silverneurotic

From Goodreads: 

What kind of friend am I? Actually, I think I mean what kind of person am I? what kind of friend, sister, stepsister, daughter, stepdaughter? I'm not always a very good person. I know that.But sometimes I can"t help it

Friends. Changes. Together. Alone. Dawn Shafer has moved from California and everything's changing -- way too fast.

I was a huge fan of The Babysitters Club when I was a kid, and even when I should have grown out of the series, I kept tabs on what was happening in the series and it's subsequent, Friends Forever series. I have good memories of reading these books, and I'm excited that the series have been revamped for the next generation of girls.

California Diaries somehow sneaked up under my radar. I had been vaguely aware of the first book, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I realized that they had actually been a thing. Not sure how popular they were, but they existed and I let my curiosity get the better of me when it came up as a Kindle Daily Deal.

I flew through this book in about an hour or so and it was fun revisiting a character I knew so well back in my youth. However, this is not the Dawn I remember. In some cases, this was good. This series (from what I understand) was meant to appeal to an older audience...the teenage versions of the girls that grew up reading the BSC. So this book was a bit more mature (hey, there was nearly a curse word thrown in!) and dealt with teenage drinking...but like the BSC it was done in a way that was watered down and kosher. I probably would have been slightly scandalized as a young girl...but now I just wish I had had the foresight to live tweet myself reading this. 

I'm actually seriously thinking that I might go and reread the BSC series, and the rest of the California Diaries.