What was serenas secret

Kindle Edition. More Details. Rebecca Andrew 13 books 8 followers. I am an Indie Author. All my books are available in ebook form on a variety of platforms. I enjoy writing about love, relationships and adding suspense into my work. I'm a hopeless romantic and I am happy to call myself that! Get in touch! Email: rebecca rebeccandrewauthor. Search review text. Zelly Jordan. Author 2 books 42 followers. A secret that is dealt with early on and is used as part of the catalyst for the main conflict in the story.

Given that the secret is something quite serious and traumatic, I feel that the author dealt with the topic well albeit in a cursory, surface-only manner. The characters have a charm and sweetness about them that is very likeable. The reader is taken for an enjoyable ride as the hero and heroine traverse the situations they find themselves in. There are times when the language used is very localised. Escape to the pages. This book started off a little rocky for me. The authors style is descriptive, overly so for my tastes, but yet still there was absolutely enough in the first chapter to grab me and make me keep turning the pages.

The love story is sweet and they were a really cute couple together, I liked both characters. Ethan was strong and loving at the same time, thoroughly supportive of Serena. Serena and Blair's rivalry escalates in The Serena Also Rises during Fashion Week as the girls at school continue to fawn over Serena after seeing her with Poppy Lifton , her new socialite friend that brings her public praise and media attention.

After Blair tries to win her friends back by inviting them to Eleanor's fashion show, Serena attempts to reconcile with Blair but is turned her down. Later, Blair becomes upset when she finds out that her mother has given Serena and Poppy front row seats at her show and Serena will not be backstage with her as usual.

She tries to sabotage the fashion show but it ends up being a huge success and bumping Serena's popularity; which makes Blair even more jealous. In New Haven Can Wait , Serena, angry at Blair after she tore into Serena after the fashion show, decides to attend an interview at Yale University, where Blair always dreamed of attending.

Serena impresses Dean Berube and is given an invitation to a private reception at his home. Shocked at seeing Serena at the school, Blair accidentally ruins her interview but is able to bribe her way into the party. After a game gone wrong, Blair and Serena end their friendship and part ways.

The next day, they make up after realizing they need each other. She accepts his offer to travel to Argentina with him but they break up soon into the flight after Serena realizes she still has feelings for Dan O Brother, Where Bart Thou? But soon after, they discover that their parents, Lily and Rufus , had a child together who was given up for adoption before either of them was born Gone with the Will which causes tension between the two. Meanwhile, Dan befriends Serena's Shakespeare teacher, Rachel Carr , and Serena begins to suspect the two are having an affair.

After seeing them hug at a dinner alone, Serena tells Blair, who informs Headmistress Queller and the parent committee. Once this is out in the open, Serena and Dan break up, realizing they can't overcome the recent issues between them Carrnal Knowledge. Toward the end of the season, Serena begins a relationship with Gabriel Edwards Seder Anything , a man who seemingly left his girlfriend, Serena's friend Poppy, for her. After getting Lily and their Upper East Side friends to invest in Gabriel's business that supposedly brings the internet to third world countries Southern Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , Serena realizes that both he and Poppy are conning them.

She, along with Blair, Nate, and Chuck and the newly born-again Christian Georgina hatch a plan to catch them. However, the plan does not work out when Lily has her arrested for not stopping when asked.

Gabriel and Poppy escape The Wrath of Con. In the final episode of the season, The Goodbye Gossip Girl , Gossip Girl sends a blast during their graduation commencement ceremony, denouncing Serena as irrelevant. Serena, angry and hurt that Gossip Girl has ruined the day, vows to find out who she really is.

However, her plan fizzles out and they never find out. At the end of the episode, Carter Baizen , an old friend, tells Serena he has found the whereabouts of her father, William van der Woodsen. Serena decides to go with Carter to meet him before she leaves to attend Brown University in the fall.

At the beginning of the season during the summer, Serena had been searching for her father and is in a complicated relationship with Carter Reversals of Fortune. After returning to the city, Serena can't decide whether she wants to leave for Brown University, and stays with Chuck while she tries to figure it out.

But after misunderstanding Chuck's reasoning for telling Rufus, she invites Carter to help ruin Chuck's new business deal, which they accomplish and they begin to casually date The Freshmen.

Serena eventually decides defer Brown, which Lily does not take kindly to. In order to prove she made the right choice, she takes a job as an assistant to publicist K. Dan de Fleurette.

At the same time, Chuck is sus about Carter and with the help of Nate's new girlfriend, Bree Buckley , discovers that Carter abandoned her cousin, Beth Buckley, at the altar after proposing to her to get the Buckleys to pay off his gambling debts. He gives him an ultimatum: he either tells Serena himself or he can take a prepaid train ticket and leave for good.

At Lily and Rufus' wedding, Carter tells Serena the truth and turns himself into Beth's brothers, who plan to make Carter work off his debt on an oil rig in Texas Rufus Getting Married. Once Serena discovers where he is headed, she and Nate team up to save him. They attend a poker game held by PJ Buckley, whom Serena convinces to play for Carter's debt in exchange for her offering a photo of Nate's cousin, Tripp van der Bilt , at his bachelor party holding a bong.

After they lose the game, Serena overhears a conversation between Nate and his grandfather, William van der Bilt , where she discovers they planned for her to lose all along and trick the Buckleys into releasing a doctored photo of Tripp to hurt their reputation. She tells PJ about the plan, and in return he orders Carter's release. However, Carter is unhappy with this and admits he wanted to go to Texas to punish himself for what he did to Beth and to prove that he is a better man to Serena.

He breaks up with her and leaves her heartbroken Enough About Eve. After her break up with Carter, Serena works hard with K. She agrees to use the client list to invite celebrities to Chuck's new hotel bar opening party, but is angered when Chuck and Blair deliberately call the cops on the party and the clients are photographed leaving the scene. This leads to a new feud between her and Blair How to Succeed in Bassness.

After quitting her job, Serena takes a new job at Tripp's office, where he is running a campaign to be a Congressman for New York and the two begin to develop feelings for each other after Tripp saves a drowning man, winning him the election The Grandfather: Part II. Once Nate discovers that Serena and Tripp are growing closer, he tries to keep them apart and realizes he still has feelings for Serena, but she ultimately chooses to be with Tripp after it comes out that his wife, Maureen van der Bilt, set up the man drowning to win him the election The Last Days of Disco Stick.

They enter into a relationship, and after being outed at Thanksgiving, the two leave town together The Treasure of Serena Madre. After a few days, Tripp secretly meets with Maureen and they agree to stay together publicly but behind closed doors, he can be with Serena.

Maureen asks to meet with Serena privately, which Tripp reluctantly relents to. When Maureen explains their arrangement to Serena, she also blackmails her with a letter she stole from the van der Woodsen's from William, who shares that he couldn't see Serena when she came looking for him because he was with Lily. Serena refuses the proposal, insisting Tripp won't agree to the idea. However, she is shocked when he admits that he will to keep his political career, and asks him to take her home.

On the way, the two are in a car accident after Tripp swerves to avoid hitting a deer and he leaves the scene after discovering Serena is injured. Meanwhile, Nate, who has recently realized he has feelings for Serena, goes to the hospital where she is being treated.

Tripp and Maureen eventually show up, and share that William will provide an alibi for Tripp, relieving him of any involvement of the accident. Nate punches Tripp and tells him to leave, then goes to be with Serena The Debarted. After the accident, Serena stays at the Waldorf's and is trying to figure out her relationship with Nate. She is advised by Blair to make him jealous while Nate is advised by Dan to take it slow.

The bad advice leaves them to attend the French Ambassador dinner separately, Serena bringing Damien Dalgaard , an old friend, as her date and Nate coming alone but ending up hanging out with Jenny Humphrey. After successfully making the other jealous, they end up together at the end of the night and enter into a relationship The Hurt Locket. Elsewhere, Chuck believes he has found his mother, who he spent his whole life believing was deceased.

Serena realizes this situation hits close to home, due to her father not being able to see or talk to her and she decides to stop looking and trying to contact him as a result The Lady Vanished. Meanwhile, Jenny has begun dating Damien but Lily and Rufus try to keep them apart after discovering he is a drug dealer. Serena tries to intervene but fails, accidentally instigating a fight between herself and Nate; however, the two soon make up The Sixteen Year Old Virgin.

Soon after, Jenny is drugged at a Waldorf Designs fashion show and is saved by Nate, leading to her developing feelings for him despite knowing he is with Serena The Empire Strikes Jack. On Nate's birthday, Serena plans a special surprise party for him but acts uninterested in celebrating otherwise, to build the suspense.

A hurt Nate spends the day with Jenny, who is trying to keep him away from Serena. After they arrive at the party, a game of Assassin begins and eventually culminates in Jenny and Nate as the only two left. Jenny kisses Nate, who shockingly reminds her he is with Serena Inglourious Bassterds. Afterwards, Carter returns to town and Serena begins to secretly see him and lies to Nate to cover it up.

While planning Dorota Kishlovsky and Vanya's wedding, Chuck lets it slip to Nate after a heated argument. Later that day, Jenny confirms it by finding a hotel key to Carter's hotel room in Serena's purse. On the way to the wedding, Nate and Serena argue about whether she can see Carter. Before the ceremony can begin, Carter shows and and tells Serena her father's location in Florida, adding that he has already gotten them plane tickets.

Serena hesitantly agrees to go, but discovers in the car that Carter has known for awhile and pretended not to in order to spend more time with her. She kicks him out of the car and attempts to call Nate, but Jenny answers the phone. Serena asks her to explain the situation for her and to also apologize to Nate, which Jenny agrees to but doesn't plan to do.

Later that night when she lands in Florida, she arrives at her father's hotel room to discover Lily inside The Unblairable Lightness of Being. Not too long after, Serena and Lily return to New York where Lily plans to tell Rufus her secret: that she has cancer and has been seeing William for treatment.

Afterwards, Serena and William begin to bond and build a relationship. Meanwhile, Jenny has been a friend to Nate in Serena's absence, hoping their friendship would become something more.

A newly single Chuck helps her with ideas to break Serena and Nate up, which ends in Serena catching Jenny trying to kiss Nate. She stops them in time and Jenny decides to stop pursuing him Dr.

After a few weeks, William announces his plans to move into the VDW building. Serena is very excited, and Lily is okay with the idea knowing it will benefit Serena and Eric.

However, Rufus and Jenny have their qualms about it and Rufus uses his new friend, Holland, to deny William's application for a unit. Serena finds out and tells Lily and the two angrily leave to attend the library benefit alone with William. Rufus decides to go to the event anyway and arrives just in time to see William publicly declare his love for Lily. Lily realizes Rufus was right after all, and William is trying to get closer to her and they leave together.

They discover that William and Holland have been working together to keep apart Rufus and Lily, including Holland writing prescriptions for Lily that have side effects that mimic the symptoms of cancer.

When confronted, William insists Lily is truly sick and offers to get proof. However, he never returns and the family takes it as an admission of guilt. Serena follows him to where his helicopter is waiting to leave and he admits that Lily was really sick at first but while he treated her, he fell in love with her again and wanted to win her back.

Serena tells him that all she ever wanted was for him to be there and while she can't forgive him, she doesn't need to punish him and lets him flee without facing the cops who are on the way Ex-Husbands and Wives. Afterwards, Serena stays with Dan, and the two fall asleep in his bed. Jenny catches them and sends a pic to Gossip Girl, who posts it. When Nate confronts her about it, Serena asks for some time apart and they break up. She leaves for the summer with Blair to spend in Paris, planning to spend her time working on herself Last Tango, Then Paris.

During the summer, Serena goes on many dates to distract herself from Dan vs Nate, while Blair keeps to herself until she's invited out by a man she rightfully suspects is a prince from Monaco, Louis Grimaldi. Serena is invited along with Louis' friend, Jean-Michele. Louis has his suspicions that Blair is only going because she believes he is a royal and when they arrive to pick up the girls for the date, Jean-Michele is introduced as the royal.

A disappointed Blair also discovers during the date that Serena will be attending Columbia University in the fall as well, leading them to have an argument over Blair having to share her spotlight with Serena yet again. The fight ends with Blair pushing Serena into a fountain outside the restaurant but the two make up at the end of the night Belles de Jour.

Meanwhile, Chuck is presumed as dead after the Paris police find a body with his identification on him. Serena goes to identify the body but discovers it is not Chuck, but someone who stole his wallet.

After some detective work, Serena is able to track him down at an apartment he is living at with the woman who saved him after the mugging, Eva Coupeau. Chuck shares with her his plan to adopt a new identity and life in Europe, disappearing from New York forever. Knowing Blair is the only one who can stop him, Serena convinces her to talk Chuck into coming home. Back home, Nate is dating Juliet Sharp , a woman he met at a restaurant, and she attempts to help him fix his social life.

When Serena returns, she is surprised to find them together, as well as Dan being back together with Vanessa Abrams. At the end of Double Identity , the closing scene shows Juliet's apartment is filled with screenshots of Gossip Girl's website, but the main attraction is Serena's mugshot. When Blair and Serena begin school, they both attempt to gain entry to Hamilton House , a secret society within the student body.

Both girls are surprised when Blair is accepted but Serena is not, and Serena begins to suspect that Juliet, they Keyholder of the house, had something to do with it. When confronted, Juliet mentions that Blair called and told them about Serena's involvement in the death of Pete Fairman, which led to her being ousted, and at the same time tries to convince Blair that Serena not being a member is a good thing.

Serena then also moves into the Waldorf penthouse The Undergraduates. Meanwhile, Dan is having problems with Vanessa and turns to Serena for advice. After hanging out for awhile, both realize they still have feelings for each other. Nate also confesses he still loves her and Serena goes home, deciding not to talk to either until she decides for good who she wants Touch of Eva. While attending school, Serena is constantly late due to a man in the Waldorf building always stealing the cabs she hails.

He uses the opportunities to flirt with her, which she rejects. During Goodbye, Columbia , it's revealed that Juliet's vendetta against Serena is on behalf of her incarcerated brother, Ben Donovan , who wants revenge on Serena.

This causes Vanessa to feel insecure, knowing Dan has slept with Serena in the past, and she turns to Juliet to help her find the truth. Juliet uses the opportunity to recruit Vanessa into stealing Serena's phone and is able to sneak an email to one of her professors offering sex in exchange for good grades.

Afterwards, Juliet slips the phone into Vanessa's purse and Serena realizes Vanessa must have done it, leading everyone to distance themselves from her.

Dean Reuther tells her that while she believes she didn't send the email, there is a lot of drama that surrounds her and she needs to tone it down. Serena decides to be nicer to Juliet, believing that she helped expose Vanessa's plot.

At the end of the night, the man who steals her cabs strikes up a conversation with her and the two begin hanging out. In Easy J , Serena admits to having spent the night with Colin, the cab stealer, when questioned by Blair but explains they spent the night talking in lieu of sleeping together.

Serena says she refuses to be one of the women he hands off in a cab every morning. But when she arrives to her new class that day, she discovers Colin is her new professor. Despite this, the two decide to continue trying to date after Serena decides to drop the class. However, once Lily discovers the nature of their relationship, she uses some reverse psychology to convince Serena to focus on her future and not on men.

Serena then decides to stay in the class but agrees that they can continue hanging out and getting to know each other in a non-romantic way.

At the end of the episode, it's revealed that Juliet knows Colin and he gives her money. Soon after, Serena and Colin find it difficult to continue remaining platonic. Meanwhile, Juliet is still trying to befriend Serena and is excited when Serena confides in her that she has a crush on her professor. Once she discovers that Colin is also going to be attending Blair's birthday party, Serena agrees to let Juliet come as her guest to be her bodyguard to make sure she doesn't get too close to Colin alone.

However, Nate offers to go instead once he learns of the dilemma, not wanting to see Juliet since they recently broke up after Nate caught her talking to Ben. Juliet shows up at the party anyway with Colin, and Nate sees them talking secretly together. He confronts Colin and asks if he is Ben, which Colin denies.

Blair, having her suspicions about Juliet, misunderstands and goes to warn Serena that Juliet is interested in Colin too. Nate talks to Juliet, and she confesses that Colin is her cousin and she doesn't want people to know because he is a professor and he tells her that Colin is dating Serena.

At the end of the night, Serena goes to Colin's home and admits that even though waiting is difficult, she still wants to and they share a kiss; not knowing Juliet had set up cameras to catch them together War at the Roses. Juliet has coffee with Nate, and reveals that she is poor and Colin, being a billionaire, gives her money to live and go to Columbia. Nate agrees to give her a second chance but that is ruined when Vanessa attempts to reveals the photos.

At the end of the episode, Serena and Colin break up amicably. After they break up, both Dan and Nate declare their love Serena to her, which she ignores. Serena then ends up in a situation where she needs to choose between Nate and Dan The Witches of Bushwick. At the same time, the press has heard about Colin and Serena's relationship and Dean Reuther encourages her to leave the university but both Lily and Serena decline the offer.

Juliet and Jenny pretend to be Serena and kiss both Nate and Dan, causing both guys to lose interest in her. At the end of the episode, Juliet drugs Serena and emails Dean Reuther saying she indeed wants to take her up on the offer and leave.

After being committed involuntarily to the Ostroff Center Gaslit after Lily discovers her overdose, caused by Juliet, Serena admits to Dan that he was the one she came to kiss the night she was drugged. While in counseling, Serena tells a counselor through a series of flashbacks that while she was at boarding school, she developed feelings for her professor, Ben, Juliet's brother, but that nothing ever happened between them.

Afterwards, Julie confronts Serena at the center and admits that Ben is her brother, and he was sentenced to five years in prison after Serena accused him of raping her. Serena claims she never accused him of anything and Ben was never anything but kind to her, and realizes Lily must have made the claim behind her back when Juliet says she saw the affidavit Serena signed, swearing the accusation was true. Serena confronts Lily, who confesses that she did it to get Serena back into Constance since no private schools would take her after reviewing her records The Townie.

Meanwhile, Chuck discovers that Lily is planning to sell Bass Industries , and wrongfully assumes it's going to his father's old associate, Russell Thorpe , a Chicago businessman who is newly arrived in town. Chuck and Serena work together to get Lily to stop the sale and get Ben out of prison. Serena brings the affidavit to the Thorpe's party, planning to give it to a journalist in the hopes of exposing Lily. However, Lily convinces Chuck she is doing the right thing for both of them and their plan is thwarted; afterwards, Lily tells Serena that the affidavit can never get out, because if it did she would go to prison The Kids Are Not Alright.

Ben is released from prison and he and Serena begin hanging out until he reveals his plans to stay with a friend outside the city. Unhappy with this idea, Serena convinces Rufus to let Ben stay at the loft with Dan. Dan is initially unhappy with this, especially with Ben and Serena growing closer, and bands together with Eric and Damien to get Ben rearrested. Their plan works until Damien breaks up with Eric, claiming to have used him to get rid of Ben, and Eric comes clean.

Dan then welcomes Ben back to the loft Panic Roommate.