*REVIEW* The Carrie Diaries

Synopsis:

Before Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw was a small-town girl who knew she wanted more. She's ready for real life to start, but first she must navigate her senior year of high school. Up until now, Carrie and her friends have been inseparable. Then Sebastian Kydd comes into the picture, and a friend's betrayal makes her question everything.

With an unforgettable cast of characters, The Carrie Diaries is the story of how a regular girl learns to think for herself and evolves into a sharp, insightful writer. Readers will learn about her family background, how she found her writing voice, and the indelible impression her early friendships and relationships left on her. Through adventures both audacious and poignant, we'll see what brings Carrie to her beloved New York City, where her new life begins.

The Carrie Diaries introduces us to a young Carrie Bradshaw, a character that many women have grown to absolutely adore thanks to the popularity of the Sex and the City TV show and subsequent movies. This book follows Carrie through her senior year of high school and we get to witness her deal with relationship and friendship drama, gain confidence in her ability as a writer, and take a huge step toward the future that we know is in store for her.

I have to admit that this is the first Candace Bushnell book that I have read and while I wanted to love it from the very beginning, I had a very hard time getting into this one. It took me ten days to read it, mainly because I couldn't read much at a time without getting bored. It got better as I got deeper into the book but it was definitely not what I expected.

Some of the good things: Carrie. I still love her. I had a hard time not comparing her to the Carrie Bradshaw on the TV show though and I know that's a mistake on my part since the TV Carrie is only loosely based on the Carrie from Candace Bushnell's novel. But the teenage book Carrie was great and watching her growth throughout the book was interesting. I hated the way she was with Sebastian and I think that's part of the reason the first half of the book was so rough for me. I have a hard time reading about girls putting up with crap like that. I am happy that Carrie learns to stand up for herself though. We get to see her become one step closer to the adult Carrie that we adore.

I also liked some of the friendships in the book, though not all of them! This book paints an unfortunately realistic look at the mean ways that girls will treat each other. Makes me beyond happy that I am far removed from the high school stage of life.

I would recommend this book to people who are avid fans of Carrie Bradshaw. It was interesting to get to see a glimpse into the childhood that created such an intriguing and relatable adult character. I would caution readers though that this book is definitely boring at times and really could be cut down a bit. While I don't regret reading it, I probably won't be re-reading this book anytime soon. I hope you enjoy it if you do read it! My favorite part was the ending... and a certain phone call. You'll know what I mean if you read it... *XOXO*