins

Anna and St. Clair are back!!!!! In Lola and the Boy Next Door, their friend and coworker Lola is a creative dresser (that was an understatement) with great parents and a hot musician boyfriend. But when the Bell twins, including her childhood crush and lifelong nemesis, return to the house next door, and Lola's mother reenters her life, everything is turned upside down. I would elaborate more but I can't really think of anything else to say.

Lola and the BND was very similar to Anna and the French Kiss, except it was the girl with the boyfriend with a guy pining after her instead of the guy with the girlfriend and the girl pining after him. All other differences in the two stories rely on individual details and emotions, but in some way I did feel like this was Anna and the French Kiss just from St. Clair's perspective.

Strangely enough, I would recommend any prospective readers to read Anna and the French Kiss first even though Lola is more parallel to it than a sequel because Anna isn't the main character. However, the relationship between Anna and St. Clair would have been annoying had I not known the story behind it. It was also cool to see Anna from someone else's perspective. From her own personal description and things that others said in Anna and the FK I had a picture of her in my head, but Lola finished that off and made Anna seem like a real person to me. St. Clair still seemed to good to be true.

**********spoilers ahead**************

I was about to post this when I realized that I've only talked about Anna and said barely anything about Lola, Cricket and co. so here goes. I didn't think Max was as bad as he was in the end. I guess that's because the story is told from Lola's point of view which skewed Max's portrayal a bit, but I really didn't see it. I thought it was incredibly sweet that he actually came to brunch once a week with her parents. Yes, he could have been a lot nicer to Lola's friends, but he's way older than Lola so I understand how he found what's-her-name annoying. Also, what was up with the whole waiting around after the break-up thing? They were so desperate to be together and he clearly wouldn't have been a rebound, so why'd she have to keep both their hearts in pieces for weeks and weeks? I thought it was a bit masochistic but since I've never been in that position I probably shouldn't judge.

5 stars.

 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.