I wanted a book similar to Jenny Han's The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy. This one got pretty close to it, i enjoyed it. I like the summer contemporary love stories between teenagers. ( )

AH-mazing book!

This book is super amazing. It's one of my new favorites. I couldn't put it down. With all the amazing boys living right next door to her it wouldn't be hard to fall for one of them. There were great characters, a great plot, and overall just an amazing book. ( )

2015 Reading Challenge #34: A book with a love triangle.

¿Un romance tierno en donde el peor de los problemas es que el chico que te gusta no se fija en ti?

Si hubiese leído esto cuando tenía 15 años, probablemente me hubiese encantado. El problema es que ya no tengo 15 años y mi tolerancia a la estupidez es mucho menor. Y este libro tiene muchas estupideces, cortesía de Lori aka la protagonista.

Estupidez #1: Me trata mal porque me ama.

Desde el principio es evidente que Sean es un idiota, pero Lori está tan obsesionada con él que toma sus maltratos verbales como muestras de amor.

"He must have mentioned it because he was trying to hurt me. And if he’d tried to hurt me, he was in love with me and jealous of Adam."

Estupidez #2: Mi mamá lo eligió para mí.

Antes de morir, cuando Lori tenía 4 años, su madre un día vio a Sean y dijo:

"Just look at those eyes. He’s going to be a heartbreaker."

12 años después, Lori toma eso como una señal de que su madre lo eligió para ella.



Y no importa que Lori se de cuenta que realmente ama es a Adam y tampoco importa que se de cuenta que Sean es una basura persona, su mamá lo eligió para ella cuando tenía 4 años y ahora su mamá está muerta y debe honrar su memoria estando con él.



A pesar de todo eso voy a admitir que disfruté la lectura:
-La química entre Adam y Lori es bastante buena.
-Cuando Lori no está actuando patéticamente respecto a Sean, puede ser un poquito badass.
-Hay momentos divertidos. No del tipo riéndome-a-carcajadas, más bien como del tipo oh-eso-gracioso-supongo-que-sonreiré. Pero divertidos a fin de cuentas.
-Ese mini plot-twist en el último 5% definitivamente no me lo esperaba.

Además, tampoco era como si esperaba encontrar una historia acerca del significado de la vida (solo miren esa portada).

Recomendable sólo si quieres leer algo rápido y poco exigente emocional y mentalmente. ( )

Maybe I shouldn't have read Endless Summer and The Boys Next Door so close together, but because I did I was not enamored with the second book. I still loved the characters, but too many of their antics became grating. I felt like it was an extreme case of deja vu. Also, Echols stellar dialogue seemed missing for the most part from this book; was it because this one was more melodrmatic? Lori lowered in my opinion and maybe it was because Echols chose to tell this story with two povs. I know readers clamor for it, but really sometimes the readers are wrong. Two povs in a short novel can equal thin characters. If I had read Endless Summer on its own, I might have given an even lower rating. :( ( )

Jennifer Echols writes in a realm far above most other ya writers. The Boys Next Door, for instance, in other hands would probably be melodramatic or sappy. Echols, however, has a clever way with dialogue and thought and plot that removes her offerings immediately from the average. The girls are not whiny nor are they the same in every novel.

In The Boys Next Door Lori is not a typical teenage girl. She is pretty much one of the boys and likes being that until she feels she needs to act on her crush of many years and become girly. Lori isn't snide. She has a sense of humor and has a great rapport with her friends and family. She is flawed, but it's humorous and likeable.

A good summertime read! ( )