What can I say about Lola Nolan? What can I say about Lola and the Boy Next Door? What can I say about the boy next door, Cricket Bell? Awesome is what I can say about them! This book was awesome. 
 After reading Anna and the French Kiss I was worried. I loved that book so hard it was impossible to live up to my expectation. I mean how was Stephanie Perkins going to make me feel the same things about Lola and Cricket that I did about Anne and Etienne? It wasn't possible. But was she did do was make me feel other things. New things for new characters and I love her for that. 
 Lola and the Boy Next Door is the story of Lola Nolan. Lola lives life to the beat of her own drum. She wears sparkles and wild costumes and bright colors, all at the same time, and doesn't care. She is her own person and that is all that matters to her. That and her rocker boyfriend Max. Until one day, the day Lola dreaded most in the world, the Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return net door and her life turns upside down. Feelings that she thought were dead and buried start to resurface and Lola doesn't know how to react. All she knows is that she once was head over heels for the boy next door and she can't go there again. Too bad Cricket isn't planning to make it so easy. 
 Oh this book. This book! First off it had a completely different feel to it than Anna. It wasn't a story about two strangers with an attraction that form a friendship. Lola and the Boy Next Door is the story about two people with a history. It's about two people that were once uncomfortable in their own skin figuring out who they are and being okay with it. It's about two people that were friends for a long time and when something was blossoming between them other circumstances took over. It's about that first crush and if those feelings ever really go away. Lola may be out there with all of her costumes and her crazy style, but she really is a girl that you can relate to because we have all been Lola at some point in our lives and we have all had out Cricket in one way or another. I think that is what made this book so easy to love. It felt real. 
 I guess that is the thing about the writing of Stephanie Perkins. She gets you invested. 
 There really isn't much that I can say about this book that hasn't been said. It's another one of those stories that just makes you feel good and want to get wrapped up in the lives of these people. Whether it is Lola and Cricket, Lola's parents Andy and Nathan, her Lindsey, Calliope, whoever, you are in vested in their well being. You want them to succeed and to be happy. Perkins created a gem with Anna and gave us something new with Lola that I will forever be happy was a part of my life.