Cum Laude

Cum Laude, by Cecily von Ziegesar.

Another slow song came on, and even as their bodies continued to participate with what was happening in the room - talking to each other, moving puzzle pieces around, pretending not to fall sleep or stroke a foot or a lock of hair - their minds were elsewhere. Each of them in his or her own way was marveling at how they'd gotten there, to this particular house in Maine, this wee-hour moment together, when at breakfasttime they'd been in their own houses, in their own hometowns, with no inkling of this whatsoever.

Cecily von Ziegesar is the author of the "Gossip Girl" series, and I read a review of Cum Laude online that said she basically took the stereotypes of her characters from there and put them in this book. I am a big fan of "Gossip Girl," and although this may be so, I thought she did an excellent job with this novel, and I hope there will be a sequel or two - one website mentions two more but another says no sequels will be coming anytime soon.

Eliza, Nick, Tom, and Shipley are freshmen at Dexter College, in a small town in Maine. They meet each other during orientation and have no idea at that point how their lives will soon intersect with one another. Cum Laude follows them through their first year of college, and by the end of the book I found myself wanting more - much like with von Ziegesar's "Gossip Girl" Manhattanites.

4.5 stars out of 5.