Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins – PART ONE

Synopsis:

Lola Nolan is a budding costume designer, and for her, the more outrageous, sparkly, and fun the outfit, the better. And everything is pretty perfect in her life (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the 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.

I say this is part one because I am nearly halfway through the book.

Why am I publishing a review then? Because it is boring me to tears.

I hate leaving books unfinished because I take the time to read them when I could be reading and reviewing other books. But, I can just not make myself finish this one right now.

I loved the first book in this series, Anna and the French Kiss. It was fun, it was cute, and it was easy to read. The characters were likeable and the story was sweet.

Lola and the Boy Next Door has the MOST obnoxious protagonist. I feel like the author put may too much effort into making her quirky but it just comes off as pretentious and annoying.

This book has put me in a reading slump because I would rather do pretty much anything else than read through Lola’s perspective.

Im not even starring this. I will if I come back to it.

14th Deadly Sin by James Patterson

Synopsis:

Detective Lindsay Boxer and her three best friends are back and recovering from the events that pushed them all to the edge.

After her near-death experience, Yuki is seeing her life from a new perspective and is considering a change in her law career. San Francisco Chronicle reporter Cindy has healed from her gunshot wound and has published a book on the infamous serial killers she helped to bring down. Lindsay is just happy that the gang are all still in one piece.

But a new terror is sweeping the streets of San Francisco. A gang dressed as cops are ransacking the city, and leaving a string of dead bodies in their wake. Lindsay is on the case to track them down and needs to discover whether these killers could actually be police officers. Maybe even cops she already knows...

This doesn’t happen often, but I am going to start this review off with a complaint:

There was NOT nearly enough scenes with the Women’s Murder Club fully assembled.

With all of the chaos in these books, the scenes where the girls are all together are like breaths of fresh air. They are fun and comical and give the book a much needed break from the intense crimes. This book was lacking that.

AND aside from Lindsay and Yuki, we hardly even read about the girls doing things in their normal working lives.

Phew.

Now that I have that off my chest….

I did enjoy this installment. We are now 14 books in, and I cannot get enough of Lindsay Boxer. These books are released one per year, but that is not enough for me. I always get excited when I see the new one up for preorder online, and I always preorder right away.

This one did not disappoint.

I know by reading reviews of some of Patterson’s other books that the stories are getting old and repetitive. They lack creativity and excitement. If you are new here, I don’t believe that to be the case. If you are not new here… Well, I am still not bored of his books.

14^th Deadly Sin introduced some new characters, and a truly unsettling story.

Cops are supposed to be the ones we trust. But, when folks wearing SFPD wind breakers are the ones committing crimes, who can really be trusted?

I couldn’t figure out who the true killers were until they were revealed. It is always satisfying when that happens, because guessing the twist before the reveal can make a book really boring to get through.

I enjoyed the story, I enjoyed the flow, and I just really enjoyed having a new WMC book to read.

4/5 stars. Give me more Women’s Murder Club get-together.

Side note: There was also not enough Martha. Lindsay and Martha scenes are always cute. Pets <3

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Lifeguard by James Patterson

Synopsis:

Working as a lifeguard at a luxurious Florida resort, Ned Kelly meets the woman of his dreams. It feels perfect in every way-except that she's used to caviar and Manolo Blahniks, and he's used to burgers and flip-flops. So when Ned's cousin offers to cut him in on a fast break-and-enter job, Ned can't turn it down. The risk is high, and the reward is even greater-$5 million. But the robbery goes devastatingly wrong. Forced to run away from his town and the woman he's fallen in love with, Ned knows that only distance and secrecy can save his life. But who is pursuing him? The FBI? Whoever sabotaged the heist? Or is it all somehow tied in to his new love-and his oldest enemies?

Lifeguard fits into multiple categories. It is a romance novel, a crime novel, a suspense novel and no much more.

For being a fugitive, Ned was an extremely likable character. I wouldn’t mind a series made about him alone. But, the series would have to be prequels to this book, as I believe this novel had a satisfying ending to his story.

Ellie was also a fun character.

This book was more character driven than story driven, and that is what made it fun to read. All of the character had very different personalities and it was fun getting to know them.

That doesn’t mean that the story was lacking at all, it just wasn’t exceptionally unique. A mediocre story line was made up for by the fun and interesting characters.

Lifeguard reminded me a little of the TV show White Collar which made it even better as I enjoy that show a lot.

4/5 Stars I really enjoyed it, but those who aren’t fans of Patterson may not.

I would call it a nice summer thriller. 

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