Review: Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell

Summer and the City (The Carrie Diaries #2) by Candace Bushnell
Publication Date: April 26, 2011
Publisher: Harper Collins
Number of Pages: 409
Format: Hardback
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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've been meaning to read this ever since it came out. Not sure why it took me so long. I couldn't put the book down.

I'm a huge fan of the tv show and when I saw the first Carrie Diary book I was curious. I love seeing a young Carrie. A warning to those who really love the tv show. Don't read these two books and look for background information on the girls against the show. Some of them don't add up with the show.

This book picks up right where the first one left off. Carrie has just arrived to NYC to start a summer writing program. And of course with her luck she gets mugged. Before she had left home, her enemy turned friend Donna told her to look up her cousin if she gets the chance. Which is what Carrie does, and we meet Samantha Jones. Samantha instantly dubs Carrie with the nickname Sparrow. With a turn of events, Carrie barely lasts three days where she's suppose to be staying and ends up staying at Samantha's for the rest of the summer.

Not long in the book when we meet Miranda. Plus Carrie starts to see a famous playwright. Which I knew wouldn't end good. Something just wasn't right with the relationship. Plus he was a good 10 or so years older than her. And towards the end we see Carrie get in a passionate love affair. The only disappointing thing about that is it came so close to the end. There was an appearance by Donna and her best friend Maggie. Bringing them in showed how much Carrie had changed and grown up. The stay with Maggie had me a little disappointed because I hate to see best friends grow apart. But Maggie was also a complete bitch.

At the end of the book we got to see not only how Carrie met Charlotte, but how she ended up staying in New York and not going to Brown.

Like I mentioned this book was amazing. Such a great coming of age book. Not to mention it's easy to forget that this is a prequel to Sex and the City. I wanted more. I wanted to see her have a happy ending and finding true love. It was also easy to forget that this takes places in the 80s. Such a different time than now.

Rating: 5/5