Description: In this fifth scandalous novel in the "New York Times" bestselling series, Blair moves in with Serena and they're back to being best friends. But will the love-fest last, or will they end up tearing out one another's newly highlighted hair?

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Children's Literature Review: This fifth series installment features a relatively large continuing cast of high school friends, monitored by the anonymous gossip girl who posts tidbits about their activities on her Web site. The book is set in a contemporary Manhattan fantasyland, where parents are absent, wealth is enormous, and high school poets get published in the New Yorker. Part of the action takes place during spring break at a posh vacation home in Sun Valley. Blended families, internships, and anxiety about college acceptance letters-all aspects of modern teenage life, regardless of economic status-appear in the story, but relationships and sex are the main issues occupying the characters. Slice-of-life episodes take the place of a plot, but there are some surprising elements, such as the revelation that one character has elderly parents and lives a middle-class life and the appearance of a hippie found-art family that refuses to compromise their ideals. The book is not entirely self-contained, and it is h...

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