The It Girl
by Cecily von Ziegesar
An “It Girl” Novel
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I have been eagerly awaiting The It Girl series, which many of you know is a spinoff from one of the characters in the “Gossip Girl” series. As soon as I got my copy I eagerly devoured it, hoping that the characters wouldn’t be too similar to the Gossip Girl set. Thankfully they weren’t- in fact, this was a great book, even better than I’d hoped!

You may recall from the last Gossip Girl book that Jenny Humphrey has left Constance Billard in NYC to go to a boarding school- Waverly Academy in Upstate New York. Waverly Academy is filled with rich kids with their secrets. Jenny herself is trying to move into her “New Jenny” role, meaning she isn’t going to let people get her down anymore. She wants to be more wild, more in control, more free. So far it seems to be working, as several of the popular guys in school seem to like her already. But can that be because of the rumors that keep following her around?

The other main characters in The It Girl are just as intriguing. There is Brett Messerschmidt, a gorgeous girl who is trying desperately to hide her home life while trying to snag the cute new Disiplinary Committee advisor. Then there is the stuck up and selfish Callie, whose boyfriend Easy seems to have plans that don’t include her. Callie meanwhile is trying to manipulate everyone in site, including Jenny so that she doesn’t get kicked out of school. Easy himself can’t decide if he likes Jenny or his old girlfriend Callie. And there are others…

As with the other series, this book is told from multiple viewpoints so that the reader gets to see what is going on in each person’s head. With glamourous parties, backstabbing and snobbiness galore, The It Girl kept me reading non-stop until the end. The characters were interesting and unique; and there were many little sideplots with plenty of romantic tension thrown in for good measure. The author does a fantastic job of both providing a juicy, intriguing plot and sparking major interest in the next book in the series.

Despite the plot being a bit unrealistic, and the strange way that so many of the girls had boy names, I loved this book and cannot wait for the next!

Overall I highly recommend this book to anyone that likes a gossipy good teen novel.

Reviewed by Rian
5/5 Stars