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.
~Add To Your Goodreads Shelf~
A few months ago I took the plunge and started reading Anna and the
French Kiss. Cue a lack of sleep, compulsive reading and a babbling
review later and Anna became my favourite ever YA romance book. I
eagerly anticipated Lola but I was a little wary too – would it live up
to the high, high standards set by Anna?
Not quite. The best way to describe Lola is that it's like Anna's little sister and indeed, Anna and Etienne
do turn up quite a bit in the book and Anna
is
like an older sister to only child Lola. The storyline almost becomes
brilliant but due to some rather annoying characters and a rushed ending
it just didn't quite do it for me.
Lola
is a brilliant character, she's flamboyant, wacky, funny and smart. I
loved her bizarre outfits and her mad ideas and I grew to love her more
and more throughout the book. She did have her moments of childishness
but that's just Lola. Howeverthe constant mention of how young she was
really grated with me – I'm English, so 17 is perfectly legal over here
and even in America, she really wasn't
that young. It wasn't like she was a total slut or anything...
I
liked the idea of two gay parents- Andy and Nathan - but it just sank
into stereotypical over-protectiveness (forcing Lola's boyfriend over
for Sunday brunch, assuming she's got a ton of STI's and NEVER listening
to her) that bored me to death and made me want to out the book down in
a few places. I wish there were some cool gay parents in a book for
once.
Moving on. Cricket is the natural star of the show
here for me and I wish I could have seen the story for his point of view
for a couple of chapters. He's the perfect companion for Lola, he's
sweet and caring and loves who she is, instead of expecting her to be
something she's not. Plus he's got the whole gadget making thing going
on which is pretty awesome!
On the over hand, I spent a
whole lot of time trying to work Lola's boyfriend out. I think he was
just slightly mentally ill, to be quite honest and I did not like him
ONE BIT.
Back to happy things. I loved
that Cricket lived next door to Lola (as it says, of course) but I also
love that they share adjacent windows too! It was fun reading about them
talking to each other etc; and even better to learn of their history.
My only disappointment with the storyline was that the ending felt very
rushed and I felt a bit cheated as I'd followed these characters until
the end and I wanted at leats a couple of more days with them.
All
in all, a rather frustrating book that still left me wanting to sob
like a baby at the end of it, although not for the same reasons as Anna,
unfortunately.
3/5