Would I Lie To You - Cecily von Ziegesar

Would I Lie To You
Gossip Girl #10
Cecily von Ziegesar
Little, Brown and Company

Young Adult (ages 15 and up)

Note: If you haven’t read the previous books in the series, this review contains plot spoilers.

It’s July; the last summer before everyone goes off to college. No one wants to spend the hot, sticky summer in Manhattan, so everyone who’s anyone makes the trip to the Hamptons. Boys on the beach in board shorts; girls on the sand in bikinis, what could be better? But, somehow, things don’t quite work out the way everyone expects. Nate, for example, is supposedly stuck working for Coach all summer to earn his diploma. If you have to ask why, you haven’t been keeping up with current events.

Blair and Serena start July as the guests of the fabulous designer Bailey Winter. He’s planning an entire collection inspired by the two of them. But, when they get there, they see double. Two models who, from a distance, look like Blair and Serena, who will be the “faces” of the collection. Up close, of course, the differences are obvious; the skanky clothes, the not-right teeth, the wonky eye. Not exactly flattering. And you know that Blair and Serena aren’t going to stand for that for very long. Serena’s birthday falls in the middle of the summer. Will she celebrate at Bailey’s? Will her parents tear themselves away from Wimbledon long enough to throw her a party? Or will she just have to get creative?

Filmmaker Vanessa starts her summer suffocating in the city. And, somehow, she’s become nanny to twin four-year-old terrors. She’s clearly not thinking straight when she agrees to accompany the family on a trip to the Hamptons. Those creative types always seem to land on their feet. And they tend to gather together. Which, not so incidentally, brings us to Dan, still working his summer job at the Strand bookstore. New employee, Greg, who is also a fan of Dan’s poetry, suggests starting a literary salon. Dan enthusiastically agrees. Does he have a surprise in store!

I won’t spoil anything (how would that be fun?) but at the very end, Gossip Girl does drop a hint or two about her identity. Nothing concrete, of course, so we’ll just have to wait until the next installment. In the meantime, there are plenty of questions still to be answered, and plenty of summer left. You know you love her.

Rating: 7 ½
October 2006
ISBN# 978-0-316-01183-9 (trade paperback)