Lola and the Boy Next Door

So, I just finished reading something else that I thought I would pass along. "Lola and the Boy Next Door" by Stephanie Perkins

Lola is a very interesting girl. She just turned seventeen and is having a pretty normal life living in the Castro district of San Francisco.  The only thing that makes her stand out from the crowd, besides her two dads and the occasional visit from her fortune telling birth mother, is that she doesn't wear normal cloths but instead wears "costumes".

Her goal is to never wear the same costume twice in a year. Despite some of the comments she hears at school, she is completely confident with who she is. Everything is going as well as she could hope for. She has the perfect (much older) boyfriend who is in a band. Her fathers hate him, which isn't so perfect, but she's working on that... She's even planning on making a Marie Antoinette themed dress for the Winter Formal that she's sure people will remember for the rest of their lives.  Everything is on track....That is until the original residents of the house next door move back after being gone for two years. Bringing with them her most hated nemesis Calliope Bell and her twin brother Cricket Bell......the boy who shattered her heart.
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Lola is your typical teenager, she makes a lot of choices that I wouldn't condone but can understand. And I love just how confident she is with herself.  She doesn't usually do things just to make others like her. She has her own drummer and she tries to follow it even if, to everyone one else, it's always a different beat.

I really liked this story. It turned out to have a lot of good messages about being nonjudgmental, what real love is, forgiveness and being happy with who you are and accepting what life has placed in your path...

In time I think I would want my daughter to read this but not until she was mature enough for it. It's not for pre-teens it's in the Young Adult category for a reason. It always drives me a little nuts seeing kids reading books that are not for their age group, subject matter wise..especially when their parents are the ones who give it to them. But that's another rant post for later...

Anyway, like I was saying. I really did enjoy this book...maybe because it made me want to break out of my shell a little bit and start being  my true self instead of what others expect me to be...plus, re-inspires me to start wearing more fun outfits and glitter!