Lola and the Boy Next Door || Review

"Once upon a time there was a girl who talked to the moon... In the house next door, there lived a boy... He watched her watch the moon... And he began to wonder if the moon would help him unravel the mystery of the beautiful girl. So the boy looked into the sky."

Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5

First and foremost, I want to say that I liked this book, I really did, and I wanted to rate it so much higher. But I truly feel like, although 'Lola and the Boy Next Door' was too good for a 3 (which I reserve for "meh, it was okay" books), it didn't quite deserve a 4 (which I reserve for "this book is a great book, I will recommend it to anyone who is willing to read it" books).

Firstly, I want to discuss the reasons as to why I think this book deserved a rating higher than 3: crickets and cheese. Let's start with crickets, and by crickets I mean Cricket Bell. Throughout the book, Cricket is this tall, quirky, super nice, boy next door - and I love him. It took me a while to like Cricket. For about two thirds of the book he was at the sidelines, he was the boy next door, he was the guy that you like because he's there and well, he's cute. But after about 160 pages, he becomes much more.When Stephanie Perkins started to introduce Cricket as himself, not as the boy next door who lurks in the background, I fell in love with his character. I'm not gonna lie, Cricket is no St. Clair but in all fairness, I don't think anyone can be as charming and lovable as St. Clair. I won't say anything else about Cricket (you'll just have to find that out for yourself) because I think one of the reasons I enjoyed this book is how you slowly get to know Cricket, just like you slowly get to know that cute boy from school.

Now for the cheese. This book is pretty cheesy and cliche, and I know that not a lot of people like that kind of stuff, but when you're in the mood for some cheese, definitely pick this book up! This book is riddled with a lot cheesy monologues that you know no one will ever say in real life and it has cliche back stories - you know the drill, girl likes boy and boy likes girl but for some reason, they just can't get together. Yeah, it's not like anything we've ever heard before but Perkins adds something unique to the story to make it just that bit different. I'm a hopeless romantic, and needless to say, I loved the romance in this book.

Now to explain why this book didn't get an exceptional rating, unlike it's counterpart, 'Anna and the French Kiss' which got 4.99 stars. First, I just want to quickly mention San Francisco. I went on holiday in San Francisco last month and I fell in love with the city. And what the book failed to do, and what I wish it had successfully done, was that I wish it captured the beauty and aura of the city much better, just like it did with Paris. But I won't take points off for this because I do admit that part of the reason why I think Perkins didn't quite capture SFO as well as Paris is because nothing ever beats actually seeing and experiencing something first hand - and I've been to San Francisco, not Paris.

Second, I wasn't super invested in the book until about 200 pages in, when things started to happen and the story was at its climax. By then, it was too close to the end that the wonder I felt during those last few pages was short-lived. I still enjoyed the story, but I prefer books that hook me in in the first 100 pages. That way, I have a lot of time to fall in love with the story, the characters, and the setting. So less than 0.5 stars because of how long it took me to get hooked on the story.

And last but not least, this book lost a whole star because of Lola's constant reminding me that she is, "Not one of those girls" (ugh!). This quote (or some other version of it), appeared in the book at least three times, and that's three times too many. Nothing irks me more than the saying, "I'm different and cool because I'm not like other girls". In fact, the second time I read Lola saying that, I wrote in my notes, "OMG Lola, stop with the 'those girls' thing. It's pissing me off." And it did piss me off. A lot. Because I hate that phrase. I hate how it has a bad connotation to it. I hate that by saying it, someone implies that they're better because they're not like most girls, like being most girls is a bad thing. Which is so wrong, because what's wrong with being like other girls? (The answer is absolutely nothing, because girls are very cool!)

'Lola and the Boy Next Door' was an enjoyable read, but it wasn't an amazing read, and I know I'm not alone when I say this. I enjoyed the story and I liked the characters, but it just lacked something. It takes a while to get into it, and Lola annoyed me sometimes. It's not as magical as 'Anna and the French Kiss', but it's almost just as cute (almost), so I do think that you should still pick this up.

Have you read 'Lola and the Boy Next Door', what did you think of it? Were you as annoyed by Lola as I was? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

'Til the next chapter,
Patricia x