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In The Boys Next Door, Lori’s got a mad plan to make this summer of boating on the lake the summer where she finally lands Sean Vader, (one of the aforementioned boys next door) whom she’s been crushing on for years. It’s his last summer before taking off for college, and Lori’s last chance to make him see her as a desirable woman instead of another little brother. Only Sean has other summer plans, ones that involve his younger brother Adam’s girlfriend Rachel to be exact.

Needless to say, the Vader boys don’t share well.

Faster than you can say Laguna Beach Lori’s entangled in a plot of soap opera proportions, pretending to hook up with her best friend, (the now jilted Vader brother) Adam, to create enough jealousy to breakup the Sean/Rachel love-fest. Only is it really pretending if she’s experiencing all those important firsts—first date, first make-out session—with Adam and not Sean? And if Sean does come around to the new and improved Lori, how will it affect her relationship with Adam?

Let me be clear, The Boys Next Door is an enjoyable read that is not a retelling of Major Crush, although they do share some similar themes. These similarities—Lori and Crush’s Virginia’s attempts to reshape how they are perceived by those around them, the fact that each girl views another girl as a rival for the object of her affections, and that both are involved in love triangle situations—are indicative of the Young Adult genre and are given the freshness necessary to cause both books to stand out from comparable titles. While Virginia tosses her ultra-feminine past of pageants aside for the more masculine role of drum major, Lori does the opposite. By embracing her girlishness, she hopes to attract Sean, become someone worth noticing in the eyes of the student body, and live up to what she believes to be the wishes of her late mother. In the relationship rivalry department, Crush’s Reardon twins remain a rather one-dimensional evil, while Sean’s new (and Adam’s old) girl, Rachel, proves to be someone with actual depth (although given that this story is narrated by Lori and not Rachel, it’s understandable why this depth is not fully explored). Meanwhile the love triangles in both stories have the girls serving as different focus points. Whereas Virginia crushed on (and eventually became the girlfriend of) Drew while her best friend Walter suffered unrequited feeling for her, Boys casts Lori in the Walter role with the twist being the introduction of Adam’s feeling, which essentially upgrade the love triangle to a love square.

Now having gone into detail explaining away the few similarities between the novels, I will admit I was unable to stop mentally comparing The Boys Next Door to Major Crush while I read. Major Crush’s vivid characters and dynamic interactions have stayed with me despite the fact it has been a year since I finished the book, and this intruded upon my enjoyment of Echols’ newest novel. Some of this is due to the fact I immediately identified more closely with Virginia’s decision to say screw it to popularity and embrace doing what she liked than with Lori’s blindness to her own needs in the face of what she saw as the destiny her mother had set forth for her. Lori’s single-mindedness in her pursuit of her mother’s “dream” for her—and Sean’s place within this as well as the appeal of the popularity a relationship with him could provide—never felt fully explained to me and remained the true source of my slight discontent. Despite the fact that Adam calls attention to it throughout the story, Lori’s adherence to this “destiny” for so long even as she acknowledges that she doesn’t like the results feels forced.

Had I read The Boys Next Door before Major Crush I can say with certainty that my review would appear no where near as critical as it does. Lori and Adam are appealing characters (with amazingly hot chemistry) in a fun story that I really did enjoy. The setup behind their “pretend” relationship would have felt ludicrous in the hands of a less talented storyteller, and more than manages to make you smile instead of rolling your eyes at its acknowledged Laguna Beach drama. But where Major Crush didn’t shy from the ups and downs within the main relationship, Boys flinches in the end. This flinch is magnified in the legacy that Crush left behind.

Yes, both girls are appealing characters who travel the whole spectrum of emotions within their stories, but Lori’s journey never felt as organic as those in Major Crush. While her romantic feelings towards the men in her life follow a natural progression, the result of the fallout of the Sean/Rachel breakup felt forced. Having acknowledged her true feelings, Lori’s actions with him at the last party and their inevitable result could have been averted. Granted a lot can be (fairly) attributed to the fact that communication isn’t easy—especially when you’re dealing with teenagers—but in the face of what happened I expected more. Instead, the ending with the apologies and roses seemed a bit too romancy and lacking the realness that Echols’ has proven to be so good at providing.

That said, if you are looking for a fun, fast read, do not hesitate to check out what The Boys Next Door has to offer, Echols’ once again manages to provide her trademark wit and freshness to create a story that stands out in the Young Adult pack. Still, but if you are looking for another Major Crush please realize that you may come away from the reading experience slightly disappointed.

You can find The Boys Next Door here and here, and learn more about Jennifer Echols and all her books here.