Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell

Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell
Release Date – April 26, 2011
Publisher – HarperTeen
Pages - 409
My Rating- 7.5/10

Here is the synopsis from Good Reads

Summer is a magical time in New York City and Carrie is in love with all of it—the crazy characters in her neighborhood, the vintage-clothing boutiques, the wild parties, and the glamorous man who has swept her off her feet. Best of all, she's finally in a real writing class, taking her first steps toward fulfilling her dream.

This sequel to The Carrie Diaries brings surprising revelations as Carrie learns to navigate her way around the Big Apple, going from being a country "sparrow"—as Samantha Jones dubs her—to the person she always wanted to be. But as it becomes increasingly difficult to reconcile her past with her future, Carrie realizes that making it in New York is much more complicated than she ever imagined.

With her signature wit and sparkling humor, Candace Bushnell reveals the irresistible story of how Carrie met Samantha and Miranda, and what turned a small-town girl into one of New York City's most unforgettable icons, Carrie Bradshaw.

I reviewed the first book - The Carrie Diaries - you can read that here. There will be spoilers (minor) from the first book in this review.

I was psyched when I read the name Samantha Jones at the end of the last book. I am a huge Sex and the City fan so I was excited to see the other girls and not just Carrie.

Samantha and Miranda are in this book. I am happy to say that they felt like the Samantha and Miranda I remember from the show, just younger and less experienced.

As a fan of the show it’s hard not to pick out the discrepancies between the show and the book. There are things that happen in this books that would contradict things that happened in the show. It’s best if you try to read it without thinking about the show at all. I can’t compare it to the Sex and the City book as I haven’t read it, but maybe it’s more in line with that.

The writing style in this book is exactly like the first one. I think it’s straight forward and there are few surprises. It’s one of those books that would be nice to read on the beach in the summer.

I was happy to finally see Carrie meet Charlotte at the end of the book and wish we would have had more of her in the book.

I LOVE New York. One of my favourite things about this book was getting to hear about the shops, restaurants, and attractions that Carrie visits. It felt like such a huge part of the story. New York was almost a character in the TV show and that carries over to the novels.

If you liked the first book, or are a fan of the TV show I think you’ll enjoy this one. It’s fun to see the girls we love from Sex and the City as teenagers and I hope there is a third so we can actually “meet” Charlotte.

The Carrie Diaries - Candace Bushnell

The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell
Release Date - April 27, 2011
Publisher - HarperCollins (HarperTeen)
Pages - 400
My Rating 7/10

Here is the GoodReads synopsis -

Before Carrie Bradshaw hit the big time in the City, she was a regular girl growing up in the suburbs of Connecticut. How did she turn into one of the most-read social observers of our generation?

The Carrie Diaries opens up in Carrie's senior year of high school. She and her best friends -- Walt, Lali, Maggie, and the Mouse -- are inseparable, amid the sea of Jens, Jocks and Jets. And then Sebastian Kydd comes into the picture. Sebastian is a bad boy-older, intriguing, and unpredictable. Carrie falls into the relationship that she was always supposed to have in high school-until a friend's betrayal makes her question everything. With her high school days coming to a close, Carrie will realize it's finally time to go after everything she ever wanted.

Rabid fans of Sex and the City will love seeing Carrie Bradshaw evolve from a regular girl into a sharp, insightful writer. They'll learn about her family background -- how she found her writing voice, and the indelible impression her early friendships and relationships left on her. We'll see what brings Carrie to her beloved New York City, where the next Carrie Diaries book will take place

I must start this review by giving the disclaimer that I am a huge fan of the TV show Sex and the City. I loved it, own all the season (the movies…errr….not so much). Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda were all characters that I ended up loving and was sad to part with when the series ended. I picked up this book because of the fact I adored the series.

We first meet Carrie and I was happy to see that she was “Carrie” even as a teenager. Her character in this book fit what I pictured she would have been like as a teenager. It was nice to see some of her background story and see her work on her first newspaper column. It was great to see her take those first steps to become the “Carrie” from the series.

A few of her friends grew on me. I especially liked Walt and Mouse. However, some of the characters felt like stereotypes and not real, flushed out characters. It felt like some of them were put in the story only to fulfill a certain purpose and not because they were organic to the telling of the story.

The storyline and writing are pretty much what you would expect from the synopsis with very little surprises. There are also quite a few more mature elements to the story that would make it more suitable for older teens.

Without giving any spoilers away, the final pages of the book where we get the first reference to one of three other women we know and love from the Sex and the City series made me ecstatic. I was so excited to read that familiar name on the page and that makes me eager to pick up the second book. I have a feeling that the second one might delight TV show fans even more.

If you are a fan of the original TV series I would expect that you would enjoy this book. If you are not familiar with the series it could be a hit or miss.