REVIEW: "The Boys Next Door" and "Endless Summer", by Jennifer Echols.

Title: The Boys Next Door and Endless Summer

Author: Jennifer Echols 

Format: Paperback

Pages: 279 

Release Date: June 26th 2007 

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Synopsis

Taken from Goodreads

Cute, available, and one cabin over....

Lori lives for summertime on the lake. She spends all season wakeboarding, swimming, and hanging with her friends—including the two hotties in the house next door. With the Vader brothers, Lori's always been one of the guys. 

But while Lori and the "baby" brother, Adam, are inseparable friends, she can't deny a secret crush on Sean, the older Vader boy. This year Sean's been paying Lori a lot of attention, and not in a brotherly way.

But just as Lori decides to prove to Sean she's girlfriend material, she realizes that her role as girlfriend to Adam may be even more important. And by trying so hard for the perfect summer romance, she could be going way overboard....

Review

I won this book in a giveaway ages ago. It is actually a set of two books: The Boys Next Door and Endless Summer. Just so's you know, I would not actually purchase a book with the title, The Boys Next Door. I don't generally go for books in which the central conflict is whether a fella is interested or not! A book should be able to survive without love interests. Case and point:

However, I was looking for something light to read in my garden on a sunny day and as the title of the twin-set was Endless Summer and the cover was nice, it seemed like a good choice. 

The first book in the duo was okay, but it really was just about a decidedly predictable love triangle. I enjoyed the bits about wake-boarding and rather fancy giving that a go, but the rest of it really was like a cheesy episode of some tween TV show. 

Lori, the main character, was vapid and selfish. She was one of those characters who had an unrealistic amount of bad ideas, never thought things through and never explained her ideas and intentions with the people whom would be affected. Most of the conflict of the book was engineered by her own stupidity. There were times when other were hurting and all she could think about was how if the situation might help her chances with the guy she fancied! I found her kind of appalling at times. 

The two brothers involved in the predictable triangle were Adam and Sean. Adam was the obvious partner for Lori and her crush on Sean was juvenile. I also disliked the way the brothers behaved towards each other and the way the parents were so forgiving of Sean, who was kind of an asshat. It made for irritating and unbelievable reading. 

Overall, though I don't sound too positive about this book, it was simply because it was aimed at a much younger reader. I am a big believer in the idea that YA books translate well for readers of any age. Middle Grade books, however, do not.

I have included the second book within this review because it carries on right after the first. However, by the time I was done with The Boys Next Door, I had had about all I could stomach of Lori. A few chapters into Endliess Summer, I realised that Lori hadn't matured at all and that it was going to be another book of semi-conflicts which where of her own engineering. I gave up and decided not to bother.

This is a pleasant enough read for a much younger reader who never had the joy of groaning at the ridiculous schemes of the Saved By The Bell kids! For them, this might hold something a bit more original!