The January 2008 Hot List

Get Gossip Girl backstory! Gossip Girl: It Had to Be You: The Gossip Girl Prequel by Cecily von Ziegesar (Little Brown)

The TV version of author Cecily von Ziegesar's Gossip Girls is different from the book series, but whether you love the TV show, the books, or both, you'll definitely want to check into this prequel novel, which gives us the scoop on how our favorite rich kid New Yorkers became the people they are today. Wonder how Nate and Blair hooked up in the first place? How Nate and Serena's fling started behind Blair's back? Why Serena was shipped off to boarding school? Why Dan became a writer? All those questions and many more are answered in the book, a guilty-pleasure read you won't be able to put down once you start reading. We speak from experience....

Check it out now at bn.com.