This book was not a bad read, just truly not what I expected. I definitely appreciate the arc and the author. If you are a super fan of Sex & the City, you will LOVE this book. But for me, it just seemed a little more watered down. Traditionally, I don’t rate shows over the book, but it just seemed to miss the bite that I was expecting, given how much I enjoyed the banter and tone of the show. Still a fun book, and definitely a nice read if you’re feeling the need for a chill read.

I just want to start my review by saying I think Candace Bushnell is a great author and I believe she has so much talent. I have been a huge Sex in the City fan for years and was so excited when I was given an ARC of this book. I have read other books by Candace Bushnell in the past and have really enjoyed them however, this book just did not connect with me. I don't think I am of the age or have the life experience to find the events that take place in this book relatable. I think it was well written and for someone that may find this relatable I think they could really enjoy it. It just wasn't for me.

I am obsessed with the TV show Sex and The City. I've seen every episode and every movie. So obsessed that when I went to NY I begged my husband to let me go on the Sex and the City tour. I was really excited to read this book and hopefully keep my Sex in the City crush going.
Funny stories and tales of middle age dating, divorce and starting over. How hard is it to date when your not a 20 something, but now old enough to be considered a "cougar". How hard is it to maintain female friendships and fight to stay looking flawless. The book is written up with chapters on all different topics and Candace gives you stories from her personal experiences. I found it to be a very fast read, funny, and made me thankful I'm married and not out there dating at my age! I think if you were a fan of the show you'll enjoy the book.

I love Candace Bushnell and everything Sex and the City! This was a super interesting memoir about her life after divorce. I was very interested to read it but once I started it I found it hard to get into. It reads like they are blog posts and follows the timeline of what she went through. I love hearing others stories and how they made it through various hardships. I just found it to read like scattered thoughts and that made it hard to finish reading. Ultimately I didn’t finish it. I do hope to complete it at some point. Not sure what I expected from the memoir but this didn’t fulfill any expectations sadly.

I loved this book. It was so easy to jump right in, to get comfortable and friendly with the "characters" and empathize with them. I read that there was interest in turning this into a show, and even though it's not the ladies from the phenomenal HBO series, it felt just as good as a good season.

Thank you to Candace Bushnell, Grove Atlantic/Grove Press, and Netgalley for the early access to this title.

Having been a huge fan of Sex and the City, I was soooo anxious to dig right into this book, and may I say this book did not disappoint! There were many laugh out loud moments, throughout the book. The book was about dating in the digital age for women in their 50's who have been divorced. There were many acronyms to keep track of throughout the book which added to the fun of reading this book. The book was a fast read and an absolute delight! This book can be viewed as an inspiring book for women that are older and are trying to get themselves back out into the dating world...there will be some failures funny moments and then there will be some happy endings.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my review.

I, like everyone else, immediately requested this book as an avid fan of Bushnell.

However, I was slightly disappointed in this book. I expected a fast, fun read and really only got fast. While I fully appreciate writing that isn't all upbeat, I think a lot of readers are going to pick this up expecting that, and get let down.

This is the perfect guilty-pleasure read for anyone who devoured Candace Bushnell’s Sex in the City column (and, of course, the iconic TV show that followed) back in the day—and now finds themselves of a certain age and “out there” again, themselves. Through the lens of her own real (divorced, newly relocated life), Bushnell is back with her frank, funny commentary on men, women, and dating, along with a new cast of characters who all find themselves dating again at age 50-plus. It’s part memoir, part social commentary, part dating guide, and it’s all fun. And the best part has to be the hilarious names she comes up for various things women of this era might encounter in today’s dating world from cubbing to the Mona Lisa Treatment to “Middle-Aged Madness.” It’s a fun, quick read, and I absolutely can’t wait until they make a TV show about this one, too!

Thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Personally, I love Candace Bushnell. SATC was before my time, but my aunts got me into the show, and so my sister and I religiously binge watched it all the way through multiple times. I learned a lot from the show about my own sexuality, my own independence and the importance of close female friendships. Because of my love for the show, I branched our and devoured everything from Bushnell that I could, and I don’t regret it. It broke my heart a little at the beginning of this book to hear about her so rapidly losing her dog suddenly, getting divorced and moving to the “country” to write whatever she wanted - that no publisher would publish. I don’t know how bad or good these manuscripts were - but shame on the publisher. I am 30, I don’t know what it’s like to struggle as a near invisible woman in your 50’s, but ageism is out. Especially against women. So snap snap, get your lives together all those that turned down Candace Bushnell - SHE WROTE SATC!! You can’t get more empowering than that. Despite all of her struggles, the one thing I love the most about Bushnell is her ability to DO. To work on herself, to connect with her friends, to try something new. And this essay book wasn’t the perfect example of what she can DO. She always inspired me - whether as herself or as Carrie - to try. To put me first, to not be afraid to get out there, to be a proud woman. That’s an incredible gift to give to a girl. Some of the essays in this book were a little out of my age experience, but nonetheless, I loved it. I will excitedly share it with my aunts who excitedly shared SATC with me. I will shelve this book proudly and read it again in 20 years. Because Candace Bushnell is timeless. Her dialogue was the voice of a generation and I can’t help but applaud her for standing up and owning her new era of life.

I was really excited and curious about this book. I had it on my Kindle for a while, but when I don’t fall in love with the beginning of a book, it’s more difficult to keep a steady reading pace. That’s what happened with ‘Is There Still Sex in The City?‘.

But why?

I loved the 'Sex and The City' TV show (note, I’ve never actually read the first book). I suspect many would want to read this for the same reason. Now that’s quite the expectation since this was a series many of us loved.

The good: the parallel short stories and dating adventures do remind me of the TV show’s style. But somehow, what has worked so well in the TV didn’t seem to work in this book. Again, I can’t compare it to the first book as I never read it. Maybe it was the writing style, maybe it was the lack of structure. It felt more like a collection of short stories, without a structured plot. There was not that feeling of continuity, of “I really need to know what happens next.”

I didn’t feel much for the characters either. To be honest, sometimes I’d even forget their names or who the author was referring to because there were so many of them, especially friends or acquaintances of the main characters. It’s difficult to feel connected to so many different characters and stories, and you end up with the feeling that none of them were fully explored — even the main cast.

The other thing I didn’t love about this book is that it felt a bit depressing in the way men and relationships are described. It wasn’t as fun as I typically expect my light reads to be.

I thought the ideas and concept were there, but there was just something else missing for me.

Overall, I felt the Sex and the City spirit was lost among the many short stories and characters this book had. The fun, the reliability, the charming characters we feel connected to… I didn’t feel any of that in the book. Still, I’d encourage any fans to read it. Even though this book in specific wasn’t for me, we still owe Candice the world of Sex and the City. Without Candace, one of my favorite TV shows would have never existed.

Very charming and enjoyable book! As a sex in the City show/movie fan, I was excited to see this book available and it did not disappoint! Although there are different characters from the original, the idea of finding love after 50 and the friendships you maintain/encounter throughout the way make this book a fun, nostalgic read.

Is There Still Sex In The City? by Candace Bushnell is an exploration of love, lust, and digital dating after 50. How should older women, and men for that matter, navigate single life in a world that has vastly changed since they last dated. As more and more couples split, especially later on in life, Bushnell asks the question is there still love in the city, rather than sex.

Bushnell explores different dating apps like Tinder which, I will have to agree with her, is mainly about dick-pics and BJs. She also touches upon things like cougars and cubbing where older women date younger men. Lastly, she also touches upon the desirability of older women and the lengths women go to preserve their youth, ergo sex appeal.

We live most of our lives online now and with that comes a distance that we cannot overcome in the real world. Meeting people at bars doesn’t really happen anymore. Rather someone will stalk you online three days later then maybe like some of your photos as a way to let you know they are interested. Heaven forbid if people just spoke to one-another. Similarly, if you do find someone online you connect with, the question that more and more women are asking now is, what can I get out of this relationship? Rather than the sexist and outdated question of, what can I do for my man in this relationship?

I would have loved to see Bushnell talk more about LGBTQIA+ relationships in her book, but I also feel that the lack of this also reflects the social groups in which the author moves. Similarly, we don’t really get a perspective on interracial dating or dating with little to no money.

At times it is hard to feel sympathy for the women Bushnell’s talks about in her book because they have bank accounts most people can’t fathom. It feels, at times, like what some might call first-world problems. Yet, putting that aside, there are some real and raw emotions brought up in Bushnell’s work. While a lot of it is talking about exuberantly priced face creams, there are some real heartbreaking moments like when Marilyn takes her own life. On the surface, she had it all. Like many of the women in Bushnell’s book, she had a roof over her head, more money than she really, and generally an amazing life in New York. Yet, ill mental health does not care too much for such things and comes and goes and takes what it likes whenever it feels like it.

All things aside this book was an okay book to while away an afternoon. If you don’t dig too deep it can even make you laugh. As always, share the reading love.

NOTE: This novel was was accessed through Netgalley and Grove Press for review purposes.

It was great to read again Candace Bushnell and be able to appreciate her humor and the picture of women you can relate.
I loved this book, it was engaging and entertaining.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This book was okay.

I loved the TV show, but forgot that Bushnell's writing leaves me a little bored. While the story line was interesting, I thought the writing style was too detailed. It felt as though it took forever to get to the "point" as the author just seems to go on and on instead of just getting us to the main idea.

Love the idea behind this book, but not necessarily the writing style.

3.5 stars but rounded up for nostalgia.

This was an interesting look at dating, relationships, and life after your happily ever after isn't what it seems. How do the type of women we read about previously handle their newly single status? While, yes, dating was on the radar, I preferred the friendships of these women going through sometimes difficult periods of their lives. Those relationships built up the center of the book, not to mention the obvious RHONY crossover. Overall, I enjoyed this foray into Candace Bushnell's life after her marriage ended.

I was excited about reading this because of the author. I have read most of Candace Bushnell's books. This one takes a spin on fiction, as it is based on the authors life post divorce. It is a quick read which helped. The stories were great to read based on the characters being 50+, which is rare these days in novels. I would have liked a bit more flow between the chapters as it seemed a bit choppy.

A great beach read that does not require too much brain power to get through.

Is there still Sex in the City? What a great title - and what a very fun book; I love Candace Bushnell's tell-all, humorous, honest open style of storytelling. The first book, Sex and the City was published in 1997 as a kind of tell-all story from her years as a columnist for the New York Observer; the stories eventually became the basis for the smash series with the same title. Candace and her friends were in the prime of their lives; mid-30's, taking Manhattan by storm. Now it's around 20 years later, and is there still sex in the city? Candace tells of she and her friends entering back into the dating world of New York City, but with a middle aged slant, and things are vastly different than they were previously. Dating in the younger, current world has become more about online hook-ups, less emotional attachment, but Candace and her crowd, despite their past success are ultimately still looking for love; it's just a vastly different picture and playing field.

Candace explores the world of divorce after long marriages, dating through the Tinder app, upper east side living, MAM (middle aged madness), MNB's (my new boyfriend), of friendship, love, exploration, loss, and even death. I found myself - in my own MAM, comparing my life from the 90's until now. Carrie/Candace lived in a world I did not experience, but Candace, today, lives in a world similar to my own. I could find myself relating and nodding my head in agreement.

The question in the title was never really answered, but it seems to me that finding sex in the city is not the real question anyway. Finding and appreciating one's self in this expanding world is. Thank you, Candace for writing this book that allows the reader to realize we are not alone in how we feel; how we work, love, live, and play.

Candace Bushnell is the expert, the ultimate queen for many women who watched and admired Sex and the City. She is always funny, witty and clever. In this book she questions the life style for women in their 50s and 60s and asks whether there is still fun and sexiness for them by portraying different types of men who are available for the middle aged women to date. This book does not revolve around a story, but it reminded me of the first season of SATC where Carrie gives examples from her friends’ lives and makes her point. There are no characters written in depth in this book, but I don’t think that was ever the intention. We get to hear a lot of stories from different women’s experiences. The only thing that bothered me that Candace Bushnell made me feel like she does not value herself enough or is not valued enough by her friends. She is the damn queen of SATC that influenced a generation. She should not be worrying about men, her appearance, her financial situation and all that. But she does... maybe that’s why her observations are so great.
Thank you Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for an ARC.

I never watch Sex in the City, but had friends who did. Had no idea is was based on anything, actually, until I saw this book. Given I'm in Ms. Bushnell's age bracket, I thought I'd check it out. Nope. Nothing new here. It seems to be all about what every middle aged woman and up has been experiencing. Men we meet are looking for mostly someone to care for them or someone to support them, In some cases, someone to help support previous wives and still growing kids. No thanks. I'll stay single. Fans will likely enjoy the book. At least it may let them know what they are in for. It's a summer beach vacation read in my opinion. Well written, entertainment.

It was fabulous to be reading Candace again. I have loved all her previous books and have missed her writing... and I love how, once again, she is honest and open about dating and romance. Once again she is also resetting the narrative and taking away the stigma of writing about relationships with women who are slightly older and I think the publication of this book will spark lots of lovely articles about later life love. Brilliant!