Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

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.

Japanese Tea Garden San Francisco

Before I can start this review and before you even consider reading Lola, you must ask yourself this question: Have I read Anna and the French Kiss yet? If the answer is no, RUN, don’t walk to your nearest book retailer and get thee a copy of this book by Stephanie Perkins. If there is a prerequisite to reading Lola, it’s got to be Anna. Oh sure, you can live on the edge and skip right over to Lola without having read Anna. You’d probably still swoon from the cute deliciousness that is this super cute sophomore novel by Perkins, wait... did I just use the word “cute” twice in the same sentence? Warranted, so it stays. Where was I? Oh, yes, you should read Anna first. Then you’ll understand why Anna and her boy, St. Clair are always making googley eyes at each other.  Also, you can’t really talk about Lola without talking about Anna because, after all, they are companion novels.

But lets get back to talking about Lola.

This is a boy-meets-girl story, there really isn’t any mystery about what the book is about from the title. The boy next door? His name is Cricket. No, not as in *crickets* as in, his name is Cricket. Cricket also has a sister named Calliope. There’s much debate on how to say her name but this story isn’t about Calliope and her burgeoning figure skating career (I kid not), but it’s about how Lola and Cricket figure it out. Let’s also complicate matters by throwing in a musician boyfriend who seems like a decent guy to Lola and who endures Sunday brunch every week with her and her two dads (really, I’m not making any of this up). Then throw in one more character into the mix, the lovely city of San Francisco and you’ve got yourself a story just itching to be told!

I must say a few words about San Francisco. I live about 45 minutes from the City by the Bay and I have to tell you, I’ve never loved the City. My husband loves the City and was raised there and has begged me in the seven years of our marriage to consider moving there. Hell to the no is typically my answer. I’m not a fan of the City, I have to admit. But... and this is a big but... I loved the way Stephanie Perkins used SF as a wild eclectic character in her book. Much like she did in Anna with the city of Paris, Perkins brings San Francisco alive with her detailed descriptions of real places and landmarks. And not just the well-known tourist traps, oh no, she goes for the obscure places the locals tend to frequent and that, for some reason, makes this novel sing with emotional and and vitality. Even if you don’t personally know the City like I do, you will grow at least curious about it.

Castro District, notice the rainbow flags

Beyond the City though, is a sweet story of a girl with a unique personality who loves a boy that lives next door but his past behavior has driven a wedge between them. What eventually unfolds is a story so sweet it rivals Anna and St. Clair’s story from Anna. Speaking of Anna, they both show up in this story as Lola’s co-worker’s and let me tell you what a nice surprise it was to see them there.

The story isn’t perfect though (gasp!), I did find the supporting characters plentiful and one-dimensional, I really would have liked to see the relationships fleshed out a bit more, especially between Lola and her estranged mother. Cricket’s sister also has a fascinating role in this story but her paltry personality left her unlikeable, even at the end when she redeems herself. But I understand that would have changed the focus of the story from Lola and her boy next door to Lola and her mother/fathers/neighbor’s sister/baker/dog-walker... you get it. But aside from this the story is wonderfully crafted and transports you to another place. A place where the one you love is right under your nose but getting there feels like half a world away. Stephanie Perkins has the ability to balance story exposition with finely tuned details that creates a world where the reader is transported to another place. The best part about how she does this is her obvious exhaustive research. I applaud her for this story because now T and I can do the “Lola Tour” when she comes to visit me!

Stephanie Perkins is the talented writer behind Lola and Anna and the upcoming Isla and the Happpily Ever After coming out next year.

Just a note that this will be my last book review for SYTYCW for a while. I am putting myself on hiatus to have another baby and look forward to coming back in a few months to tell you all about all the great books I’ve read staying up nursing my baby!

Until we meet again, Happy Reading!
@gojeannie

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Review: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
written exclusively for SYTYCW Blog by Jeannie N. (@gojeannie on Twitter)

“Eh-t-yen says my name like this: Ah-na.

My heart thump thump thumps in my chest.”

And the sound you hear is the collective sigh and thump thump in our chests as well. *sigh* I want to first put a disclaimer out there before anyone attempts to read this review:

I loved this book. Not just “read-it-again-til-the-covers-fall-off-of-it” love or even “buy-everyone-a-copy-for-Christmas” love. No, no, no. This is “Hold-my-hand-on-the-first-date-kiss-me-in-the-moonlight-marry-me-at-dawn-make-sweet-sweet-love-to-me-until-I-crumple-into-a-heap-of-exhaustion-and-then-we’ll-proceed-to-have-a-gaggle-of-human/book-hybrid-babies-together” love. So with that so eloquently said, I am warning you all that what follows is extreme amounts of gushing over the perfection that is Anna and the French Kiss. *swoon*

There is nothing supernatural or futuristic about this story. No vampires or werewolves or faeries or even a fallen angel in sight. This is a simple story of a girl who meets a boy and all the highs and lows that come with figuring out how to get the boy. Couple that with the international intrigue set in an American boarding school in the world’s most romantic city, Paris, and you’ve got yourself the cutest story ever written. The story is told from the point of view of Anna who is shipped off to France for her final year in Highschool by her father, who is, in my estimation, loosely based on bestselling author Nicolas Sparks. 

"I mean, really. Who sends their kid to boarding school? It’s so Hogwarts."

There, she makes new friends who go a long way in helping overcome her feelings of loneliness and isolation as a new student. There’s Meredith, the high-strung over-achiever, Rashmi, the introvert and her boyfriend, Josh who has yet to meet his own potential and then there’s Etienne. It is the friendship Anna strikes with the “taken” Etienne (who’s girlfriend is a year older and attends university in the city) that transforms Anna from a withdrawn American visitor to someone who fully appreciates why Paris is known as the most romantic city in the world.

Point Zero in front of Notre Dame

This book first made the rounds on my Twitter stream the week it was released. The 140 characters or less recommendations invariably started with the words (I kid you, not) “awwwww!” or “swoooon!” or “cuuuute!” I’m sure there’s some study on the use of multiple repetition of letters coupled with exclamation marks to indicate the level of of how lovestruck the reader is with this book. So of course I was more than a little curious. I’ve never been to Paris and I’ve never really had a desire to visit. I have, however, had friends go there and come back with stories of rude Parisians, insanely strong coffee and dog poop all over the streets (stories of poop outnumbered rude Parisians 2 to 1, though). Which, understandably, lessened my desire to go there even further. After reading this book I am a changed woman. I am now able to picture myself strolling along the streets of Paris, ducking into a small theater showing a movie with no subtitles, taking a stroll along the Seine and surviving on just wine and bread for days! That is the power that is Anna and the French Kiss, it makes you believe in and have hope for young love in all capacities. Of course romantic love is the focal point of this story but parental love, friendship love and loyalty and letting go of love are also explored.

French cinemas play a big part in this book

But I’m sure you just want to know why everyone thinks this book is so super awww! and swooon!, right? You know when you’ve read a ton of young adult novels where the love story is usually the B-plot of the book? You really just want to see some lip-locking action but you get a couple of crazy are they or aren’t they in-love kids doing all kinds of things EXCEPT expressing their love (Oh you know, like running through mazes, waving magic wands and fighting off vampires)? Well, this book delivers. I appreciate so much Stephanie Perkins’ approach to storytelling. Anna is funny and awkward to a fault but she feels real because WE are a little (or a lot) like Anna. Every one of us can probably admit to feeling unsure about life and not knowing our place in this world. 

"Someday I’ll be awarded a statue shaped like a pair of lips, and it’ll be engraved with the words WORLD’S WORST KISSER."

Especially if we come from broken families or have been away from home for an extended period of time. Anna seeks to find anchor in her friends and especially in Etienne and her journey is meticulously told in a carefree, realistic way. Anna is not the perfect bombshell that seems unreachable in some novels, but she is someone we can identify with, someone down to earth and real. In my opinion, the best moments in this book are the ones when Anna and Etienne are separated but continue developing their friendship through emails and texts. I loved their communication back and forth, their vulnerability came through so clearly in those emails and you really got a sense that they were becoming great friends, building a foundation for the possibility of more later. Although Anna and Etienne are obviously the main characters in this story, the supporting players are developed enough that you care about them as well, especially Meredith who harbors a long-time unrequited crush on Etienne (who could blame her, really?).

And just so you know, here’s what my review would have looked like if I had not done the 3 week waiting period between finishing the book and writing this: OMG OMG, SQUUEEEEEE!!! CUTEST BOOK EVAAAAARRRR!!! I’m sure you’re glad I waited.

"And in between kisses, I tell him I love him. Again and again and again."

Just like Sara Gruen famously did before her with Water for Elephants, Stephanie Perkins wrote Anna and the French Kiss during National Novel Writing Month. And that alone puts her on top with me personally, because if she can get just one young person to give it a go and write something (during NaNoWriMo or whenever) then she would have done the greatest service any writer could do. Inspire. Also, she wears bright blue extensions in her brown hair -- I wanna be her BFF.

Anna and the French Kiss will soon be joined by two more companions novels written by Stephanie, Lola and the Boy Next Door (September 29, 2011) and Isla and the Happily Ever After (2012).

Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins