Category: Books

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

It has been a while since I’ve written a long book review but while reading this book I felt like I needed to vent so here it is. This book was not my favourite. And maybe I should have stopped reading it but honestly by the time I was fed up with it I was already too far gone so I had to finish it.

One of the red flags for me is that this book centres around a family of tennis players and it turns out I don’t reading about tennis lol. I listened to the audiobook of Carrie Soto Is Back last year and it’s all about tennis, and while I thought that was fine, reading a second book about tennis cemented that it’s not for me. I’m not a sports girlie and I guess that also extends to reading about it.

Aside from the tennis, it took me a while to get into this book. I thought the first few chapters were interesting, hearing about a woman going missing through the people who were eavesdropping on the woman’s family but after that, the book started to drag.

Continue reading “Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty Review” →

I Started a Reading Journal!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

After watching a few videos about people starting reading journals, I decided to treat myself and start one of my own. I say treat myself because there was no way I was going to be doing this without stickers. I am not an artist so drawing is going to be kept to a minimum but I still want my journal to look cute so that’s why I’ve decided to use stickers.

I made a video documenting setting up my journal and it turned out really cute! I am really excited to start filling out my journal. I just need to figure out how I want my monthly layouts to look.

I am also hoping I can keep on top of this and it doesn’t end up being something I am constantly catching up on like my sticker planning. But since I don’t read many books per month so it should be fine. But yeah I just thought it would be a bit of fun and something different for the year.

I will probably share more content related to my reading journal soon as I think it’s fun. Probably more videos or even short form content – I recently made two reels! – so definitely look forward to that. Worst case there will just be some pictures on my blog but that’ll still be good. 

If you want to follow me on my reading journey I track my reading digitally on Goodreads and Storygraph as well so please feel free to follow me there! Otherwise stay tuned for a flipthrough of my reading journal at the end of the year.

My 2024 Wrapped!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Since Spotify Wrapped became a huge thing and companies realised that people like stats, I have quite a lot of year-end stats things and so I thought I would put them all here in one place! When I started physical journalling, I have also been printing these out and putting them in my journal to mark the end of the year, so I thought why not also put them on my blog? I shared them on Twitter and Bluesky too but I think it’s kind of nice to have them all in one place. So here its, my 2024 wrapped:

Spotify

Starting off with Spotify you can see my top artist is Taylor Swift. This is a surprise to no one because Taylor has been my top Spotify artist every year since 2018 lol. That being said she did have some competition this year from Sabrina Carpenter, I just love Taylor’s music. She is a constant go-to for me and I went to see the Eras tour this year so of course I was going to be listening to her non-stop.

Other top artists are usually a surprise to me because I don’t know anyone I listen to more than Taylor lol. Sabrina Carpenter kind of creeped up on me because I started listening to her heavily in the second half of the year. Don’t think she’ll take the top spot from Taylor though. But we’ll see how 2025 plays out.

As for top songs, I really thought Espresso would be there as it was for so many people but I suppose it didn’t grab me quite as much as I thought. I’m not surprised that 3 of the songs are Taylor’s because I’m obsessed. It seems I enjoy You’re On Your Own Kid as much as Taylor did on the Eras tour (she played it as a surprise song A LOT). And I really loved Not my Fault which was released as part of the Mean Girls movie soundtrack. When I first heard it in January I knew I’d be listening to it non-stop and there it is on the stats lol.

The only prediction I have for 2025 is Taylor will still be top and I will continue to listen to all the same artists, I always challenge myself to try to find new songs to listen to but I like my staples, which include Taylor, some KPop and usually the Glee or Nashville casts lol. Less so Glee over the years but I can’t deny the Gleek phase I had all those years ago.

Nintendo

Next up, we have Nintendo Switch! I never know with Nintendo what my stats are going to be because I feel like I don’t play my Switch that often. I mean I go through phases, which is what you can see from my hours played by months but I don’t consistently play it. If this was the pandemic, it was a different story lol but this year was very hit or miss.

I started the year playing a lot because I had gotten new games at Christmas, Fashion Dreamer and Super Mario Wonder. Though I have to admit I have not played Wonder since the first few months of the year, I think I felt like I was making too much progress so just stopped instead of slowing down lol. And then I have played Fashion Dreamer here and there, though the game doesn’t actually have much to it and initially I wasn’t sure I liked it, I have enjoyed occasionally playing and dressing up.

But overall, most of my time has been spent in Animal Crossing, I picked it up again towards the second half of the year and have been enjoying it. Animal Crossing will always be a staple for me when it comes to gaming. And even though I was experiencing some burnout from the game in recent years, I like to pick it up every now and then because there’s nothing more calming than walking around the island and doing daily tasks and having routine. That being said, I would love to see my island in the daytime every now and then, considering the only time I get to play is in the evening lol.

Predictions for 2025 include me just playing more Animal Crossing probably. Though I did get MySims at Christmas so could see that peeking up – moreso MySims Kingdom I think lol. Oh and the Hello Kitty Adventure game is coming to Switch which I absolutely will be getting as well. So maybe the Switch will have some interesting stats – we’ll see.

Steam

Most of the time my Steam recap is nothing to write home about because I don’t really PC game. But this year we actually had some interesting stats!

One of the other reasons why my Nintendo Switch gaming fell off after February was because Stardew Valley had a massive update on PC. I do own Stardew Valley on Switch as well, but the update did not get ported to Switch until like November or something so I was playing Stardew on PC. I hadn’t played in a couple years so I forgot how addicting it can be just to be on the farm. Plus, I remember work being very stressful during March/April time and Stardew Valley was a perfect escape lol.

Along with Stardew, I was playing Coral Island at the start of the year, it also got tossed to the side for Stardew because I like to only play one farming sim at a time. Though I would like to revisit Coral Island because it’s had a lot of updates this year so must check it out.

I know Two Point Campus is here but I do not remember playing it very much and then I had a short-lived PlateUp stint with my brother and niece. Even though I enjoy PlateUp it will not compete with Overcooked in my eyes. And Virtual Cottage was a game I downloaded in December to help me focus on tasks – which was cute but I only got it because I didn’t want to pay for Spirit City: Lofi Sessions. But then I got Spirit City in a humble bundle at the end of December so expect to be seeing that on my Steam replay next year for sure lol.

Not sure what my Steam replay will be next year to be honest, like I said I’m not really a PC gamer and Sims doesn’t count, because it’s on EA and EA do not do a year-end stats thing. Though I would love to know about how much I actually play the Sims throughout the year because I go through phases with it as I do with everything else haha.

StoryGraph

This year I had a goal of 35 books, which I thought would be doable because I read 35 books last year. What I did not account for was that last year I wasn’t driving, so I was always on public transport and reading then but when I’m driving I can’t read lol. And I know people listen to audiobooks when driving but I can’t do that, I need to focus on the road so yeah a lot of my reading time went out the window.

That being said I did make the goal, but only because I forced myself to really stay on-task and read 5 books in December. No easy feat but thanks to a couple of audiobooks I did reach the goal. That being said, I have said a smaller goal for 2025 lol. Reading isn’t supposed to be stressful so I need to reset my expectations.

Feel like there’s not a lot to say about my reading stats, if you’ve been following my blog then you know Cecily von Ziegesar is my top author because I was reading the It Girl series. And typically, when you read a book series that author is going to be the top lol.

My hope for 2025 is to clear out some more reads I picked from Amazon Prime monthly freebies because I have so many of them. But also just finding more books I enjoy in general. Also I think I need to remember to stop reading books if I don’t enjoy them, like did I really need to read the It Girl series to completion if I wasn’t enjoying it? Probably not. So yeah definitely don’t waste time reading something if I don’t like it, even if I am trying to reach a reading goal lol.

Serializd

This is a new one to add to the stats so I started tracking my TV shows on Serializd in 2024. I started tracking movies/TV shows on Trakt forever ago but they only do a recap if you pay for premium which I do not. But Serializd is more like Letterboxd just for TV shows and I enjoy it because it lets me leave reviews and see other people’s.

So this is interesting to me, it says Gossip Girl is my most watched show but I feel like I watched way more Below Deck than Gossip Girl. When I started logging Gossip Girl I was already halfway through my rewatch, so I’m not sure how they worked this out. Like you’re telling me the last 3 seasons of Gossip Girl has more episodes than all of Lucifer? Because I watched that whole series this year…

Yeah not sure how accurate the stats are with this, and if it counts episodes you’ve marked as watched vs ones you actually review or what. But the point is, I have watched a lot of TV this year lol.

Highlights of TV this year that I remember include: a lot of Below Deck and Below Deck: Med – it is very easy to binge so I enjoy it a lot. That being said I’m almost caught up on it so I’ll be sad when there’s nothing to binge. I also did try a Nashville rewatch but dropped it because it’s a lot more depressing than I remember and I couldn’t handle it with all the stress going on in my real life lol. I watched a lot of one-off random things as well which I think I will make a recently watched post about – if I remember.

Things I think I will be watching in 2025 – Gilmore Girls, I started a rewatch so I have to finish it lol. Probably will rewatch something else at some point because you know I love a rewatch of a comfort show. There’s nothing new on the horizon I think I’m that interested in but me and my fiance have picked up the Mentalist again (after watching 3 seasons in 2023 and stopping) so we will be finishing that in 2025 for sure. If I find anything noteworthy I’m sure I’ll post about it online haha.

And this concludes my 2024 wrapped! Obviously this is just a small portion of what my year amounted to. 2024 was an incredible year for me with a lot of highs so I will probably make a highlights post in the coming days as well. I usually always have some sort of recap of the year on my blog so of course this year will not be an exception.

I am also feeling very inspired as I often do at the start of the year, so I am going to try to blog more here on top of the 20 other things I want to accomplish this year lol. Whether it happens or not we will see but I am hoping to be around here more. Even if it’s just a little check-in I think it would be good to keep updated. After all, can’t really call myself a blogger if I don’t blog right? Anyway, that’s all for now. Will be back with more soon!

Classic (It Girl #10) by Cecily von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I have finally made it! The last book!

This series has really been hit or miss for me and in reality, it’s been a lot more miss than hit. I wanted to like it but it did not capture the same vibe as Gossip Girl. These books are definitely for the tween market, making me absolutely not the demographic but I got them on sale real cheap on Amazon so why not read them anyway?

Also I found out that these books were written by a ghost writer, which really explains why they don’t give the same feel as the Gossip Girl books. The few books in the Gossip Girl series which were ghost written were terrible, the writer does not manage to capture the characters as well as the original author. Who knew?

But anyway, we have made it to the end and you know what? This wasn’t actually bad. I dare say I even enjoyed this one a bit. This one did give me some of those silly Gossip Girl-esque vibes which I’ve been looking for and I am glad, because I don’t think I’ve felt this way since book 2. So I’m glad we are ending on a high.

It is Valentine’s Day at Waverly and everyone has signed up online to this ‘Perfect Match’ website, which means they are matched up with someone else on campus. So obviously we have a lot of drama with our matches which are outlined below:

  • Jenny and Julien
  • Brett and Isaac
  • Isla and Sebastian
  • Tinsley and Heath
  • Callie and Alan
  • Brandon and some girl whose name I don’t remember lol (soz girlie)

So let’s dissect these further shall we? First off, thought there would be more weirdness with Jenny and Julien but they were fine. Also expected Tinsley to be annoyed about this little union like in the past but she is too busy trying to get revenge on Isla to notice lol. Not that Jenny and Julien are really anything because Jenny is dating Isaac, the Dean’s son, but they still have to honour their perfect match matches.

Not much to report on Jenny and Julien but Brett was learning a lot about Isaac. She thought she would scope him out for Jenny and report back what a good guy he was. Sadly for Brett, she sees a text on Isaac’s phone which reveals him to be less than a perfect gentleman. Aka he’s got a secret girlfriend! He promises Brett not to say anything and that he is totally going to tell Jenny….but you can guess how that goes.

Honestly, you’d think maybe one Waverly matchup would work out for Jenny but no. Isaac did not break up with his girlfriend and so she shows up at the Valentine’s dance and there’s a scene. Jenny is heartbroken and dumps Isaac plus is mad at Brett. But Jenny doesn’t stay mad at Brett because they are besties and it’s the last book so we can’t go out with unresolved drama.

Besides, Brett has bigger problems when she finds out her boyfriend Sebastian is matched up with Isla. Isla is the Dean’s daughter and Tinsley’s nemesis after she fell through the roof and blamed Tinsley for it. So while Isla has been throwing herself at Sebastian, Brett has been teaming up with Tinsley to take Isla down.

They both do some digging and find out that Isla was not always the bad girl that she pretends to be. Turns out she was a massive geek at her old school so Tinsley and Brett decide to use the old photos they found of her to embarrass her at the Valentine’s dance. Sadly, it backfires, and Isla turns out still looking good, everyone seeming to respect her transformation. Even Tinsley is impressed despite everything.

I thought this whole Isla story could potentially be more interesting. When I found out her past was not what was expected my mind went to the worst. Her being a geek was very lame. It kind of reminded me of Mean Girls 2 where they make fun of a girl being a virgin…it’s like get with the times please. I was hoping for more drama as always but I suppose it couldn’t get too wild in the last book. They still needed to wrap everything up.

As for Brett and Sebastian…well Sebastian isn’t pleased with Brett when she lets her jealousy get the best of her…again. I mean in the last book they literally had the same fight but this time Sebastian breaks up with her. This lasts all of five seconds though when Brett realises she loves him.

Honestly, annoyed that their whole relationship consisted of fighting and making up again. As is most of the relationships in this series, like can’t any of these girls just keep a man down lol. I wish something else had been going on with them if only because it’s the last book. I think it would have been nice to have at least one steady couple.

In terms of Heath and Tinsely, not much to report. Just Tinsley being annoyed when Heath wasn’t drooling all over her and was really all about Isla. But in the end Heath is who he always is and he and Tinsley remain friends with a flirtatious edge.

If anything I am really surprised that in this series, we ever saw Heath and Kara reconcile. I thought it would be nice to see Heath actually be in a relationship. Especially as it looked like he actually really cared about her and then done something stupid to cause the breakup. But it was forgotten as quickly as it started and then Kara faded into the background as she was no longer useful to the main characters. It was a shame.

Lastly what we have to talk about is my least favourite love triangle ever, Easy, Callie and Brandon. So Easy lands back at school but Callie is with Brandon now and he can’t just swoop in and everything go back to the way it was. But even though Brandon and Callie are together, they do not get matched up as perfect matches. Callie is matched with Alan, Easy’s stoner roommate and Brandon is matched with a random girl he’s never met before.

Naturally, Brandon does not care for his match, he is more interested in keeping Callie locked down. But what he doesn’t know is that Easy and Callie have definitely met up in secret and kissed. Easy, having learnt his lesson from the last time though doesn’t want to do anything more with Callie until she breaks up with Brandon so Callie agrees to do so but she’s finding it harder to do than she thought. Apparently now is the time when she is debating on who she should be with even though I thought she’d be jumping straight back into Easy’s arms without a second thought to Brandon.

Callie’s dilemma is causing her to stress out and so she decides to spill the tea to Alan, her perfect match to see if he has any advice for her. His advice is for her to dump both boys and see which one fights for her, and that’s the one that she should be with. Cut to the dance when both boys are trying to do just that, but realise Callie dumped them both over email and they agree to call a truce and leave Callie on her own. Brandon even decides to give the girl he’s matched with a chance.

Predictably, Callie is not left by herself for long because Easy does eventually come to her and the two get back together. Which is the biggest eye roll of the century honestly, they were breaking up and getting back together every other book and the drama wasn’t even interesting. So I’m glad to be done with them.

The book finishes in an epilogue where everyone is heading their separate ways for the summer and Jenny is reflecting on what a wild and fun year she has had at Waverly. And this concludes the It Girl series.

Like I said in the beginning, I am definitely not the demographic for these books lol but they were fine to read. Nothing crazy or overly dramatic happened which I feel I was missing but I think I’m just spoiled from the dramatics of the Gossip Girl TV show. That being said, even if I did read these at 13 I think I would’ve been a little disappointed. I’m amazed they managed to stretch a whole school year into ten books tbh if the series had been half the size it probably would’ve been more enjoyable.

But it’s finished now and I can move on to other things, like frantically trying to read 3 more books to complete my reading goal this year lol. Wish me luck x

Devious (It Girl #9) by Cecily von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

We have two new students at Waverly and they are providing a little bit of fresh air. Sort of.

It’s now January in Waverly and everyone is working on a project for ‘Jan Plan’ which is basically an excuse for the students to do whatever they want since they have no classes.

In this one we are introduced to a new girl and boy who are the children to the new Dean. So first up, we have Isla who is our classic troublemaker. She instantly befriends Tinsley and convinces her to help with her Jan Plan project. The two hit it off as Tinsley is also one to be a bit of a troublemaker, plus her relationship with Julien was getting a bit boring so she was thankful for a distraction.

Honestly, was expecting something a bit more scandalous for them than photoshoots wearing random clothes in domestic situations but is what it is. Things turn south for Tinsley when she not only breaks up with Julien but also gets in trouble with the Dean as Isla’s ideas for the photoshoot go too far.

Isla thinks it’s a good idea to go up onto the roof and take photos but Tinsley thinks it’s a bad idea. Isla doesn’t care and goes up onto the roof and ends up falling through the skylight. Yeah. This was wild to me honestly. I don’t know what I was expecting but it was not a girl falling through a roof. But here we are. Anyway, Isla is fine as she lands in the arms of a familiar stranger, but is quick to turn on the waterworks and blame Tinsley for the accident in front of her father.

Gotta love a girl who thinks on her feet. Naturally Tinsley is pissed but all she really want to do is make up with Julien. Too bad for her that Julien is not interested in hearing her excuses and so they break up for good. Which, I guess was bound to happen. I mean I think it would have been nice to see her keep a boyfriend but it just wasn’t meant to be.

Also that stranger that saved Isla? Easy Walsh of course. We thought he was gone for good when Callie dumped him in New York but I guess not…and you all already know I dislike him so I was not happy about this.

Speaking of Callie, she was trying to find someone new to date and finally move on from Easy but she just ended up hooking up with Brandon…again. Brandon and Callie were together before she got with Easy and he’s been in love with her ever since. Even though Brandon has a girlfriend, that does not stop Callie from throwing herself at Brandon and him inevitably giving in.

Brandon’s girlfriend sees him cheat on her with Callie because Brandon was in the middle of video calling his girlfriend when Callie burst in and kissed him so now his relationship is over but at least he has Callie…for now. Just wait til she finds out about Easy…honestly this is not my favourite love triangle, if only because it legit wasn’t really a triangle because Callie and Easy were together and Brandon was just pining over Callie but I am looking forward to it being over.

As for Brett, she is finding out that her new love interest, Sebastian, had been hooking up with A LOT of girls before she came on the scene and she was PISSED. And was on the verge of breaking up with him until he told her that he was breaking it off with all the other girls because the only person he wanted to be with was Brett. Which is cute and I actually want Sebastian and Brett to work out, but at the same time they have only been dating for five minutes so I am not sure what actually happens with them.

And finally we have Jenny, who is getting in close with the Dean’s son, Isaac. He convinces his dad to let Jenny work on her Jan Plan project solo which is usually not allowed for junior pupils which automatically makes him a keeper for her. And they hit it off so well they throw a house party together, the very same one where Isla fell through the roof.

Obviously after a commotion, the campus police are called as Isla’s fall causes security alarms to go off. Everyone scatters from the party but the Dean is able to identify people from their belongings they left behind in haste. Everyone that is, except for Jenny Humphrey. Looks like her flirtation with Isaac has saved her from getting into trouble, which makes her super disliked by everyone.

Feeling guilty about the situation, Jenny actually goes to the dean to confess she was the one who threw the party just so she could get in trouble with everyone else. Lame but expected for Jenny.

And that is where we leave things. Almost everyone in trouble and in lockdown for the rest of January.

This book was fine. I was hoping for more drama with the new kids to be honest. I mean sure, falling through a roof is drama but like it wasn’t enough for me lol. On the bright side there is only one book left and so the series will be done. I will admit this series is definitely a tween one and young for me to be reading but I thought since the Gossip Girl books were fun and scandalous this would be the same. I was wrong. But I’ve come this far so I can’t give up now lol. See you for the finale!

Adored (It Girl #8) by Cecily Von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

It’s Christmas at Waverly! Thanksgiving forgotten, everyone is back in school and trying to find the perfect gift for their secret Santa. Or rather secret satan.

Honestly, this book was a hot mess lol. Brett gets roped into organising secret Santa and a Christmas party and is not having any fun at all. Meanwhile Heath decides to turn this secret Santa thing into secret Satan so everyone is buying each other sex toys and sending male strippers to class and it’s very chaotic. How no one got expelled is beyond me. But it’s just the lives of rich teenagers innit?

So in between hearing about everyone’s outrageous or boring presents, we have Brett’s new love interest Sebastian cleaning his act up to try to get the attention of the other girls at Waverly to make Brett jealous. And he succeeds. Sebastian ends up going out with Callie, who is looking for a new boyfriend ever since she was dumped by Easy. This does not last long because Callie is hoping to transform Sebastian into the perfect boyfriend and Sebastian is about none of that. Long story short, Sebastian and Brett end up together and Callie is single. But she actually ends up accepting that?

Not that I buy that for a second, Callie will definitely have a new boyfriend soon, she’s not the kind of person who can be without a man.

Meanwhile Tinsley finally thinks everything is perfect with Julian, until he mentions the fact he’s not a virgin anymore. This causes Tinsley to spiral and assume the worst – aka that Jenny is the one he lost his virginity to. This makes sense because it’s a teen drama and this always happens. It causes Tinsley to be mean to Jenny again and also to dump Julian because she can’t be with him when he’d supposedly been with Little Jenny Humphrey. Ugh.

This does not last long because Jullian clarifies that he was not with Jenny and was with an old girlfriend from junior high and Tinsley convinces herself it doesn’t count so all is well in the world. And she becomes friends with Jenny again.

I was actually expecting more from Tinsley to be honest. I think I’ve always wanted her to be a true mean girl but in reality, none of these girls are that. Like when we started this series I was expecting some TV show Blair Waldorf or Alison DiLaurentis type drama but none of that exists here and it’s sad. I think if we had that, the series would be way more interesting. But it is what it is.

The only other thing going on was Jenny feeling like a reality TV star when these freshman girls decide to film her for a school project. Ultimately nothing happens with this because even though the freshman girls realise Jenny is not as wonderful as she thinks she is, and upload an embarrassing compilation of her online, she’s still the most popular girl in school when she has friends like Tinsley, Brett and Callie.

So all is right in the world. The book ends with the four girls living their best lives dancing on a table and despite how average this series has been, I do appreciate the moments where the girlies are getting along. This one also hints that we are in for a treat in the next book – new students at Waverly. It’s either going to be good or bad or average but it was getting a little boring around here. Let’s see how the new people shake it up. I’m hoping for something good but am also excited about wrapping up this series and moving onto something else lol.

Infamous (It Girl #7) by Cecily von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

It’s a Thanksgiving special! Though not as exciting as the Thanksgiving episode of Gossip Girl. But it was interesting to read about the girls somewhere other than Waverly.

Tinsley, Jenny and Callie are headed to the city for the holidays and instead of spending Thanksgiving with their families, they end up at a party being thrown by a fellow Waverly Owl. Classic. Though probably more interesting than actual Thanksgiving with the fam.

First off, Callie plans to stay in NYC because she finds this letter from Easy in her bag and he leaves her a promise ring and she’s so excited, she’s practically planning her wedding. Yawn. I was over this relationship since the first book. Thankfully for me though, Callie also seems over the relationship lol. By the time she is meant to meet Easy on the top of the Empire State building (hello Chuck and Blair vibes) she realises she isn’t ready to be in that serious of a relationship and so dumps his ass. Honestly, I’m glad.

I take it this means Easy is out of the picture for good considering he was shipped off to military school or whatever and snuck out to be with Callie. And now she doesn’t want him so. I think it’s over. He better not try winning her back again because we have been on this rollercoaster for too long and I don’t care for it lol.

Next we learn that Jenny and Tinsley can actually be good friends to each other? Who knew? I like this friendship though hopefully it keeps up. Tinsley gives Jenny some advice to not fall in love with every guy she meets after five minutes and to just have fun. Which, Jenny tries to but naturally she finds this cute guy at the party she hits it off with. Cue the eye rolls. I imagine he sticks around for the next book but can’t see him lasting longer than that.

Meanwhile, Tinsley comes face to face with an old rival at the Thanksgiving party – Sleigh Monroe-Hill. I know her name is literally slay. Apparently she was a bigger bitch than Tinsley when she was at Waverly, throwing all of Tinsley’s belongings out their 4th floor window and ruining it all. Yikes.

I was expecting major drama between Sleigh and Tinsley but it was so lack lustre. All that happened was Sleigh trying to convince Julian (the freshman Tinsley was in love with before he hooked up with Jenny and Tinsley set fire to that barn lol) that she is the better match for him than Tinsley. Yawn. And she doesn’t even have to try hard to be a nicer girl than Tinsley.

The only thing that made Julian realise Sleigh was a fake was him mentioning that he’d hooked up with Tinsley before and I guess Sleigh went a bit psycho? Nothing crazy though. I mean it sounded very tame. I was expecting way more for an ex-nemesis appearing. I needed more sneaky girl fighting and drama. But there was nothing. Just Tinsley pretending to be nice for five minutes and Sleigh just existing. Ugh.

While the girls are going through all of this in NYC, Brett is in Jersey with her family who are acting so normal and boring because her sister has brought the in-laws over for the holidays and is trying to make a good impression. In typical cliche fashion, Brett tries everything she can to expose to the in-laws the truth about who her family really is to scare them off. She succeeds but at what cost? She ends up apologising to her sister and making up. Nothing super crazy here either.

I suppose it was good to see Brett embrace her family and their nouveau-riche tackiness. And she has a new love interest – Seb, this Jersey boy who she would usually be repulsed by but she realises he’s actually not that bad. Again, not sure how long he will last as a love interest but we will go along with it for now.

And last but not least we had an adventure with the boys – Heath and Brandon. Basically, Brandon’s girlfriend Sage breaks up with him for not being masculine enough – yeah the early 2000s are wild. So Heath decides him and Brandon should stay on campus to try and hook up with one of the teachers’ twin daughters. It’s so random but I didn’t hate their side story. From the experience, Heath realises he still misses Kara and Brandon I think just is proud of himself for hooking up lol.

And so that is where we are at the end of Thanksgiving. Honestly, this one was fine. I mean the whole series has been fine lol. I guess I expected some more drama or something and I know I am so not the target demographic for these books, but even if I was reading this at fifteen I know I’d need more drama. But it’s fine. Three books left. Still not sure where we leave this unless somehow Jenny ends up being expelled or something but we’ll see. Here’s hoping something a little more interesting happens soon as well lol.

Tempted (It Girl #6) by Cecily Von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

This one was kind of boring. None of the storylines sold me and that sucks.

So the book opens with a Halloween ball. Fresh off of the Miller farm fire and Jenny being saved from expulsion, we are getting ready for a party. Yay. Sadly this party does not serve as anything except for a way to show Jenny is the new Queen Bee in town. Eh.

I mean I usually like a Waverly party, they mean chaos and scandal but we didn’t get very much of either. Just Jenny winning the costume contest over Tinsley – which to me wasn’t too hard if Tinsley arrived late and no one had time to even notice her. And then Kara and Heath showing off as the new It couple – which by the way is so gross. And the only other thing worth mentioning is Easy being annoyed at Callie and them breaking up – AGAIN lol.

So yeah, nothing crazy. And the party is over before we know it.

We do get this random drama where Easy is drunk and climbing a tree which then crashes into the window at Dumbarton causing a lot of flooding lol. No idea what that’s about but it basically gives us five minutes of Brett being forced to room with Kara because Kara’s room flooded. Though nothing dramatic happens there.

Really all that drama surrounding Kara and Brett was so disappointing. I thought we were going to get real LGBT love here but all we got was them kissing a bit and then Brett deciding she still loved Jeremiah and Kara hooking up with Heath. Ugh lame.

What ends up happening is that Brett lied to Jeremiah and said she never kissed or hooked up with Kara and he finds out the truth and dumps her. Because there’s nothing we love more than a man who’s insecure about his girlfriend’s sexuality. And Kara ends up dumping Heath because he exposes a secret of Brandon’s and she’s not cool with that. So not sure where they go next but I hope Brett and Kara don’t go back to going out again because I don’t need it. Not that I need another Brett and Jeremiah makeup either lol. Bring some new love interests in please.

Speaking of annoying on/off again couples we have Easy and Callie. Bleh. At the Halloween party Easy tells Callie she’s a spoiled brat and this causes her to spiral – as always. So Callie flees from the party to go to a spa which her mother has arranged for her to go to which is sus AF.

And it is sus because Callie is not going to a spa, she is actually going to a rehab lol. It is a real tough one which involves sending the girls out alone in the middle of winter to fend for themselves for the night? Wild. Anyway yeah basically Callie thinks she’s going to die there but then Easy swoops in and saves the day. Lame.

Though it also looks like Easy is in trouble with the Dean because he was not supposed to leave campus but he did to rescue Callie. But honestly, don’t see him leaving. Like, he’s annoying and his relationship with Callie is one of the things I dislike most about this series but he’s a main character. He does not disappear. Despite the fact I wish he would. The drama with him and Callie is so dull and repetitive.

That brings us into Jenny and Tinsley’s story. I know, they have a story together can you even believe?

So Jenny meets this boy at the Halloween party who is pretending that he is the one that paid off the Millers and stopped her from getting expelled but we know it can’t be him because well, it doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t last because Jenny finds out it was actually Callie who saved her. Yeah I know, Callie, the roommmate that hates her! Who would’ve thought?

That’s the reason Callie gets sent to rehab, because Callie asked her mom for money and her mom assumed it was for drugs lol. So Callie sends an SOS to Tinsley and when Tinsley is on her way to rescue Callie, Jenny runs into her and decides to tag along.

The girls unsuccessfully try to get to Callie but get stuck in the snow – so Jenny texts Easy and he manages to rescue Callie. And while Jenny and Tinsley are stuck together then Tinsley realises that Jenny isn’t all bad after all. So they’re friends now? But for how long?

And that’s where we end things. It just seemed a bit of a let down to be honest. Nothing was really gripping me. Even Callie being away at rehab was interesting for maybe half a second, her being rescued by Easy was so boring for me. That being said, if Easy somehow does get expelled I would love to see it but I fear that won’t happen.

On the bright side, I am looking forward to all the girlies being friends for once, my guess is it won’t last that long but I just feel like we need some positive girl vibes and fun. So I hope we get more silliness in the next one. In the meantime, I’ve taken a break from the series for a bit to read some other things, but I’ll be back soon! There’s only a few more books so I hope to finish this series out before the end of the year.

Lucky (It Girl #5) by Cecily Von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

This one started out boring but had redeeming moments at the end. Honestly, the first half was really dull for me.

Everyone was reeling over the aftermath of the fire which I mean why wouldn’t you be? Especially when the Dean is out for blood.

Not much to report other than Tinsley and Callie trying to get rid of Jenny. Though Callie flip-flops on it because she doesn’t want to look bad in front of Easy but ultimately decides Jenny needs to go.

To really convince the Dean that Jenny is responsible for the fire Tinsley enlists the help of a prospective student who is visitng Waverly for the week. The perspective happens to be none other than the Dean’s niece Chloe.

Nothing too crazy here, Tinsley and Callie just feed Chloe a story about how Jenny was the one who started the fire. It didn’t help that while Chloe was in art class with Jenny she ended up drawing a photo of the fire. Talk about incriminating yourself.

Everything comes to a head when everyone is sitting in the Dean’s office. The Dean has decided instead of doing the usual thing where everyone pleads their case and he decides who is guilty he is going to let them sort it out between themselves. Fun.

This was actually the most interesting part and the whole time I was reading I was begging it not to become a breakfast club scenario. Though they already made a breakfast club reference before so it couldn’t be that.

The discussion got heated as Tinsley entered in as the main character ready to point all suspicion towards Jenny.

All the time reading I was waiting for something to happen where someone would defend Jenny or call Tinsley’s motives into question but it didn’t happen. Everyone sat in silence as Tinsley ran her ideas by the group and by the end it seemed everyone was beginning to agree with her.

When the Dean enters the scene and asks who would like to confess Jenny wastes no time speaking up. Again I’m shook because I thought despite Tinsley’s pushing and everyone else’s silence someone else would’ve spoke up and said something. Not even Julian spoke up in a gentlemanly gesture to protect Jenny.

So Jenny is packing up to leave and she is trying to convince herself it’s a good thing. Why would she wanna be friends with a bunch of people who didn’t even try to defend her to the Dean? She was ready to leave and not have to deal with Tinsley bitch Charmichael ever again…

Until the Dean chases her down and says the owner of the barn is insisting that the cows were actually responsible for the fire and that Jenny is no longer expelled. Yeah. The cows. Dumb. But also the silliness I expect from this series.

So Jenny is no longer kicked out of Waverly and it seems as though someone paid off the barn owner to save her…interesting.

Not sure who I can picture bribing someone to let Jenny stay at Waverly. It’s definitely not Tinsley or Callie. And even though Brandon, Brett and Easy like Jenny it seems unlikely they would beg their parents to pay off someone for this. So I guess we will have to wait and see.

Unforgettable (It Girl #4) by Cecily von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

This was a fun one.

First of all, Callie and Jenny agree to be friends and put the whole Easy drama behind them which is cute and predictable. Also predictable: Callie and Easy getting back together. Yawn.

I personally do not see the appeal of Easy, I have said it before but I dislike him and it looks like he’s not going away anytime soon so yeah. Gotta deal with that. Naturally, Callie doesn’t see any issue with getting back together with Easy because he was her boyfriend to begin with and things just seemed right. Jenny is just going to have to suck it up.

Sadly for Callie, Jenny does not take the news well, especially because Callie didn’t even tell her, Jenny had to see them together to find out the truth. In turn this makes Jenny mad at Callie and their brief friendship is once again over. Not that sad about it to be honest, Callie is just as annoying as Easy, if not more lol.

Things aren’t all bad for Jenny though because she has taken an interest in freshman Julian. He made a good impression on everyone by just being a cool guy who goes along with what Heath says which makes him popular with the upperclassmen.

What Jenny doesn’t know is that Julian is actually having a fling with a certain It Girl.

Yep. The Tinsley Charmichael has feelings for a freshman and it’s a side of Tinsley I did not expect. She sneaks around with Julian and shows that she is just a normal teenage girl after all. While she may get bored of the usual boys who give her whatever she wants, she finds Julian’s playing hard to get refreshing.

What she doesn’t realise though is that he ain’t playing hard to get lol Julian just isn’t interested in her after he gets to know Jenny.

Sad for Tinsley but at the same time something about her getting exactly what she wants is boring. So we need this drama. Especially when this drama causes her to set fire to a barn where everyone is having a party. Oops.

Aside from all of this drama we also find out that Brett has feelings for someone new. The new person being her new bestie Kara. We love a queer story.

Brett and Kara are exploring things on the down low with the surprising help of Heath Farro. Our local fuck boy. I did not expect him to keep their secret. Even if he was doing it because he was getting pics from them on the side. Turns out he has one redeeming quality after all. Sort of.

I hope Brett and Kara last, if only because we need one relationship in this series that doesn’t immediately go to shit lol.

Anyway yeah that’s everything that happens here. Naturally Tinsley is out to frame Jenny for the barn fire because she saw Julian and Jenny kissing and that causes her to freak out and toss Julian’s lighter behind her without looking. So really Tinsley started the fire but she already admitted to doing E and got expelled so she definitely won’t be making that mistake again.

Callie and Easy could have also set the fire as they were actually in the barn when the fire started. Jenny caught them having a post-coital cigarette and was not too pleased about it. Though I don’t think they were the culprits.

So I suppose we will be finding out the fallout from the fire in the next one. I say as I am already halfway through the next book lol. I am just behind on blogging but these things happen. Anyway, my prediction is that everyone ends up finding out about Julian’s lighter and he is the one that gets kicked out. Jenny is a main character and there are still at least four books in this series so she definitely does not get kicked out. I can’t see Callie getting in trouble either but I wouldn’t hate if Easy goes down for this. But we’ll see.

I’m actually surprised at how short the timeline for these books is? Like they all happen immediately one after another, it’s been four books and we have only covered Jenny’s first month at this school. It’s kind of weird. It makes me wonder where we end to be honest. Another thing I imagine I’ll find out very soon at the rate I’m going through this books lol.