- I was a big fan of Anna and the French Kiss by the same author and, honestly, Stephanie Perkins is SO HYPED by the book blog community, how can you be a part of it and not read her books!?
I also recommend:
- Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
- How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr
Summary from GoodReads:
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.
My Review:
I’m going to jump on the Cricket bandwagon. I. loved. him.
However, I do not love his name. Cricket, Stephanie? Why Cricket? And here I thought you couldn’t get worse than Etienne St. Clair. I mean, you have these awesome, traditional, if somewhat old-fashioned, girls names with Anna and Lola.. but what is going on with the boy names?! It’s just so hard to take a guy named Cricket seriously.
Speaking of Anna and St. Clair – LOVE the cameo’s here.
So the things I didn’t agree with, or that gave me a bad feeling from Anna and her story were still a bit present in this one. I’m not sure why these stories need to have an element of breaking hearts through the whole flirting-with-cheating storyline, but I am really hoping the third companion book to these will see an end to that little bit. I didn’t like it in Glee Season 1, I don’t like it here.
But I do love everything else. I love Lola’s sense of fashion, her two dads, her family dynamics, the tension with Calliope, the best friend, the gorgeous boy next door, the history between them … I could go on and on, but most of all it boils down to just digging with Stephanie Perkins does to make what might otherwise be a hum-drum, teenage story into something like a party in between the pages.
Because that’s what this book is. It’s a book party. It makes me happy, giddy, and feel like I”m 16 years old again.
If you loved Anna, you are gonna love this book. You haven’t read either of them? Then get off your butt and do so! Libraries, book stores, and friends (I’m sure) will have them laying about, so fix it!
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Oh, I love that! How you describe Stephanie Perkins’ books as being like a book party between the pages. I was definitely giddy while reading both Lola and Anna!
I do like the name Cricket though, because it’s different, but I can see why someone wouldn’t.
It was just hard to take him seriously! I kept giggling lol
And it is a party in the pages! I couldn’t think of any other way to describe it haha I’m glad you liked!