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Lola and the Boy Next Door was a clumsy fumble for Stephanie Perkins. It had the potential to be something much better, but got bogged down with Anna's history and Isla's future. I often wondered how much of Lola was planned while Anna and the French Kiss was being written and how much of Lola's story was simply dictated by the circumstances the first story had and the third story would require. Even Perkins' charming writing couldn't really save the book after tying it to so many heavy bricks and tossing it in the ocean to see if it would float.

Cricket, the male romantic lead, is the boy next door from the title, but he wasn't involved in the story enough. The story was more like Lola and Her Two Dads, Lola and Her Crazy Wigs, Lola and The Drug Addict Birth Mother, Lola and The Slightly Pedophilic Rock Star Boyfriend. Lola and Cricket? Not so much. Cricket is part of the story, but he isn't the central figure Etienne was for Anna. The fact that so much of their romance is told instead of shown didn't help with developing or moving him into the spot light. Their history which was supposed to be a Very Big Deal was told in a chapter and it was Not a Very Big Deal, which made Lola seem petty and self-centered rather than sympathetic and someone easy to like.

And because you want to know what the (Not) Very Big Deal was:
(view spoiler)[The romance that began to bloom between Lola and Cricket got squished by a couple of misunderstandings and some unkind manipulation from Cricket's sister, Calliope. Lola thought Cricket lied to her about his birthday party and deliberately didn't invite her; she thought this because his sister yelled at her for not coming and looked all shocked when Lola told her she wasn't invited. Cricket thought Lola didn't come to his birthday because Callope said she'd invited Lola. Big fucking deal. Cricket moved away before they could work out this little half hour sitcom. If Lola had moved beyond the incident a little instead of having a panic attack and dropping plates when he moved back in then I wouldn't be annoyed the event was so trivial. Advice to authors: don't build it up like he ran over her dog, kissed her best friend, and read her diary over the school speaker system all in the same day when it's really a 24 minute sitcom misunderstanding. You will just piss me off. Live up to what you're trying to sell, please. (hide spoiler)]

For the first 30% of the book Cricket's presence is mostly inconsequential. At one point I wrote 'blah' as a status update because nothing was actually happening between them. The pieces were on the board, the back story was set up, and then nothing was put into motion because the author kept getting distracted by Anna and Etienne and their l-o-v-e. Yes, I loved Anna and Etienne. Putting so much of them in right at the start, however, was both detrimental to Lola's story and reminded me of a more compelling and interesting story I'd rather be re-reading...

Anyway, Lola's boyfriend, Max, starts out okay, but as Cricket creeps his gangly legs further into the book Max starts acting more like a dick? He goes from being the guy who deals with all of her parents rules for her, including awkward interrogation style brunches once a week to some weird half-a-pedo who calls her his Lolita. (He's 22 and she's 17.) I wasn't crazy about the age difference, but it was being dealt with in a reasonable way by her parents. I can deal with slightly icky age differences if they're acknowledged and dealt with in the story and/or fit with the world building. Still I got wrinkled nose when he started calling her Lolita, which was exactly the reaction I was supposed to have. We were supposed to be okay with Max until we weren't supposed to be okay with Max. It was all very choreographed and forced.

I know there's no way to please the audience completely on the Max front. There are people who will say Lola should have just dropped him because she was more attracted to Cricket -- that the demonizing him was just for author convenience. Then there will be people who would have disliked Lola for just dropping her boyfriend because she feels an old flame for someone else blah blah blah. My opinion is that making Max the bad guy to wash Lola's hands was cheap. I can only say how I would've wanted to be treated in Max's position. If someone I was dating wanted to be with someone else I'd want them to go. I've been in that place once -- the one where you're standing in front of someone and they're looking over your shoulder at someone else. Being a place holder sucks. You're not doing me any big favor wasting my time if there's somewhere else you'd rather be.

After the inevitable break up with Lola and Max, she takes months to figure out how to be with Cricket. It involves a lot of black clothes and the reader being told they hang out sometimes, with only brief snapshots of it. At random points the jump point for Isla is set up, with Cricket's sister possibly competing in France and Anna and Etienne (who are somehow suddenly mysteriously not broke now?) both wanting to go back to Paris for a visit (even though they were there six months ago).

There are some swoon-worthy scenes. Cricket climbing through the window that second time and asking if she still loved Max? Loved it. Didn't save the book for me though. There were too many awkward things weighing it down before and after. Like, Cricket doing her hair? Weird to me because at Calliope's competition level her fluffy haired brother wouldn't be fixing her hair and also the fact that Lola's own hair was such a constant rat nest under her wigs totally skeeved me. Also, the story about the boy with the stars and the moon? Could've bought it if we knew the stars on his hand meant Lola earlier in the book. Instead it was AWKWARDLY worked in right before he gave her the mechanical star and moon gift which lessened the effect.

I couldn't give this book the five stars I was expecting to give it when I pre-ordered. I can't even pre-order the next book because I'm not sure I want to read anymore tie-in books. I might have to wait for Perkins to start doing independent, unrelated stories before I can claim fan status again. I can't even give four stars because it's not an exceptional book. It's ho-hum. Good but not great, not something I'd run out to buy again. Blah.

I will say this, I loved her dads. I think I could've liked Cricket's sister and Lola's best friend Lindsey if they'd been allowed to develop, but these aspects of the story are part of what was shrunk down by Anna's history and Isla's set up.