I'd be willing to bet that a lot of the fashionista stuff is probably not what would have been popular at the time, but since I don't read these books for that, no biggie.

Finally Serena is more than just this 2-D character that floats through the series having things happen to her. Alas, it's too late for me to like her, or not wish she'd fallen into the ocean somewhere along the line, but it's nice to see a bit of something going on in her head. Though someone should have stopped about the tenth time we hit the phrase "navy blue eyes." Yup, got it, Serena's eyes are navy. Really. Stop mentioning it.

Definitely better than a lot of the later books, although Nate is, and will always be, exasperating.