Rules for Being a Girl by Candace Bushnell & Katie Cotugno

A special thank you to Edelweiss and Balzer & Bray for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There's a set of unspoken guidelines—the rules for being a girl—that Marin has always been good at navigating. She's an exceptional student and editor of her school's paper. Her dream is to go to Brown University.

Marin and her best friend, Chloe, are quite captivated with their young and charismatic English teacher, Mr. Beckett. And "Bex" seems to have taken an interest in Marin. He admires her writing and is always eager to chat about books with her.

After school one day, Bex offers Marin a ride. On the way, he offers to stop by his place to pick up the book he's been meaning to lend her yet keeps forgetting to bring to class. But then Bex takes things too far. Marin is hurt, shocked, and like most women, is quick to blame herself—did she lead him on?

Finally bolstering up the courage, Marin reports what happened to the school administration, but they don't believe her, and neither does Chloe. Now she's forced to see Mr. Beckett everyday in class and he's making her life miserable. But Marin isn't having it—she fights back with the help of her new allies from the feminist book club she started, and writes a piece in the school paper.

Now she's making her own rules.

What an opportune and and thought-provoking read. I can certainly relate to "the rules for being a girl" and like all women, have experienced many of them first hand. Quite simply, it's heartbreaking. It is also upsetting to think about how far we still have to go. This book just barely scratches the surface, but the attempt isn't for naught. Given that this is an issues-based book, it really could have gone either way. But Bushnell and Contugno deftly handle the topic of assault (that is also a gross abuse of power).

There are also some other really solid elements in the story—the connections Marin made and the feminist book club with its great recommendations. And there are also parts that are uncomfortable. Unfortunately, these are the realities for many women and girls.

Although a quick and easy read, Rules for Being a Girl packs a huge punch. Don't let the pretty cover and the fact that it is a YA book fool you. This is timely, topical, and exactly what we need more of.

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CANDACE BUSHNELL is the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of The Carrie Diaries, Sex and the City, Is There Still Sex in the City?, Lipstick Jungle, One Fifth Avenue, 4 Blondes, Trading Up, and Summer and the City, which have sold millions of copies.

Bushnell lives in New York City and Sag Harbor.

KATIE COTUGNO is the New York Times bestselling author of Top Ten, 99 Days, 9 Days and 9 Nights, Fireworks, and How to Love. She studied writing, literature, and publishing at Emerson College and received her MFA in fiction at Lesley University.

Cotugno lives in Boston.

Is There Still Sex in the City? by Candace Bushnell

A special thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss, and Grove Atlantic/Grove Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sex and the City was a cultural phenomenon—Carrie Bradshaw redefined the single girl. Fast forward twenty years and Candace Bushnell is back with a commentary on sex, dating, and friendship after the age of fifty.

In this book, Bushnell's topical chapters are a comment on trying to find love when you are middle aged, and how to navigate after divorce with the modern tools that are readily available to singles today. She also updates one of her more popular stories from Sex and the City, "The Bicycle Boys," about the dudes who are always trying to bring their bicycles up to a woman's apartment. There are other amusing anecdotes—getting Tindered, or the "Unintended Cub Situation" where a competent, put-together older woman temporarily loses all sensibility when she becomes the love interest of a much younger man.

Is There Still Sex in the City? is a satirical look at how middle-aged women are perceived, the unrealistic expectations put upon women by way of not aging and doing/having it all, as well as all the different stages and types of love—marriage, having children, not having children, divorce, and widowhood. This book is exactly what we need more of. What does it really mean to have it all? Who judges these things? Why are women constantly being compared to another woman's best instead of their own personal best? Some days it is a huge feat just to even get out of bed in the morning. The levels of expectations that women, both young and old, experience, and the pressures of society to be thin, beautiful, youthful, and successful are both crippling and unrealistic. These same pressures are not put on men, especially with appearance (see the section about the "Mona Lisa" treatment).

Bushnell is a fantastic writer. She's engaging, captivating, and razor sharp and this wry social commentary collection is no exception.

CANDACE BUSHNELL is the critically acclaimed, internationally bestselling author of Sex and the City, Lipstick Jungle, The Carrie Diaries, One Fifth Avenue, Trading Up, Four Blondes, Summer and the City, and Killing Monica.