Review: The Boys Next Door and Endless Summer by Jennifer Echols

Title: The Boys Next Door & Endless Summer
Author: Jennifer Echols
Page Count: 587 pages
Summary:
 The Boys Next Door: 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 girl friend to Adam may be even more important. And by trying so hard for the perfect summer romance, she could be going way overboard....

Endless Summer: The sequel to The Boys Next Door sees Adam and Lori happy together - until they fall asleep in his truck for an entire night. Lori and Adam can't stay away from each other, but they're forced to because of Lori's dad, who absolutely forbids it after they spend the entire night together. To make things worse, Adam will be sent to military school if he can't stay away from Lori. Told in alternating viewpoints, we get a peak into both character's personalities.


Review: Sorry for my craptastic summary of Endless Summer - I couldn't find an official one and I didn't want to copy another reviewer's! I'm gonna review these two books as one because they were packaged that way.

What I Liked: 

• Swoon! I don't know what it is about Jennifer Echols, but she makes me swoon like no other! Adam is gorgeous and he and Lori's scenes together have sparks absolutely flying off the page. It's rare that I get that dropped-out stomach feeling so many times in a book, but this one takes the cake!
• Characters! Again, I don't know how she does it, but Echols makes characters so real! They are so genuine and you can't help but like them - they seem like real people! Her characters are maybe some of the most believable that I've ever read.
• Adam. This part should probably be in the swoon category, but Adam get's his own, haha. I loved him, although he did get a little jealous and controlling in the second book, but I could totally look past that because that's how he is! Same with Lori - she's always making stupid plans that are so over the top but I think it's the flaws that made me like her.

What I Didn't Like: 

• Plot of Endless Summer? It was a little flimsy - I think this was just more to play with the characters than anything else, but that doesn't excuse the fact that the plot was just - Lori and Adam can't see each other! Ah! It kept me captivated because the writing made me swoony, but I was a little eh about the plot
• Adam being Adam! I know, I know. I was almost certain I wouldn't mention this, but Adam frustrated me so much! I can totally get where he was coming from, but sometimes he had these blinders that were all LORI LORI LORI and it made him jealous and overprotective. Lori can take care of herself. Well, kind of. But it just bothered me to see him get to jealous and then doubt her. 

Overall, I recommend Endless Summer but I liked Echols's other book, Forget You, more than this one. If you're gonna start with any one, start with that one! 

Romance: 4/5 stars
Overall: 3.8/5 stars