Growing up, I was a huge fan of the Gossip Girl series (books and TV!) so when I discovered that Cecily von Ziegesar had written a new novel, Cobble Hill, I immediately requested a copy of it on NetGalley.

I’m going to be completely honest though. While I did not go into this story with any expectations or hope that it would be similar to Gossip Girl, I wasn’t totally impressed by this story. I didn’t hate it by any means, but I didn’t love it- I simply just found it okay. Even though I didn’t particularly love or feel super invested in any of the characters, I definitely found them to be entertaining and was intrigued on where the story was headed, as there were several bizarre scenes and interactions that made me laugh. All of the characters are intertwined in some way, and it was fun to see how all of their paths crossed throughout the book. I enjoyed that the story was told from multiple POV’s, including some of the kids.

If you’re hoping for something similar to Gossip Girl, you will not find that here. However, if you’re a fan of Cecily con Ziegesar and looking for a quirky, light hearted book that will make you laugh and can be read pretty quickly, I recommend checking out “Cobble Hill,” hitting shelves on November 10th. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Atria Books for gifting me this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Cecily von Ziegesar's latest novel is set in a Brooklyn, NY in a neighborhood known as Cobble Hill. It sounds like an artsy neighborhood, and many of the characters are artists of one sort or another—authors, musicians, avant-garde artists. Cobble Hill is more a character study than plot-driven tale. The story line is interesting and leisurely paced.

There is a wide cast of odd characters that I found confusing at first, but within a few chapters the family groupings come together. Each family’s story ranges from quirky to bizarre. Most of the marriages seem dysfunctional with all their secrets and lies, and the kids are <I>not</I> alright!
The individual storylines eventually get woven together as more and more of the characters meet and interact. As they do, the story becomes more intriguing.

I can’t say that I was fond of any of the characters, but I was invested in finding out how this quirky story eventually came together. I can’t explain it, but my favorite part was the illness-faking wife who starts stealing her neighbors' food-prep, home delivery boxes. Cobble Hill is a weirdly, wonderful story.

The cover and author grabbed my attention. But when I finished this book, I was just kind of like huh? What happened here? I just don't feel like there was enough story development. If you're expecting the drama of Gossip Girl, this is just lacking any of that.

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

This book was OK, it was entertaining enough that it kept me reading, but it got to a point that I just wanted it to end.

Sometimes the story felt like it was all over the place.

Does the name of this author sound familiar? That might be because you last heard this name along with “Gossip Girl.” That’s right! Cecily von Ziegesar is back (finally) and with a non-YA novel. Now, I’ve heard some meh reviews about it so far, but truthfully, I would disagree with that (I think those people were just hoping for another Gossip Girl).

This novel shows off one of von Ziegesar’s greatest skills: creating a whole world of incredibly unique and quirky characters and then throwing them together to let us watch what happens. All while letting New York City shine as it’s own character in the background. To go into each character would be overwhelming, but each character is so well developed and described you feel like you’ve known them for years within minutes of reading about them. The plot does move you through a full year, which can seem a little fast. However, I think that it ends up working really well and she’s able to cover a lot of ground without feeling like the reader missed anything.

I don’t think it’s necessarily a novel for everyone, but if you like an ensemble novel, then I would recommend it for you.

It was such an honor to receive an ARC of Cobble Hill from the publisher and I couldn’t wait to get started. Cobble Hill is a complex story of neighbors in Brooklyn that while living in close proximity could not be more different. Cecily von Ziegesar weaves a story around several of the families that are each dealing with various mid-life struggles from illness, infidelity, career crisis and the general growing pains associated with raising children at various stages of life.

Each character certainly had their own unique story and while I was engaged while reading, I struggled some to catch up and remember each family related to each character. It made for a bit of a disorganized feeling. Overall, I was glad I kept going and remained committed to each story and seeing the characters through. It felt good to laugh at times at the absurdity of some of the situations and when I finished their stories stayed with me for some time. Readers looking for comic relief and engaging characters will be glad they picked up Cobble Hill!

A sincere thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited to read this book, but it took me forever. I found it to be slow, slightly convoluted, and the characters frankly unlikeable. Such a bummer, but this didn’t hit the mark for me. Appreciate the ARC from Netgalley & the publisher.

I was, obviously, way too into Gossip Girl as a teenager. And so when I found out Cecily von Ziegesar was writing an adult novel I, now an adult, was hyped. And the book was…fine. Nothing special, honestly. I had hoped it would be like a more hip version of The Gifted School or Happy and You Know It, but it was a little cobbled together (lol) with weird pacing. Though I liked the characters–maybe this, like her OG series, was destined for TV.
In this book, the Cobble Hill area of Brooklyn is full of unique people. Former rockstar Stuart Little (yes…I know, and no, it’s never addressed) lives with his MS-faking wife Mandy and their son, Ted. But Stuart’s developing a crush on Ted’s school nurse, Peaches, who everyone in the neighborhood comes into contact with in different ways. Peaches lives in a basement apartment with her husband Greg and her smart son, Liam. Liam, of course, has a crush on Shy, who is the daughter of British author Roy Clarke who just moved into the neighborhood with his wife, Wendy, and his daughter but cannot find his footing for his next book. There’s also an eccentric and often absent artist, a husband who builds things and scatters fake body parts in a park, a kid with a penchant for fire, etc
What happens over the course of the book? Not much. It’s kind of like Brooklyn-esque Little Fires Everywhere–the character dynamics matter way more than the plot, including the fire at the end, and you don’t really know what happens next to these people–frankly, you don’t care. But the characters are interesting, so it wasn’t a bad way to spend a few hours.
This book isn’t going to blow your mind or anything, but it’s not bad. Give it a shot if you liked rich people being weird and off-kilter.

As a huge fan of Gossip Girl, I was so excited when I heard about Cecily von Ziegesar's new novel, Cobble Hill! I love stories that take place in NYC and have a contemporary flair to them!
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Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to enjoy Cobble Hill, I just did not. Mostly for me it is the characters. I didn't find them compelling and they struck me as rather two-dimensional and sadly, boring. What I loved most about Gossip Girl was Ziegesar's characters, but the magic just was not there in Cobble Hill.
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Thank you so much to Netgalley for this arc, and I hope others enjoy this more than I did.

Although I've heard of the TV series "Gossip Girl" based on the books by Cecily von Ziegesar, I've never seen the show so I didn't really know what to expect from "Cobble Hill". It's set in a trendy neighborhood in Brooklyn where the residents are fairly affluent and some are somewhat famous. There are four married middle-aged couples each of whom is a little bit dissatisfied with their current life and with their partner. One artsy couple is truly bizarre; in another, the wife fakes an illness and starts stealing her neighbors' boxed meal deliveries while her husband cluelessly carries on; then there's the author of some acclaim whose books very few have actually read and whose wife is a sham journalist, and finally there's the school nurse and her introverted husband. All of these people gradually get to know one another and there are some funny moments but nothing truly meaningful happened. I guess I'm a bit ambivalent about this novel. I received an ARC ebook from Netgalley.

Have you ever finished a book and just been completely confused as to why the piece of literature was even written? While this is a harsh statement, that is exactly how I felt after getting to the end of this novel. There are a lot of characters in this one which made reading the book confusing. I kept having to refer back to earlier chapters to remember who was who. In addition to the fact that there were way too many characters, I felt that there wasn't even a solid connection between them other than that they all lived in the same neighborhood. The friendships/relationships they did have with each other felt forced/superficial and really impacted my ability to enjoy the story. I do not recommend reading this one, but if you do, let me know what the point of this novel was because I literally have no idea.

This was...okay. It's VERRRRRRY Brooklyn - which, since I live in Brooklyn, I completely recognize. Everything about it is familiar. The rich kids, the writer, the artist, the musician. This is a story of 4 families but frankly - I only really wanted to know 2 of them.

Nothing really happens, but a lot of small things happen.

Eh..

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I’m not going to be publicly reviewing this one since it didn’t work for me. I think I lost what the point was supposed to be and was just left kind of scratching my head in the end. I appreciate the arc though!

The residents of Cobble Hill are quite the cast of characters. What do you get when you combine an aging rockstar, former model, famous author, magazine editor, school nurse, reclusive music teacher, hipster latin teacher, a couple of eccentric artists, and all of their painfully normal children (well, except the pyro)? Body parts spread all over the city (both real and fake), a couple of unintentionally lit fires, a rebirth, karaoke, and stolen meal kits...all leading up to a massive party at which seemingly the entire neighborhood was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Sound crazy? It was. And it was great.

Seriously, these characters are whack. The whole lot of them. But I loved them all. Well, except Mandy (more on that in a minute). Even looney toon Elizabeth is hysterical. The kids, however, were just meh, but they were ok. By now you should be able to tell, there are A LOT of characters. If you struggle with novels like that, Cobble Hill may be a challenge but I strongly suggest giving it a shot if you are a fan of chaotic reads. You certainly won't be bored, I assure you.

Ok, back to Mandy. I am incredibly irritated by the fact that she spent nearly the entire book pretending to have a debilitating disease and when her friends find out she has been faking it all along, no one cares. No. Absolutely not. Someone needs to explain to her how screwed up that is and she should feel remorseful. Also, maybe her kid wouldn't be such a terror if she gave a shit about anyone but herself.

There are a few storylines that weren't as neatly tied up at the end as I would have liked. For example, what's up with the body parts? What was the point in mentioning them if we weren't going to follow the case through to the end? And the warehouse...why didn't she call the police? I am hopeful that I will eventually get my answers, as the author is known for her Gossip Girl series.

I felt this story lacked the spark and depth needed to connect me with the story and the characters. Unlike the author’s previous books, I didn’t enjoy this story.

This story follows several families living in the neighborhood of Cobble Hill in Brooklyn. There were almost too many characters to keep up with to feel like I got to know any of them well. It's a basic study in everyday life. Only the people in it are fairly wealthy and somewhat famous.

I like stories with intersecting lives of the characters. The viewpoint would change between characters often - sometimes even within a paragraph and that was confusing at times. I'm not sure what to say about the story. It's a little about nothing and a lot about relationships. If you like character driven books this story is for you.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This is such a fantastic book. I loved the characters and seeing how their lives intertwined within the neighborhood. I could see this becoming a television series as each character had their own personality and set of secrets that led to an interesting inner dialog.

It's interesting how the story connects all those different people that end up getting to know each other because they live in the same area of NY (Cobble Hill). From rich people to people that pretend to be rich, the book has all types of characters. There's a famous writer struggling to come up with his next novel, there's an eccentric artist that shows up when she wants to, and even a pyro kid that is obsessed with fire. Definitely an interesting story.

FNF @ 39%

I tried really hard to like this book; unfortunately it just didn't work for me. The writing seemed like it was trying too hard to be edgy and cool and the character with "MS" upset me because I live with chronic health conditions and nobody in their right mind would willingly live with one. Sorry.

I had high expectations for this Brooklyn Gossip Girl however nothing happens. This was a disappointed read. I wished there was more plot.