It Had to Be You: The Gossip Girl Prequel

by Cecily von Ziegesar

Book Overview

Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where my friends and I live in luxe Fifth Avenue apartments and attend Manhattan's most exclusive private schools. We're smart, we've inherited classic good looks, we wear fantastic clothes, and we know how to party. We can't help it-we were born this way.

Our story begins with three inseparable, completely gorgeous fifteen-year-olds, Serena van der Woodsen, Blair Waldorf, and Nate Archibald. Blair's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316017698
• ISBN13: 9780316017695
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Poppy Books
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.3" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 15 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 10 to 12

Customer Reviews

Excellent prequel - gave us a steamy look at all that has been alluded to over the years

I loved this prequel! I have been a GG fan for years now - who can help loving the catty adventures of the richest and prettiest girls in NYC? All through the series we've seen the tension between Nate, Serena, and Blair, and now we see how it all began - the threesome's close friendship and how it blossomed into - well - a complicated triangle to say the least! ;) Serena and Blair both fall in love with Nate at the same time, and they amp up their friendship to be a little sexier and work together to keep him away from the snare of a slutty beauty who also wants him. But both girls can't win, and we see them struggling to preserve their friendship and win the boy - two things that just can't happen at the same time. This book also shows us the relationship beginnings of a certain shaved-headed goth and a caffeine-addicted poet, and the antics of the rest of the cast as well. If you are a fan, this book is well worth the cover price!

Made a lot of things clearer.

If you havent read the series quite yet. I recommend purchasing this book and then beginning because i've read the entire series and then turning around and trying to read this one i had to remember a lot which was sort of difficult. overall tho a very very good book.

This is a must read for any gossip girl fan especially if you just started watching the show!

This book was amazing! I read the first gossip girl book about a year ago and fell in love with it. About a month ago a friend of mine got me back into them and I can't put them down. I have read the first book several times and had always wondered what some of the drama was about. This prequel really explains everyone's history very well. I just have to say that Nate and Serena's history is very complicated but very enthralling. Blair is so unrealistic with her expectations for her and Nate. Who thinks about that stuff at the age of 16! I absolutely love Jenny's storyline in this book. I have never seen someone so obsessed with their boobs! Dan and Vanessa's relationship is so awkward, it totally reminds me of my life! The author did a wonderful thing in writing a prequel for the series, it really explains things. It is totally going to really help me understand somethings when I read the rest of the series. I love this book and I can't wait to read the rest of the series!

From Cecily von Ziegesar

Hey people, Cecily here. I just want all my readers to know that the GG prequel, It Had to Be You, WAS really great and I WAS really proud of it, until the copyeditors and proofreaders changed words that shouldn't have been changed and created mistakes in the book that shouldn't be there. I worked really hard and spent a year writing the book and I was so excited when it finally came out, but now I just want everyone to read the book I wrote, not the tampered-with version. For instance, there's this whole chapter where the word "ululate" which is actually a really funny word, was changed to "undulate" like six times. Now the chapter isn't funny anymore and makes no sense. You guys are all really smart and I'm pretty sure you'll know something is up when you come across these mistakes. I just wish my copyeditors and proofreaders were as smart as you are. Needless to say, this isn't the last you're all going to hear about this. You know I love you, Cecily

The can't-miss book of the year!

Over the years we have grown to known and love our favorite Upper East Side scandal-makers. We have followed their every move - thanks to the help of a little birdie named Gossip Girl - and accompanied them as they played the field, played hard to get, broke hearts, found love, shopped 'till they dropped, and partied until the sun came up. The one thing we were never privvy to, however, is how it all began. How they came to love - and hate - one another; and why their relationships were so tumultuous. But now, we get to go inside their private world, and see just how our favorite socialites became so...fabulous. IT HAD TO BE YOU takes readers back to a time before Nate Archibald hat taken his first hit. Before Serena van der Woodsen abandoned her cushy life in the city for boarding school living with her older brother. Before little Jenny Humphrey was burdened by an over-large chest. Before Blair Waldorf's father came out of the closet. It provides answers to our questions, and gives us a little piece of mind. At least for now. At fifteen-years-old, Blair Waldorf, Serena van der Woodsen, and Nate Archibald were basically attached at the hip. The Three Musketeers-esque clique did simply everything together - from partying to sleepovers, and everything in-between. Nate was viewed by his older St. Jude's School for Boys classmates as being the man-about-town, considering he had managed to hook not one, but two smoking hot girls to hang on his every word. And, in turn, Blair and Serena were viewed as goddesses by their Constance Billard classmates for having the privilege to hang out with someone as dashing as Nate. But each girl was harboring a secret. Both Serena and Blair had been madly in love with Nate, and his hypnotizing green eyes, since they were in diapers. The only question that remained was who would be the lucky girl to snag him as their boyfriend; and who would end up the odd woman out. Without a mother to care for them, Dan and Jenny Humphrey simply had each other to rely on. And, without any known friends, it was essential that the two stuck close to one another. Luckily, they both had one very important thing in common...their obsession with the ethereal Serena van der Woodsen. While neither had ever spoken to Serena, they both admired her from afar, and watched her every move - like sibling stalkers. But, for Jenny, her obsession went farther than just Serena. It reached her chest; or, rather, lack thereof. At twelve-years-old, Jenny was the only one in her class without noticeable development, and was determined to make it to at least a 34B. This, of course, left her perusing the Internet to locate some sort of wonder drug. But then the unthinkable happened, and it became evident that sometimes you have to be truly careful for what you wish for. Vanessa Abrams was always an off-the-wall girl. However, with her flowing black hair that reached past her waist, she had the potential to be beautiful; if only she would take up a n