There’s nothing quite like a boatload of teen angst and crappy parents to make a good story (My thoughts on 99 Days by Katie Cotugno)

Let me start out by saying that while 99 Days by Katie Cotugno has been on the list of books that I’ve wanted to read for several months now, I originally wasn’t planning to review it any time soon. However, I was feeling bad about the fact that it took me so long to read First Time (Penny’s Story) by Abigail Barnette and write my review for the book; not to mention the fact that I’m currently in the process of reading A Game of Thrones. That’s definitely taking me a while since it’s: A) A very long book compared to all of the other books that I’ve reviewed so far B) I’ve been trying to do some research on the A Song of Ice and Fire book series to help me with writing my review, and C) I’m also trying to watch at least some of the first season of Game of Thrones before I write my review for the book and post it.

I’m definitely putting a lot more time and work into my whole process for reading A Game of Thrones and writing my review for that book than I have for all of my other book reviews at this point in time. Obviously, taking a break from reading A Game of Thrones for several days in order to read and review 99 Days is counterproductive to my finishing A Game of Thrones, but I really was feeling bad about not having reviewed more books by this point in time. I decided to read and review 99 Days now, because I figured that it would be a quick and enjoyable book to read and review; that being said, here are my thoughts on the book.

Right off the bat, I have to say that I definitely have mixed feelings about 99 Days. On the one hand, I felt like the story was rather cliché in some ways, and there were times when the whole Gabe/Molly/Patrick love triangle that 99 Days was centered around was a little exasperating. The backstory of what happened before Molly left town, and what things were like for her throughout most of the book reminded me a lot of Gossip Girl and the way the show began. If you’ve never watched Gossip Girl, it’s a teen drama about teenagers that pretty much all live on the Upper East Side of New York City. The show began with Serena returning to the Upper East Side from her self-imposed exile under somewhat mysterious circumstances. She originally left the Upper East Side after she slept with Nate, who was her best friend, Blair’s, boyfriend, and things weren’t smooth sailing when she first returned. Going back to 99 Days, because the backstory between Molly, Gabe and Patrick reminded me of Gossip Girl in some ways, I felt like the book was kind of lacking in originality. While 99 Days wasn’t the most original story in the world, it was still a very enjoyable book. Plus, Molly is a pretty likable protagonist for the most part, even though she did frustrate me at times.

Gossip Girl Rewatch: Once upon a time when this show was truly great… (My thoughts on episode 1x01 “Pilot”)

Let me start out this post by explaining why I decided to review an episode of Gossip Girl even though the show’s been off the air since December of 2012. For starters, as random as this will probably sound, reading Fifty Shades of Grey has really gotten me thinking about Gossip Girl again, and not necessarily entirely in a good way. As I’ve read Fifty Shades of Grey, I keep finding myself thinking about how sick and toxic Chuck and Blair’s relationship ended up becoming as the series progressed. Despite the fact that Chuck and Blair’s relationship became increasingly toxic as the series continued, both the writers for the show and what I always felt was a huge chunk of the show’s audience seem to view Chuck and Blair’s relationship as a fairytale romance, much like so many women out there seem to view Christian Grey as a romantic hero despite the fact that he treats Ana like shit throughout the course of the entire Fifty Shades trilogy.

For the record, I was originally a huge fan of Chuck and Blair’s relationship, but I stopped being a Chair shipper once Chuck tried to pimp Blair out to his Uncle Jack in an attempt to keep his hotel in season three. That being said, I haven’t just been thinking about Gossip Girl in a negative way though. I’ve found myself genuinely missing the show lately, so I’ve decided to revisit the show and watch some episodes again, blogging about them in the process.

Deciding to revisit Gossip Girl again feels very nostalgic for me personally since watching the season four episode “Empire of the Son” back when it first aired is what prompted me to decide to start blogging about Gossip Girl and TV shows in general. I’m just going to go right ahead and say that I’m going to start out by blogging about my Gossip Girl “Rewatch” simply on a trial basis since it’s a show that’s been off the air since 2012, I have no idea what the level of interest in reviews of episodes of Gossip Girl will be. Sure, Gossip Girl was perhaps the most popular show that I blogged about back when it was on the air, but that might have changed since the show has been off the air for several years now. I’d also like to clarify that if my Gossip Girl “Rewatch” reviews end up becoming an ongoing thing, I’m not going to watch and review all of the episodes in order. There are simply some episodes that I’m more interested in watching in the immediate future than others. I don’t really want to watch all of the episodes leading up to the episodes that I’m most excited to watch again. However, I thought that watching and reviewing the first episode of Gossip Girl would be a good place to start my “Rewatch”; that being said, here are my thoughts on the first episode.

Personally, I’ve always felt that this episode was a great start to the series. I know that some shows like to start off with their first episode diving right into the action as if the viewers are already familiar with the characters and the plot of the show. However, in most cases I prefer it when TV shows begin with some kind of event or several events to start things off, and I think that Serena returning to the Upper East Side under somewhat mysterious circumstances was a great way for the show to begin. I’ve also always thought that the first episode of Gossip Girl did everything the first episode of a TV should do. It did a good job of introducing all of the characters; the premise of the show, establishing various conflicts between the characters and it was simply a great episode.