The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell

Finally, I am done reading The Carrie Diaries. Finally, I was able to meet Carrie  Bradshaw before Sex and the City. For a suburban kid who has lived a normal life, with all the intricacies and delinquencies of teendom, Carrie has indeed come a long, long way. But in spite of having a family with its own delinquencies (whose family doesn't have one anyway?) and being put down several times for following her passion in writing, and going through all those broken friendships and tainted love, Carrie has remained witty, funny, forgiving and generous, pretty much the same Carrie Bradshaw we've known in the hit HBO series and movies Sex and the City 1 & 2.  Candace Bushnell has portrayed young Carrie very well and brought her readers to the inner motivations and aspirations that made Carrie unique out of all the spectacular book characters out there.

While reading The Carrie Diaries, I felt like I was reading one of those Sweet Valley High pocketbooks I used to collect back in High School, only this time, the face of young Sarah Jessica Parker kept popping in my head. ^_^ How I wish I could be like Carrie, you know? Like even as a young teenager, she already knew what she wanted to become -- a writer, by hook or by crook even if almost everybody around her tells her otherwise.

All the twists and turns in the story had given me such insightful revelations as to how Carrie became the writer  that her character is today, how she found her writing voice, and how she remained to be a hopeless romantic.

I loved how Carrie's friendships became so twisted that it led her to finally meeting one of the main SATC characters we know. Even now as I write it, it's giving me goosebumps, but in a good way. I so did not expect it! Candace Bushnell surely knows  her Carrie Bradshaw very well. I wonder if there's another book after this? ^_^