Tag: TV/Movie Book

Flawless PLL Book #2 by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ 1 Comment

We are back with our second PLL book review! I feel like I couldn’t put it down I just had to know what happened. I also found out that when I had intended to read the series a few years ago, I was actually halfway through this one and stopped. Thank you Kindle app! But also don’t know why I stopped reading, there could be 100s of reasons but part of me thinks maybe it was because of exams and school. But that doesn’t matter now because I finished it this time!

So I think it makes sense to talk about each girl individually and all their drama because the girls are still not close yet. Yes, they discussed A briefly at Alison’s funeral but they are still keeping secrets to themselves. It is only at the end of the novel that they come together as Spencer spills some tea about The Jenna Thing, but we’ll get to that.

First off let’s talk about Aria, I feel like she didn’t have as much going on this time compared to the other girls. I also find her drama kind of boring. Thankfully Ezra Fitz was nowhere to be found in this novel. Not like in the TV show where he shows up at the funeral and he and Aria kiss. Bleh.

In this book, Aria is being pressured by A to tell her mom about the affair that Byron had with Meredith. Like I said I find this kind of boring. I guess because it matches up with the TV show. We know what happens, A writes a letter to Ella and she is devastated and can’t believe Aria knew the whole time. Ouch.

Aside from that, we see Aria get close to Sean Ackard who is Hanna’s ex. This was hinted at on the TV show but Aria shut it down because she could never do that to bestie Hanna. Except in the book she definitely does do that and doesn’t give Hanna a second thought because she and Sean broke up and Hanna and Aria aren’t friends. Savage.

I wasn’t expecting this pairing to happen and I don’t really know if I like it. Plus there’s the whole aspect of the girl code which was so obviously broken. I mean okay Aria and Hanna weren’t close anymore and Hanna had broken up with Sean but I still think it would be weird to date someone that your old friend also dated…but eh it’s high school and as long as Aria is hooking up with people her own age I can’t be mad. I just don’t see it lasting.

Meanwhile, Hanna is dealing with so many more issues. Like the fact she totaled Sean’s car and has to work at Sean’s family’s burn clinic to pay off the debt. Not cute. But still better than the dental clinic she had to work in on the TV show.

But also, Hanna’s dad is back and he has ulterior motives for wanting to see Hanna as he wants to bring his old family and his new family together. Gross.

Similar to the TV show the events unfold with Kate and Isobel as expected. That Kate ends up getting Hanna in more trouble by lying to Hanna and then exposing her terrible behavior to her dad. Except in the TV show, Hanna’s grandmother can see right through that crap. No such luck in the book, Hanna has no one to defend her and it looks like her dad may never speak to her again. Eep.

I honestly hate how none of the characters in this book have good parents lol. Like Hanna’s dad goes AWOL and starts a new life for himself and when he sees his daughter is clearly struggling he just pawns her off to her mother and goes back to his new family. And then Hanna’s mom is obviously a shitty parent who is never present and is sleeping with a cop to keep Hanna out of jail…I suppose that’s a “nice” thing to do for your daughter? But still shitty parenting lol.

Anyway, aside from the Kate drama, Hanna is also bullied by A into confessing to some girls at school that she has been making herself throw up. Which is horrible, but I am also glad they address Hanna’s eating disorder more in the books than in the TV show. Like in the TV show they mention it once and just act like it’s no big deal but it’s clearly still a very real thing in the books and I hope that Hanna can get it under control. I just wonder how far Mona will push her on it.

Next, we have Spencer who is totally head over heels in love with Wren. And it makes me sick. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again he is a full-ass adult who is hooking up with a teenager and it’s DISGUSTING. He calls Spencer not two days after breaking up with Melissa and then the first time Spencer hangs out with him they have sex. Ugh. Hate it.

I can totally see from Spencer’s point of view why she thought this would be okay but Wren is just an adult who took advantage of a child in that situation and it makes me want to barf.

But after Spencer sleeps with Wren she becomes the classic girl in love who is very clingy to Wren since she thought they had an amazing bond since they had sex. And it’s surprising to see Spencer fall like this I feel like in the TV show she is much stronger and the Wren thing doesn’t last as long. But yeah, naturally Wren gets annoyed with all of Spencer’s calls and texts and tells her it’s over.

And to make things worse, Spencer finds out from Melissa that Wren has actually been seeing her too. So not only is Wren scum for sleeping with a minor but he’s also been sleeping with her sister the whole time too! I hate him so much. And in the TV show, he ain’t much better so I guess he did deserve to be turned into a diamond.

I don’t know if we hear much from Wren after this book but I’m hoping not.

Also, Spencer stole her sister’s essays because she was way behind on school work and too busy focusing on Wren. But she also stole the essay on the TV show and if things play out the same then we know she kind of gets away with it. So not super important to note.

Then there’s Emily who is still struggling with her sexuality but she ends up making friends with Toby Cavanagh who saves her from a bad encounter with her ex Ben. Again, these events play out kind of similar to the TV show, except the dance they are at is homecoming and Toby doesn’t die.

I gotta tell you I was not expecting Toby to commit suicide. Like in the TV show he is Spencer’s main love interest and he actually seems like an okay guy! I am surprised they kept him around considering how quickly he is killed off in the books. This makes me wonder if Spencer has a different main love interest in the books or maybe none at all. I think I would prefer if the focus was on the drama and not the relationships so I’m fine if Spencer doesn’t have someone but we’ll see how it plays out.

It also turns out that Toby was the one who forced himself on Jenna and not the other way around like on TV, and that’s why he kills himself. He thought everyone knew his secret and he couldn’t live with it anymore. Even though the secret Emily was confronting him about was actually that she thought he killed Alison. Yikes. This is the tea that Spencer spills to the girls when they find out that Toby has died.

So yeah things took a turn at the end of the novel. All the girls think Toby was A and that they would be free but then Emily gets a text from A telling her “it’s not over till I say it is”. And then that’s the end of the book.

No A chapter at the end which is nice, I think it was good to end on that message because it’s a good cliffhanger and definitely makes me want to find out what happens next. I am hoping there is more deviation from the TV show because I find myself guessing what happens and that’s not always fun. I want to be shocked lol.

I am wondering if Jenna ever comes back to Rosewood properly or if we never see her again now that Toby is gone, I am wondering when Emily embraces her sexuality with Maya as it could still be a while, I wonder if Wren comes back though I really hope he doesn’t…and I also want to know what Hanna’s mom plans to do since her daughter is so ‘out of control’. And of course, I wonder if the girls will be able to figure out who A is now that Toby is gone, even though they aren’t really speaking at the minute.

And so that’s where we leave the girls for now. I am not sure what will come next exactly, other than Spencer’s essay thing kind of working out for her, Aria trying to keep her family together, and Emily trying to be straight lol. But I’m interested to see what A pushes them to do next. After all, I feel she is just getting started.

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I am finally starting to read the PLL books! I have wanted to do this for years but I’m finally committed to it now.

I also don’t know what to call these blog posts because I guess they are reviews but mainly it’s just going to be me comparing the books to the TV show and also trying to piece together clues about who A is.

First of all though disclaimer: I already know who A is in the books. How could you watch the TV show and search A theories without being spoiled? So I know who it’s going to be and now I wanna see if there are hints to see if I can figure it out or guess.

Anyway yes, so here we are PLL. I’ve actually read the first book before. Back in 2013 when I thought I was going to read the series. I got to the second book and stopped for whatever reason lol I swear I’ll get through this time.

So the first book is basically the pilot of the TV show. We are introduced to the four girls and who they are now that Alison is missing. The TV show also reveals the girls were at a sleepover when Ali went missing but we do not know this in the first book.

Mainly the things I focused most on in this book were the differences between the TV show.

For instance, everyone is hella rich in the books. So I don’t think Hanna will be having any money troubles.

They also have pets! How wild lol and Emily has a whole ass family of siblings and her dad isn’t in the army. How strange. Also, her mum is racist towards Maya’s family which is not cute.

The appearances of the girls are also different in the books but I won’t be mad about that because that always happens when doing book adaptations to movies/TV.

So yeah those were things that were strange to me. Also, A sends the girls a lot of messages in the first book. In the pilot, I think they all get one each. But A seems relentless in the first book, texting Aria nonstop about Ezra, leaving notes for Hanna and emailing Spencer. I like this though because it really shows how forceful A is.

Also A is Mona in the beginning so tell me how she be laying high in a field at Noel’s house and sending all these messages to Aria at the same time lol. I mean she was maybe acting and wrote a script to auto send messages but for real how did she know Aria was gonna see Ezra?

I think that’s the biggest thing I wondered about while watching the show is wondering how Mona even did it all. I mean they say some crap about her mental illness making her feel omnipresent or something but there had to be more. So I am hoping the book gives me some insight.

There was also the A chapter at the end of the book which, apparently back in 2013 I loved but today I read it and it was kind of cringey. It gave me some Gossip Girl vibes like very much “and who am I? That’s a secret I’ll never tell” sort of thing. Probably could have done without it.

Though I wonder how often these A chapters happen or maybe it’s just at the end of each book. I don’t know if I like it though. We’ll see how it goes from here on out.

Another thing that was wild to me is how they write Aria and Ezra. I mean I’m 100% against Ezria because it’s creepy, I might have felt differently back in the day but now I can’t stop being like “HE IS HER TEACHER AND SHE’S UNDERAGE”. So I’ll probably complain about them a lot in every blog post lol.

Anyway, the way Ezra is written is like he might as well be Aria’s age. I mean him getting jealous over her flirting with Noel is so icky. And even when he is hurt when he thought Aria told someone about them. “I really liked you” bro get over it she’s 16 and you’re in your early 20s…

Yeah, it’s all icky and I hate it. The way they write it in the book also makes it so casual and I hate that too. So yeah not a fan of Ezria can’t wait for it to be shut down. Hope it happens soon lol.

It’s also wild how they write about Wren and Spencer and how he immediately is way more attracted to her than Melissa and stuff. Like there’s no build-up, I wish there had been more to it…not sure what else I would have wanted lol but it just seemed a tad unbelievable.

Not to mention the way Spencer’s family treat her it’s so gross. How about being angry at the 20 something student who is preying on your 16-year-old and not your 16-year-old???

Yeah, that’s another inappropriate relationship. Ick.

Aside from all of that, the book is a strong start into something interesting. I’m excited to get into the series for real this time. I’ve read bits and pieces about the book series online so I’m interested to see how it all plays out.

And of course, I’ll be blogging about it along the way. This is the kind of series I feel I’m going to have a lot of thoughts about. So stay tuned for another post probably very soon!

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I started reading this immediately after the Handmaid’s tale. I think I read the first 20 pages or so and then didn’t touch it for like almost a week and a half haha.

Again like the previous book, I found this one hard to get into. I guess I just sort of throw myself into books without taking time to digest the characters and making sense of what was going on.

But in this book there were three different point of views and naturally it took me a while to figure out which was which. Especially because two of them were named very similar, the difference being an A or a B at the end.

After a while though I picked up what was happening.

I really enjoyed this book. I think way more than the first. In this book we find out more about how the other women lived in Gilead, the Aunts and the little girls who were growing up to become wives.

This world fascinates me a lot which I think is why even though I took a long period away from reading this book I went back to it. I had to know what happened.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when jumping into this one. I was surprised that they didn’t mention Offred from the first novel directly. Though it is assumed that she was the mother of both the girls in the story.

Overall, I found it to be a good read. I can definitely understand why the series gets a lot of attention.

I don’t know if there will be more books to the series, though I see it being quite an easy series to add to over time. But that being said I would also be glad if it was just the two books.

I still have yet to watch the TV show but I think I will be adding it to my list of shows to watch now I’ve read both books. I know it will only be loosely based on the first book since the second one was only released last year but that’s fine. I’m just interested to know where they take it.

And with this book complete I am now halfway to my goal of reading 30 books this year! I think I’m making good progress and am a little bit ahead of where I should be so that’s nice.

I’m glad that even in our current circumstances and even with my excessive amounts of Animal Crossing play that I can still find time to read lol.

Not sure what my next book will be, I think maybe one I picked up from Waterstones at the start of the year.

As usual you can expect some kind of reading update in the future. Whether it is here or on GoodReads.

~ Courtney x

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I wasn’t sure about this one but I decided to give it a go after someone gave me a brief description of the TV show. I feel very behind with this but it’s better late than never right? Plus I haven’t seen the TV show yet so I might as well take a chance with the book if I don’t really know what to expect.

I have to be honest, I almost gave up on this one. I was finding it hard to get into the story as the timelines kept changing from the past and the present, it was initially hard to keep up with the change. The writing style was also not an easy one to get into, I have been reading a mix recently so I’m not surprised when a writing style isn’t what I am expecting, but normally I can get into it fine, this one just took longer than most.

I would say I got into it after the first 100 pages or so, I know they say you should read a book until at least 50 pages in to see if you like it or not. But to me, if you make it that far you might as well see it to the end. I can’t just leave something unfinished, even if I didn’t like it.

But with this one, I found it easier to read big chunks at a time and then leave it for a few days. I think it’s the kind of thing you have to be in the mood to read. But we made it through in the end.

Overall I did enjoy the story, it’s an interesting take on what society would do to handle a situation. It’s actually made me interested in the TV show just to see what happens with that.

I do wish we knew more about the transition process and also about what happened to Offred after she was captured. When I got to the end and it was explained the story was told through Offred in a bunch of tapes and they weren’t in order, it suddenly made sense that the story was so haphazard in it’s switch between past and present. It is still sad that we don’t know for sure what happened to her.

I know there is a sequel now but I’m not sure if it will even tell us what happened. Though I probably will read it because I am interested to see what will come from that and what we will learn about this world.

And as I said before I will probably watch the TV show too, it’ll be different from the book for sure, considering the TV show has 3 seasons now and you can’t stretch a book that far out. But I want to know what direction they take the story.

While I am surprised it took me so long to get through this book after reading my last two books quite quickly I am not going to let it deter me from my reading journey. I am basically halfway through my goal to read 30 books this year and I would like to try and keep my pace up.

I know it’s not a race, but I don’t want to get lazy with it and not pick up another book for months again because I do quite enjoy my reading time.

So hopefully I’ll be back with another book review soon, if not then I’ve been distracted by Animal Crossing as usual lol.

~ Courtney x

It Had To Be You by Cecily Von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek

Time for a throwback…all the way back to the beginning of the Gossip Girl series with a prequel.

If you’re wondering why I waited this long to read this, it’s because I’m just reading them in the order they were released/Wikipedia had them. But you could definitely read this as the very first book in the series and it would fit in.

In this book we get the origin stories of how our lovely Upper East Siders came to be. Why Vanessa shaves her head, how Dan became a poet, how Nate became a stoner, how the big Nate, Serena and Blair love triangle came about and even about Jenny developing her massive chest. It’s all wild and it’s all right here.

Sadly the only origin story we don’t get is Gossip Girl herself. As far as I know she doesn’t reveal her identity in the books which I think is probably for the best. The TV show did a terrible reveal and I didn’t like it. I mean seriously. DAN HUMPHREY? As if. Especially in the books he could never be Gossip Girl lol.

Anyway that’s a rant for a whole other day. Let’s dive into this book shall we?

Starting off with Blair, our B. Gotta love her. So this is before she is with Nate and obviously all she is thinking about is being with him. She’s had a crush on him forever and feels like she’s gonna explode if he doesn’t marry her.

To save some time and explaining her scheming I’ll just let you know her and Nate do get together. But all Nate wants is to have sex and he thinks he is gonna get it from Blair because she loves him and he loves her so like it’s a no brainer.

As if. B begins to string Nate along and telling him she’s not ready but they can do it in summer, or after summer, or christmas…and you get where I’m going. Poor guy. Just wants to get laid lol. But I enjoy Blair being sneaky and manipulative. It’s the Blair we all know and love.

On top of that we discover the ruby ring she is so fond of was a gift from Nate. This is also when I realise that the ring hadn’t been mentioned much in the last few books and when it was it seemed out of place. Again, the effects of a ghostwriter. (I know I always sound negative about the ghostwriter but like there are just certain things you notice when suddenly a different person is writing the books).

We also discover she doesn’t handle the news about her father leaving her family for a gay man and so this is where her bulimia comes from. The book handles it in a kind of cast offish way which it has always done. Like oh Blair just went to throw up, she felt like she was gonna vomit hearing news she didn’t like. That kind of thing, definitely wouldn’t fly with that kind of writing now but I guess in 2007 it was chill.

Thankfully somewhere along the line Blair just stops throwing up. I don’t remember when but I feel like it hasn’t been mentioned in the books for ages so I guess she magically recovers. Kind of like how on TV they showed it like one time and forgot about it.

Time to move along to Serena. Our golden girl. Who is also madly in love with Nate. I guess they planted this love triangle early. And that’s fine. It was written a less annoying this time and plus this was the beginning, way before everything else so it’s fine.

Turns our Blair was not the first to kiss Nate. It was S. They kiss in bed while Blair is sleeping right next to them. So romantic lol. But this is when Serena knows for sure she loves him and Nate loves her back.

Serena was planning to tell Blair this but when she saw how Blair’s family was falling apart she thought the least she could do was let her have Nate. Even though it killed S to see her two best friends get together.

It was interesting to see Serena’s martyr act thinking she was the lost selfless person ever. But it got old real fast, like we get that you are heartbroken but time to move onto bigger and better things.

I can understand why she was pissed at Nate for just choosing Blair after they kissed and everything, but can she really fault Blair if she didn’t know S loved Nate too?

Anyway yeah I was kind of over Serena in this one. Just pining after Nate while also being a shitty friend to him and Blair. Not cute.

That being said, we did find out about how Nate “parted S’s red sea”. I mean we already knew because they’ve talked about it in previous books but in case you needed to relive it, it’s right there.

After all that goes down Serena realises she shouldn’t have slept with Nate because he is with Blair. But at the same time she is not going to stick around and watch them be in love anymore so that’s why she decides to go to boarding school. Which is kind of lame but then again it’s selfless Serena, leaving to let her two friends be happy.

Then we have Nate. And while the girls have been passing him back and forth like a game, it’s not like he hasn’t been responsible. In fact when you get right down to it, Nate is just a dick lol.

First he kisses Serena, then Blair kisses him and he decides to be with her, but once she doesn’t wanna have sex with him he decides to call up Serena and they have sex, then Blair comes back into town and he’s like “right my girlfriend”. I mean he’s trash hahaha. Sure Nate in the TV show is kind of trashy too but he is also cute in that he doesn’t mean to hurt people’s feelings and he isn’t a stoner on TV.

But yeah I guess the gist is with Nate is that he’s horny and helpless when it comes to pretty girls. He wasn’t even gonna get with Blair or Serena to begin with his was after some other girl that introduced him to weed. He liked how he felt and then just jumped in head first to become a fulltime stoner.

Safe to say him and the first girl didn’t work out. And he thought Serena wasn’t interested in him anymore when he saw her go kiss Chuck at a party. Even though she only went over there for Blair’s benefit. Not that Nate would know that. Which is how he needed up with Blair.

Nate can be kind of cute when he wants to be because when he gets with Blair he works hard to distract her from her crappy family and buys her pretty things from Tiffany we love that. But at the same time he isn’t getting any for her so the only logical thing would be to call Serena.

To be fair he only wanted to see her at first because he hadn’t seen his friend for forever but then they had sex and well…we all know the rest.

I will still stand by Nate being trash for jumping between the too. I guess the best thing he ever did was leave them both and sail around the world…

Moving on down to Brooklyn and the Upper West Side.

Dan and Jenny. Turns out both the Humphreys have an unhealthy obsession with S. Who can blame them when she is so perfect.

I think I was shocked by Jenny more just because I didn’t know her obsession ran so deep. Literally her stealing Serena’s bra and drawing all those pictures of her and everything. Crazy.

Plus in this book Jenny was twelve haha and obsessed with wanting to grow her boobs. She didn’t know she would end up with the chest she would. But at the time she was desperate to make them grow and so she ordered breast enhancement supplements lol.

It’s also kind of weird how she insisted on showing Dan the progress of her boob growth. Like I guess they are super close because they don’t have a mum but there are just some things you shouldn’t share with your brother. You should also never ask him to measure your boobs but that is a thing that happens too. Wild.

Over time Jenny’s boobs do grow. She stopped taking the supplements after like a week because Vanessa told her that she would grow naturally anyway. It’s just kind of funny she wanted them anyway. Plus she goes from loving her boobs to hating them real quick. So I guess you can never win.

So yeah…that was Jenny. Then we have Vanessa who joined Constance and had a full head of hair. I can’t believe it either. She decides that she needs to do something shocking to stand out from the girls at her school and what better way to do that than to shave your head. Not to mention Blair was with her at the time, cute.

Vanessa and Dan become friends after both getting locked out on the roof at a party and Vanessa instantly takes a liking to Dan. She knew he was different like her so maybe they could be friends, or more than that. It turns out Vanessa really loved Dan at the first sight of him and even tried to kiss him at one point.

It is kind of cute to see Vanessa wanting to be with Dan this way. In the other books she seems kind of edgy but in this one she is niave and just wants Dan to like her back. Well, until she finds out he’s like everyone else, in love with Serena. Then she’s mad. Who wouldn’t be?

I get that she was upset with Dan but at the same time she was definitely trying too hard haha I’m glad they friends though. The book talks about her being really into photography but not film making so I guess that comes after…I guess it’s not a huge leap from photography to film making. But I’m surprised it’s not mentioned.

Anyway moving on to, last but not least, Dan. Turns out he wasn’t always a smoking, depressed poet. But he always drank his coffee by the bucket load. So Dan is over here obsessing about Serena, wondering if she will ever remember him from that one party they were both at. Rufus, his dad is over Dan’s moping and suggests that he try poetry to express his feelings.

This lightbulb moment happens and suddenly Dan thinks, yes, that’s it. He writes some words down and decides he is a poet. His muse is Serena and he will write her all these love poems and she will read them and when she finds out it is him she will fall in love with him and they’ll live happily ever after. As if.

His poems are obviously super terrible, but he decides to give one to Jenny to slip into Serena’s locker anyway. She reads it and thinks it’s dark and kind of cool someone would write poetry for her but she is not fussed on finding out who wrote it. Let’s be real the girl probably gets millions of letters and poems from admirers, Dan will have to step up his game.

Dan also decides after he meets Vanessa to randomly start smoking. I guess he thought it went with his dark poet vibe. And so, this Dan we all know and kind of like was born.

Honestly not surprised that he just fell into poetry and smoking. That kind of sums up his life, maybe he is not so different from Nate. I mean he fell into poetry and it stuck, he went along with being with Vanessa and that was cool, he also just went with the flow when he was doing yoga with that one girl for some time…he even fell into being gay and out again haha. Dan doesn’t make decisions for himself, people make them for him, it’s only right his dad recommend he become a poet and he did. Plus Nate is the same, he just smokes weed and goes with the flow.

But yeah, after Vanessa finds out about Dan obsessing with Serena she is not too thrilled so they don’t talk for a while. It is actually Jenny who has to tell Dan that he should apologise to Vanessa because he could use a friend and social interaction. I guess it’s cute Jenny is looking out for him. So he goes to apologise to Vanessa and it looks like those two patch things up.

And that brings us to the end of the Gossip Girl prequel! This was cute. I feel like I would have appreciated it more if I wasn’t so jaded after the last few books. Anyway, one more book and we can be done with this series! Yes I know there is the spin off and also the It Girl book series about Jenny but I definitely need to read something new after being wrapped up in this world for a few months.

I think I’ll be glad to finish this series, it’s been a fun run but towards the end it just kind of got meh. Let’s hope the last book will allow us to finish on a high note.

You know you love me,

~ Courtney x

Don’t You Forget About Me by Cecily von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

The last book, minus the prequel and the time jump sequel. We are finally going to know how the last of the summer went before everyone goes off to college…or doesn’t. I gotta say this summer has dragged on forever and I’m kind of glad it is over.

Now…where to begin?

I think back with Dan actually, I know I like to talk about Blair but we will get to her later. Dan has been annoying me so much again. Sure his gay thing was kind of funny in the last book, but now? I’m over it.

He is still so confused in this book as to what he is and even though he told everyone he was gay…he doesn’t really feel it. But he thinks he should be since apparently everyone in his life kind of suspected that he was. So in typical Dan fashion he just kind of goes with it. Until he once again realises that he should be with Vanessa – because you know that’s how these things go. Dan gets with Vanessa, he hates it and breaks up with her, he dates someone else (regardless of gender I guess), and then realises Vanessa is the one. Honestly. Almost as worse as Nate Archibald, but not quite…

So yeah Dan isn’t gay. What a revelation. Him and Vanessa get back together. I’m over it. Next. I mean I’m still surprised he is not all caught up in Serena again like he was in the TV show, but at the same time I was kind of relieved that didn’t have their on-again off-again thing. Except he did have that just with Vanessa. I don’t know. At least him and Vanessa are similar, whereas he and Serena aren’t so like it does make more sense for him to be with her…

Speaking of Vanessa – her sister is getting married! Random but sure why not. I was not really sure where this whole wedding thing was going but turns out it wasn’t a big deal it was just something to happen in Vanessa’s life. Cool.

Vanessa is struggling with her feelings with Dan (again) because he says he’s gay and she’s trying to respect that but at the same time she wants to be with him. And they both are reading each other’s actions, interpreting them wrong and decide not to talk to each other when the easiest solution would be to just talk? Honestly rolling my eyes at them every time, if they were good friends then they should be able to talk about things in the first place but I guess that’s not a thing? I suppose as artists they should just be able to interpret their feelings by looking at one another…but no such luck.

Also in this book Vanessa randomly decides to get a makeover from Blair which is kind of cute. I do wish they had amped up their friendship on the TV show because it is unlikely but I did like it. OMG I just remembered they roomed together in NYU on the TV show so technically that is the same as the book…but that being said they never became friends on the show. Oh well.

Side note: Jenny came back in the end but nothing really important came of it. I missed her being around but I suppose she has no use to scheme or anything when she’s going to boarding school like she wanted to reinvent herself like Serena did. Plus summering in Europe is the best way to come back to school with an air of mystery. So yay for Little J.

Moving onto the Blair, Nate, Serena love triangle…I’m just gonna put it out there – I hated this. So much. I don’t even know why because this did kind of happen in the TV show and like it has happened in the book before but like…some part of me thought we were done with it. So the fact it has come up like this again and also so strongly…I can’t. I mean I said before I thought Serena had only loved Nate as a friend and we were good with that – but I guess not?

So Blair and Nate come back from their month long boat trip and things are great, until Nate finally tells her he is not going to Yale and Blair is angry with him for ruining her dreams. Hey – we have not heard about her wanting to live her best Audrey Hepburn life in a while…must be the ghost writer.

Anyway since Blair is mad at Nate he decides to turn to the only other person in Manhattan he seems to feel close with – Serena. Somehow they end up falling into bed together and everything is just perfect again. Serena tells Nate how she feels and he agrees – he does love Serena. I’m over here shaking my head because he literally stole Viagra because he couldn’t get it up for S a few books ago but sure…

Continuing on Serena’s movie (remember that thing) has its release date moved up so she has to do a press conference for it and this is where it is revealed that the director wants to film a sequel with our leading lady S of course. This is where Serena thinks that maybe Yale isn’t for her and she should defer for a year so she can do some acting. Because let’s be real – Serena doesn’t plan for the future. She just goes with the flow and is up for anything.

Looks like Nate will also end up staying in the city next year because he bailed on his summer job with Coach and so will have to repeat his senior year of high school. Ouch. Though with this news, S thinks it makes sense to stay in the city so that she can go on and have a real relationship with Nate. And N, thinking he can have his cake and eat it too thinks maybe staying in the city wouldn’t be too bad with S around. He could see her on the weekdays and be with B in Yale on weekends. Sneaky.

Too bad for Blair though who is planning to do everything she can to keep Nate with her and away from Serena and the city. She doesn’t know they slept together but it is only a matter of time before that comes out right? B has these visions of Nate and her being together in New Haven living the practically-married life she had always imagined for them. Nate can just travel up and down from Yale to school everyday – easy.

Things all come to a head at B’s going away party held at the MET. We find out that B got her dad to have a word with Yale and now Nate can go with her to New Haven and they can live the perfect life. Too bad Serena is planning on breaking B’s heart because her and Nate are finally going to be together like they’ve always wanted…with Nate Archibald in the middle stoned and thinking what’s a guy to do? He has to choose.

Nate’s decision is to not choose either of them at all. He realises that he has always been there with both of them, and coming between both of them that maybe he should just remove himself from the picture entirely.

And so with that we have B and S, friends once more. B headed off to Yale, S going on to persue her acting, Vanessa in NYU going back to filmmaking an Dan headed off to whatever college he decided on…

I’m not going to lie the ending is kind of cute, I never saw it ending badly, everyone was going to have a good ending. But at the same time it bugs me a little bit that Nate just copped out of a decision but it makes sense for him because he’s Nate.

As for S and B, well I didn’t expect either of them to be too mad at the other one for long because they have always been the bestest of friends. Nothing can come between them, even Nate though he tries and sometimes succeeds.

Side note: love that they are setting up for the spin-off books with the mention of the Carlyles – I don’t think I will read those. But if I ever do it will probably be a while before I get to them, I am a little bit excited to step away from this world of the Upper East Side.

I feel like I purposely have disliked the last few books because they were ghost written. I mean part of it is that even though it is mostly the same style as the novels there is a slight difference and I feel like I felt it. Or maybe I’m just being dramatic lol. But at least the next couple books are written by the actual author, so let’s see if we can end it on a high note.

You know you love me,

~ Courtney x

Would I Lie To You? By Cecily von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

New year, same book series. I have just finished the 10th book in the series and we only have three left…and one parody and then the spin offs haha but I think I’ll stick with the main series and then move on to other things.

So yeah, this book was…okay, though I was Googling to find out how many books I had left and it looks like the previous book, this one and the next one were all written by a ghostwriter. Which might explain why I am not enjoying them as much, something about them makes them less interesting than before.

I also tried to look up why they were ghostwritten but nothing really comes up when I search it so who knows. But that being said Cecily von Ziezegar does come back for the last two books which are a prequel and a sequel so we see what happens.

So yeah anyway this book. I don’t know what about it made it seem shorter than the others but it just was. Which meant the storylines were kind of weak.

Let’s start with Dan again because his story is kind of funny. So Dan is still working at his bookstore and ignoring Vanessa and all that but he makes friends with a new coworker who wants to hold a literary salon because ya know…books.

They selectively choose people to attend through an application process and the night arrives and Dan gets super drunk on absinthe and decides to make out with his new coworker Greg. He has a little freakout before just announcing to Jenny and himself that he is gay lol. Like okay Dan, why not. He goes through so many different phases in life why not let this be one of them.

I didn’t see this coming for him and honestly it’s kind of terrible. On the bright side he and Vanessa didn’t get back together for five minutes and break up again without saying words to each other.

Though that might have had something to do with Vanessa going off to the Hamptons because her babysitting job was taking her there. She lasted there about five minutes and then she realised she hated it and was lonely so she goes to a party in search of Blair and Serena, some friendly faces.

Only to discover the girls are nowhere to be found but it’s okay because she has become a fashion muse and ditches babysitting for that. Not really sure if she actually told anyone she was quitting or just never went back but yeah, that happened.

The fashion muse thing also only lasts for five minutes after Bailey Winter catches Vanessa in his sacred birdhouse and says she can’t film in there, however she did it anyway. Plus she felt kind of restricted in Bailey’s home and ended up just going back to the city, where she found out about Dan being gay possibly and that’s where we leave it for Vanessa. Wondering around aimlessly and not really sure what she’s doing – very much a mood.

Also side note we heard from Jenny a little bit in this book. She sent Dan some letters so at least we know she’s enjoying her summer.

Moving on down to Serena and Blair, they were Bailey Winter’s original muses and Bailey had hired fake European lookalikes to be the models for his campaign (no idea why he couldn’t use the real B and S but okay). Sadly the two could not get along with their lookalikes as B was convinced the fakes were up to something.

She got her revenge on them anyway in true Blair fashion. S just went along with it because she just wanted to have a fun carefree summer with her BFF. Though to be honest I they kept acting like these fake girls were up to something super sinister but all I know is they were just putting hair removal cream in shampoo which is, kind of tame and also boring.

Anyway, once the girls were done with their dopplegangers, they fled and ran into everyone’s favourite stoner Nate Archibald who happened to live next door.

Nate was still working for the Coach, but he was out of town and Nate was being harrassed by his wife, so it was a no brainer for him to hit the road once B and S showed up.

The three of them planned to go to the city and go sailing on the Archibald family boat but once getting to the city they find that Nate’s dad has taken the boat elsewhere.

While crashing at Serena’s apartment, S realises something weird is going on with Nate and Blair. Of course something is going on between them because there’s always something.

Basically Nate realises he just really wants to be with Blair because he believes their soulmates. Blair also wouldn’t hate being back with Nate either. And Serena is left feeling like a third wheel.

Worse than that, it’s Serena’s birthday. So before the gang hit the road on the search for the Archibald boat they stop to visit Serena’s brother Erik who has thrown a party for S’s birthday. Cute.

Sadly S does not enjoy a party that consists of all Erik’s friends and like six girls. Bummer. Not to mention she saw Blair and Nate on the stairs and Nate confessed he finally loved Blair. Now Serena is feeling super left out.

She kind of just goes away to pout and figure out how she’s feeling and she discovers that maybe she’s in love with Nate and should tell him. Even though her best friend just admitted she loves Nate and he loves her back. So she writes a letter and leaves it for him in the glovebox of his car.

I’m kind of surprised that Serena wasn’t a fan of the party Erik had. I feel like she usually can make the best of every situation. Plus her leaving a guy that once loved her and running away sounds just like her but using him to distract her from Nate and Blair – seems again weird for her.

I guess she just doesn’t want to lose her friends again to their bubble and be third wheeling at Yale. At the same time just because your friends are telling each other they love you, that doesn’t mean you just think like “maybe I love Nate too”. Like we established that you guys would always be in each other’s lives but not romantically. So…yeah I see a flaw.

As for the lovebirds, they headed out early, ditching S on her birthday (kind of rude), in search of the Archibald boat. While they are on the road they decide to go for a pitstop and this is where Nate is reminded of the consequences of ditching the Coach.

He gets a voicemail and the Coach is not happy about him ditching or smoking weed on the job. Naturally. So does this mean that Nate won’t actually graduate? Not that he cares in the moment when he’s got the girl but it would be interesting if he didn’t.

Then there’s B who discovered Serena’s letter in the car. Yikes. I guess those two aren’t BFFs anymore. It’s never good to find a letter addressed to your on-again off-again boyfriend from your best friend telling him she loves him. So she does the rational thing and tears up the letter before Nate sees it and the wind carries it away.

At around this same time Serena has come to her senses and wants to take the letter back but sadly discovers that Nate and Blair have already gone.

And that is where we end it.

Again, nothing great to be honest. The Dan is gay thing was kind of funny though.

Also I never expected Vanessa to be the type to just give up her film making to be a babysitter? Plus I never believed she would also quite the fashion muse thing so quick but I guess it’s not the kind of film she likes to make.

As for this love triangle of Nate, Blair and Serena…well I would have preferred if Serena had stayed out of it haha. I mean I guess without her there’s no drama but realistically Blair and Nate would have found something else to fight over sooner or later.

But yeah, I guess we see where we go from here. I think the next book is technically the proper end to the series, with the next two books being add-ons after that so I’m interested to see where it ends. Like I said I had a feeling it would end once everyone got into college, which is why they stretched this summer out for two whole books, but I’m hoping summer ends in the next book because it’s kind of boring.

Before I gear up to read the last few books of the series I think I’ll take a break and read something else. It seems to be my pattern to read three Gossip Girl books and something else so, why break that now. But don’t worry, I’ll be back with our favourite Upper East Siders before you know it.

~ Courtney x

Only In Your Dreams By Cecily von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Summer has just begun for our Upper East Siders and honestly? It’s kind of drab.

I really enjoyed the previous book but this one was lacking.

Let’s begin by saying there was absolutely no Jenny Humphrey in this one which actually made the book feel a bit short. I mean it’s the same length as all the others but with one less character to be updated on it was definitely lacking something.

Plus, don’t we love when Little J just ends up everywhere the cool people are? I can’t wait until we hear about her boarding school adventures, or if we even hear from her at all.

I know in the TV show Jenny was only written off because Taylor Momsen wanted to do music, but what’s the excuse for her being written out of the book?

Next, I guess we can talk about Dan, who once again cannot just have a relationship with Vanessa. He decides to become all hippie and do yoga and go jogging because he met a cute girl in the book store he was working at. I was kind of amazed he was able to keep up his charade for so long. At least he wasn’t writing any poetry…

But yeah so Vanessa gets kicked out of her apartment because her sister comes back and decides she needs all the space for her new boyfriend, so Dan says it’s okay if she moves in with him and she thought that meant they could really be together but of course Dan is over it. Even though he was all about being with Vanessa five seconds ago at graduation. Classic Dan.

So while Dan is off with his blonde, hippie girl, Vanessa is failing as a filmmaker. She was working a job for five minutes and then gets fired. Yikes. But things aren’t always perfect unless your name is Serena, then yes it is perfect. Anyway, she somehow lands a job babysitting which is cute…I guess?

I don’t really know what was going on with Vanessa in this book but she was kind of lame. At least Rufus said she could stay in the apartment because she has nowhere else to go.

As usual, she and Dan end up kind of friends again. Honestly just want one of them to move on for good it’s kind of annoying.

Moving on to our Queen B, she’s not having a fun time in London because Lord Marcus seems to be way more into spending time with his cousin, so she flees back to NYC. But not before buying a wedding dress, because ya know, everyone needs one just in case right?

I wish there was more to the Lord Marcus thing but I guess there isn’t. B just leaves and we never hear from him again. I also kind of enjoyed the whole wedding dress thing and I hope that it doesn’t go to waste.

So now B is back in New York and her mother has to talk to her about her spending because the exchange rate was not as good as Blair thought it was and suggests maybe it is time for her to get a job.

Luckily for Blair, her mother is very close to a designer friend who is working on the movie Breakfast at Fred’s – the remake of Breakfast at Tiffany’s starring SVDW. Fancy.

So now B is working on a movie set and living her best life, plus she decides to move in with Serena for a while as she is living in the apartment building that Aubrey Hepburn lived in, in Breakfast at Tiffany’s so how could she say no? On top of that, we also have a cute neighbour who B seems to like, so like I said she’s living her best life.

Apart from the fact, her younger brother is dating someone who basically wants to be her which is a bit creepy, but she makes it work to her advantage.

Then there’s Serena who is discovering that acting is really hard and she is kind of failing at being an actress. Luckily for her B comes along to save the day and coaches her in all things, Audrey. Of course, she ends up being amazing at it because is it really Serena if she doesn’t magically pull things off?

She also tries to get with her co-star but he ends up being gay, aw well, you can’t win them all.

Over in the Hamptons, we have Nate who is working hard to get his diploma. While he is out there he meets a girl and decides to date her because when you’re as good looking as he is, why not?

In typical Nate fashion though, he realises his one true love is Blair and he doesn’t want to be with some townie and so he leaves her at the wrap party of the movie getting it on with Chuck Bass.

And so that’s where we are left off. Next everyone is headed to the Hamptons and I hope it’s more interesting. I mean, even as I say that I know Dan and Vanessa are going to continue to be on-again-off-again, Blair is going to try and resist Nate and fail and whatever Serena does, well she’ll be amazing at it and have a good time.

But you know I made it this far so let’s keep reading. Things in this book were just kind of dull, I wasn’t really excited by anything apart from Blair deciding to buy a wedding dress but even that didn’t come of anything great. Oh well. There’s still time for that whole Prince of Monaco storyline from the TV show to creep up and I would kind of enjoy that lol.

Anyway, until next time,

You know you love me,

Courtney x

Nothing Can Keep Us Together by Cecily Von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

You know this series is growing on me. I say as I’m literally eight books in and there aren’t many left haha.

I don’t know what it is but after that one, I seriously disliked they have been getting better? Or at least more interesting.

Maybe because everyone has finally graduated*!

* Except Nate Archibald but we will get to that.

Let’s switch it up and talk about Dan and Vanessa because we never talk about them first – normally for a reason but yeah haha.

So Vanessa was being a bit risque this book, as she decided that being with fun, but not as fun as being with Dan and Aaron at the same time. Though not in a threesome kind of way.

I mean Aaron was kind of laying it on thick with that ring he gave Vanessa that was engraved…not a fan man you only knew her five minutes.

So Vanessa thinks yeah I can have both of them. But that doesn’t last long because Aaron finds out (probably because she and Dan only seemed to have sex on the roof of her building where everyone can see). But surprisingly he was okay about it? Which I was surprised by because I definitely thought he was going to be annoyed at it considering he loved Vanessa so much…

But that kind of seems like how all Vanessa’s relationships go. Like she’s with someone and all of a sudden she’s not and it’s okay? Definitely not how it is in the real world folks.

Anyway yeah, so while she is having this affair with Dan, Dan obviously falls back in love with Vanessa but this time it’s like way more intense than before and Dan is being super annoying but in a worse way because he’s in love.

Dan suddenly thinks he needs to defer from college and spend all his time with Vanessa – even though she’s done nothing to indicate this is what she wants. Dan just kind of decides these things and thinks it’s best for everyone. He even says this during his graduation speech and it’s awful and like…ugh. Dan.

Cut to the end when he comes to his senses and decides to go to uni in the end, which is great for Rufus because he wants his kids to be educated no matter what.

Also, I guess Vanessa is trying to get work on a movie and we see how that goes. As for her and Dan’s relationship, I have no idea what they are and at this point, I don’t care. I’m so sick of their on and off again thing and it’s super weird because they tend not to actually talk and sort of assume things on their own and it just sort of happens. Makes no sense I hope the long distance when Dan goes away means less of that.

Moving onto Little J. She is determined to get into a boarding school but boarding school is not what she expected.

She goes to the open day of the school Serena went to and apparently it became super strict thanks to Serena van der Woodsen so she had to find elsewhere to go.

Luckily she got a place at some art school so we will see where that goes.

But before she got in there, she almost joined a super weird boarding school where Chuck’s cousin goes and also almost did ecstasy? Like wow okay slow down Jenny haha. I’m glad she didn’t actually take the drug and go off the deep end. We don’t need that for her.

That being said, she did keep the drug to give to someone else…our lovable and favourite stoner Nate Archibald!

Oh Nate.

This time instead of being stoned all the time he was just crying. All. The. Time. Like damn boy, who knew you had so many tears?

It was kind of annoying and he was honestly kind of useless in this book lol. All he did was follow Serena around (because they were in a relationship to prove to Blair it was more than a fling) and cry.

But he did decide to steal his lacrosse coach’s viagra so he could get it up for Serena hahaha.

This is why he did not graduate – he has to work for the coach over summer so he can earn his diploma. It’s so silly but at the same time, I think it will be good for him.

He and Serena broke up because she saw him with Jenny and she was relieved and so was he. Their relationship was nothing and I’m glad it’s over.

Serena was kind of just about keeping on Blair’s good side this time around. Which is tough considering no matter what she does B is not a happy bunny.

Though I think she did a good job, despite her going out with Nate. But she got lucky because B found a new man in her life so wasn’t focused on them.

She also got a part in a movie that both she and Blair were up for which is a remake of Breakfast at Tiffany’s but shot in Fred’s a restaurant in Barneys. Which sounds like the worst thing in the world to be honest lol.

Anyway, B wasn’t exactly thrilled about it but I think she’s okay not being a movie star for now.

The one thing I definitely thought Blair was doing to actually throw a fit over was that Serena was not only late to graduation and almost missed it, but the fact they both showed up in the same outfit.

That’s the kind of thing that would never stand on the TV show for B and I definitely thought would not be acceptable in the book but I think she seemed to keep her cool.

I suppose it was graduation and B didn’t wanna make a scene but still I expected more.

As for B herself, well she decided suddenly that she couldn’t live with Vanessa anymore, but they are still kind of friends because she got V a graduation dress and left her some shoes for it which was cute. So now B has moved into the Yale Club.

While at the club she meets a V handsome British version of Nate known as Lord Marcus. And if ya have seen the TV show then you know my interest has piqued because I wonder if it ends up going the same route.

I will say there might be a slim chance of that based on the fact this book was written a good few years before the TV show aired but who knows. I know they probably ramped up the drama for TV so like I doubt Nate gets with his stepmother but I would be open to that being a thing ahahaha.

Aside from being with Lord Marcus, B was also working on her graduation speech and I found it to be so fitting as she explained that if you work hard enough you can get everything you want. And we know that she’s got it all…at least for now.

So that is where we leave everyone, all happy and excited to be graduating and to see what lies ahead when they all go to university. I am excited to see where this goes – but at the same time, I only have a few books left which leads me to wonder where exactly does this tie-up?

At this point no idea, I did think maybe it would end when everyone went to uni but since that might just be around the corner I guess I’ll just have to keep reading to find out.

You know you love me,

~ Courtney x

Nobody Does It Better by Cecily Von Ziegesar Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Back with the Upper East Siders and everyone is gearing up for this party the Archibalds are throwing on their boat. Because you know, rich people.

So I was thinking about this, and I noticed the book is basically Blair central – now I don’t know if it’s because she is my favourite so I naturally focus on her storyline more than the others, but I feel like most of the books are about her mainly.

Sure Serena has some stories, Dan and Vanessa are far removed from Blair but they don’t really have a lot to going on – unless I just block them out when I read haha, then Nate is entangled in Blair. Jenny kind of merges with Serena but that’s been only recent.

But yeah I definitely feel like Blair has the most going on, not that I’m complaining because like I said, she’s my fave haha.

Anyway, yeah so Blair and Nate start off super in love and having all the sex because Blair has finally decided to say goodbye to her V card. This lasts like 5 minutes because Nate decides to go back to being classic stoner Nate and kind of just forgets all about Blair and decides to go on an adventure to Bermuda on his family’s boat lol.

You know I normally don’t like stoner Nate but this time I mean it was kind of funny. That being said it really bothers me when he just cheats and is like “oh well”. I mean I know he’s a stoner and easy-going and whatever but even in this one he kind of thought the only person he wanted to be with was Blair but still kissed someone else instead…ugh they will never just be happy.

Anyway yeah so basically all that happened to Nate this time around was that he was with Blair, then got high, decided to take the family boat to Bermuda with all his stoner pals, then realised he wanted to be with Blair and turned the boat around. He got grounded but I guess it was worth it to be back with Blair? If only that had worked out for him. Oh, and he decided to go to Yale – woo.

Meanwhile Blair has decided to move out to the Plaza for a while and get away with her crazy family. She was hoping to use it as an excuse to get with Nate all week but then, he stole a boat so that didn’t work out.

When Nate finally reappears, he goes to Blair’s hotel room like he was supposed to the first night, but B won’t have him, instead she makes him think she slept with someone else and they broke up…again.

Really though it was just S hiding out pretending to be a guy lol. It’s cute when S and B are friends.

Serena didn’t have a lot going on this time around – she was getting emails from all the schools she applied for begging for her to come to them, but she ultimately decided on Yale. Which I still see her dropping out of but we will see. Oh and there was a rumour she was dating someone in a band but it was only a rumour.

B on the other hand, was still waitlisted so she showed up to this Yale thing to see if she could find someone who could use their influence to get her in. It didn’t really work out for her though. But that’s okay because she totally got in anyway – finally after all the waiting. I did kind of wonder if she would or not because if memory serves, it didn’t happen for her on the TV show so she ended up at NYU.

Oh and also she decided to move in with Vanessa after the headmistress told her she couldn’t stay in a hotel until she graduated. I thought this was random but I just remembered she did share a dorm room with Vanessa at NYU on the TV show lol. That being said they definitely tolerate each other more in the book than on TV.

Blair even hooked Vanessa up with her stepbrother Aaron which is super weird. Though to be fair I can see it. They are both kind of weird in the book, so why not throw them together. Let’s see how long it lasts, their relationship and the whole V and B living together thing. I don’t think either will be for very long but it would be interesting to see.

Another thing to note is that Nate and Blair were kind of thinking about being together again at the end of the book, but Nate got high and stupid again and decided it was a good idea to start getting with Serena. Oh you guys. Blair found out and was mad af so looks like they are all on the outs again. We shall see if Nate and Serena even make it to a relationship or whether they just end up hooking up and nothing else.

I suppose it will be an interesting time for the three amigos, but it will be a fun one. I remember when Nate went to Columbia on the TV show and minded his own business and didn’t get caught up in much drama haha.

Now moving on to Dan and Little J. Well. They definitely have taken a turn.

First of all, Dan in a band? HAHAHAHA. He was the lead singer for like a day and thought he was so cool. But then he went to the first gig and projectile vomited on stage – yikes. I never saw it lasting but he definitely went out with a bang.

Next thing you know Jenny is taking over and living her best rebellious teen life. Modelling with Serena was going great, but she wanted more of that life so she sneaks out to party with Dan’s band, steals his spot as lead singer and straight-up asks to be sent to boarding school so she can reinvent herself like Serena did lol. Wild.

It’s interesting that Jenny is desperate to be like Serena in the book but in the TV show she is all about wanting to be the next Blair. But either way, I can’t believe she just decided to straight-up say to her dad she wanted to go to boarding school haha. I feel like she will end up hating it a lot.

Also good for her for sneaking into that senior party, that was fun. I like seeing Jenny being fun and doing these crazy things, it’s more fun than seeing Dan be all dark and broody.

If anything I am also surprised that Rufus is so chill about things in the book. On the TV show, he would have had a fit if Dan and Jenny were both in a band. I mean I suppose in both, he isn’t the biggest fan of Jenny’s behaviour at all but yeah. I suppose it’s weird that they built out all these dramatic storylines on the TV show to do with the parents and none of it exists in the books.

I mean the only one we hear about on a regular basis is probably Eleanor, but she’s crazy in the books haha. Occasionally Rufus pops up in the story but it’s nothing major.

I do prefer it though, just because the whole Rufus/Lily TV thing was kind of meh. I mean I think when I first watched the TV show, I kind of wanted things to work out but then ultimately it was kind of annoying.

Anyway, that brings us to the end of another Gossip Girl book. I did like this one a lot more than the last one, so we will see where the next one takes us. I imagine to graduation and the summer before uni with how slow things are moving, but that’s fine with me, I kind of like the small timeline because when reading all the books in one go it’s easy to remember and follow along. I can imagine it was annoying reading them when they first came out and having to wait for the next one but I have no such issue lol.

You know you love me,

~ Courtney x