The Nostalgia Project is my way of revisiting and rereading old favorites from my young adulthood to see if they still resonate with me. Learn more here and read old posts or reviews here!
I started The Nostalgia Project a couple of years ago when I decided to reread some of my old favorites. High school Lauren loved dramatic teen series involving rich kids, boarding school, and/or Hollywood and fame. I haven’t been super successful so far in rereading too many of these series, but I jumped on the chance to start this particular reread with Cristina when she tweeted about it. We decided to use a similar format to my Nostalgia Project posts, since the idea of it is pretty much the same.
As far as expectations go, I really had no recollection of this series! I didn’t expect to completely binge it in the course of a couple of weeks (especially because my reading has been spotty lately). To be honest, I expected to be exasperated by all of these teenagers and their absurd early-2000s-book behavior. Most of these kinds of books don’t hold up for me over time. I knew they’d be quick reads, but I clearly had no idea how quick.
I remembered the main character was Anna and that the books centered around her journey to California. I vaguely remembered the names of other characters and the love interests. Of course, there are multiple love interests throughout the 10 book series. I didn’t remember AT ALL how the books ended but sort of recalled not liking the ending? I could be wrong on this because I read the series 10 years ago, but still. I always felt like I was getting a glimpse into a completely new world with this series. The amount of product name drops for what these rich kids wear was INSANE.
I started reading the books right at the start of the month and finished them just in time for this feature to begin. In two more posts throughout this week, you’ll see some mini reviews/ a recap of the series and our overall feelings about the conclusion.
Love this idea! I’m impressed you were able to binge them so fast even though they were short- I feel like I’d get exasperated with the characters/plot too haha. I haven’t reread too many books from my teen years aside from Harry Potter and the Georgia Nicholson series (which is still very hilarious, tyvm). Can’t wait to read your mini reviews, I hadn’t heard of this series before!
Thank you 😀 I think fantasy series are easier to binge, in a way, because there’s a lot more action? Reading about the same characters doing mundane things – like this series – can be challenging to read ALL in a row. 10 books. haha. I had to take a few breaks 🙂
I am honestly surprised at how much the characters DIDN’T irritate me. I mean don’t get me wrong, they definitely all had their moments, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed rereading these books. Like you, however, I cannot for the life of me remembered how it ended (guess we’ll see since I’m binge reading the last two books tonight lol)
Hahaha YES EXACTLY. I felt like Anna annoyed me more than anyone for sure, but she wasn’t bad all the time by any means.