From the Shadows I Review: Gossip Girl: It Had to be You by Cecily von Ziegesar

My Ratings

1 star - Awful. I feel as though I have been tortured by an author who has had a bad day at the computer

2 stars - Pretty bad. I probably won't read the book again

3 stars- It's okay. It didn't capture me in the way I like but overall I enjoyed the book.

4 stars - Good. I enjoyed the book but it lacked something that would have made it special.

5 stars - Amazing. A rating I don't give often but when I do it means the book stands head and shoulders above all others for the same age group.

If I've given a book a .5 it means that my indecisiveness has won and I'm stuck between two ratings.

Friday, 29 April 2011

Gossip Girl: It Had to be You by Cecily von Ziegesar

On the Back of the Book

Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where my friends and I live in luxe Fifth Avenue apartments and attend Manhattan's most exclusive private schools. We're smart, we've inherited classic good looks, we wear fantastic clothes, and we know how to party. We can't help it-we were born this way.

Our story begins with three inseparable, completely gorgeous fifteen-year-olds, Serena van der Woodsen, Blair Waldorf, and Nate Archibald. Blair's loved Nate and his glittering green eyes since she was in Bonpoint onesies. Too bad Nate wishes Blair's beautiful
best friend, Serena, was the one with the crush. And Serena has a secret she's keeping from them both. Hmmm, something tells me these best friends may not be as close as we thought. . . .

How do I know all this? Because I know everything-and lucky for you, I can't keep a secret. So sit back while I untangle this messy little tale and tell you how it all began.

Admit it, you're already falling for me.

You know you love me.
gossip girl

My Thoughts

I really didn't like this one. For me it contradicted the rest of the story in ways. I'm all for the prequel, it was an amazing idea but it needed to be executed better. It was almost as though the author had forgotten parts of the story from earlier in the series.

The fact that the characters were exactly the same was also disconcerting. You'd expect them to be more immature or less bothered about fashion, but they weren't. In fact they were worse in the rest of the series. An illusion of character growth would have been nice.

I don't have a clue what happened to this series, this and the two books before it were really bad. This used to be such a good series.

My Rating

1 star - This truly is one of the worst books I have read in my life. I said last time I reviewed a Gossip Girl that it was the worst book in the series. I stand corrected. This one is. Don't waste your time.

A Final Note

This book contains sex, drug usage and heavy swearing. So if you've read this and still thought, 'Oooh I'll give it a go', not if you're easily offended you won't.