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.

This book made my heart ache.

In a good way.

Even thinking about it now, I feel like I'm having a mild heart attack.

Seriously, it took me a couple of chapters to really get into the story, but after that, I was literally clutching my chest for fear that my heart was actually going to burst. I loved this book. Loved.

The funny thing is, I don't really recall loving the "companion book" Anna and the French Kiss. I remember I liked it, but this, Lola and the Boy Next Door, was by far and away one of the very best books I've read in a very long while. It tugged at pretty much every emotion in my body and I'm sure the story will stay with me for a very long time. 

I absolutely adored Cricket. I thought he had the world's stupidest name--Really? Cricket? Only crackheads and rich people give their kids dumb names like "Cricket" (and "Calliope" for that matter.) Fortunately for the Bell twins, their parents are the latter of the two. Anyway, I loved how good he was to Lola, especially in glaring comparison to her "hot rocker (read: douchebag) boyfriend". I loved all of Cricket's weird quirks, from his rubber bands to his inventions to his fast (nervous) talking. I thought he was probably the sweetest, most endearing male character ever. Yes, he possibly even trumped Peeta (from The Hunger Games). 

Anyway, I know this came out a bit ago, and I'm just slow getting to reading it, but YOU HAVE TO BUY THIS. LIKE, NOW. In a perfect world, you would have bought it yesterday, read it in one sitting like I did, and you'd now be commiserating with me that it's over. Let's shoot for group commiserating tomorrow. Okay? ;)

Happy Reading!