LOLA AT LAST By J.C. Peterson

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Lola at Last by J.C. Peterson
Published by HarperTeen on 2/28/23
Genres: Contemporary, Retellings, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 393
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Join Lola Barnes, a.k.a. a modern Lydia Bennet, at the beginning of a summer gone truly wrong: where a boat party-turned-fiery-fiasco ends with the ship, Lola’s summer plans, and her reputation truly sunk.

(The boat was barely on fire, for the record—and all the partygoers were just fine.)

Luckily, this disaster of a summer has another thing in store for her: a path of self-discovery she never saw coming.

Given an ultimatum—jail time, or spending the summer with the nonprofit Hike Like a Girl—she laces up her hiking boots and takes to the wilderness. Along the way, she’ll encounter unexpected friends, a sweet romance, strength she didn’t know she had—and herself, Lola, at last.

Short and Sweet Review

Lola’s summer is not off to a great start, the friends she thought she had want nothing to do with her and to make matters worse she ends up catching a boat on fire that belongs to her brother in law and sister. To pay for her mistakes Lola ends up having to join Hike Like a Girl, a nonprofit where she should rediscover herself and figure a lot of things out while out in the wilderness.

Lola at Last is the companion novel to Being Mary Bennet, in this book we meet the illustrious Lola who was shipped off to France but came back after that didn’t work for her. Anyway we see the aftermath of Lola being gone, her friends aren’t really her friends she’s like an outcast now trying to figure out how to fit in again. Lola uses humor as a coping mechanism but it comes off as if she really doesn’t care especially if she’s in the wrong. Lola has a way of making things about her and she needed a lot of character development. I think the Hike Like a Girl actually did Lola a lot of good, she needed to get away from the people she thought were her friends and just start fresh. Lola is not excited about joining HLAG at first she makes the experience pretty awful for the other girls with her temper tantrums and showing up late, but eventually she turns her attitude around and starts to make an effort. We also see Lola try to rekindle her relationship with her twin sister Kat which got strained when Lola went to France. There’s also a romance between Lola and Ezra and I thought this was a cute relationship. Ezra makes Lola want to try to be a better person but Ezra also has some doubts about if Lola can change from the reckless girl she used to be.

This was a pretty entertaining book, I liked reading about all of the hikes the girls are going on. I was worried that Lola wouldn’t have much character development, there was a lot of ups and downs with her behavior but eventually she figured out what kind of person she wanted to be and learned from her past mistakes. I liked the characters and the plot and Lola was a good character and I liked seeing her growth. Pick this book up, because it’s definitely a breath of fresh air, kind of makes me want to try hiking.