New Year's Eve

Saturday Night #3

by Caroline B. Cooney

Five girls experience the triumphs and heartbreaks of love at a New Year's Eve party, where some unanswered questions and unresolved conflicts are finally solved

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Fiction, Contemporary

10 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Caroline Cooney knew in sixth grade that she wanted to be a writer when "the best teacher I ever had in my life" made writing her main focus. "He used to rip off covers from The New Yorker and pass them around and make us write a short story on whichever cover we got. I started writing then and never stopped!"
When her children were young, Caroline started writing books for young people -- with remarkable results. She began to sell stories to Seventeen magazine and soon after began writing books. Suspense novels are her favorites to read and write. "In a suspense novel, you can count on action."
To keep her stories realistic, Caroline visits many schools outside of her area, learning more about teenagers all the time. She often organizes what she calls a "plotting game," in which students work together to create plots for stories. Caroline lives in Westbrook, Connecticut and when she's not writing she volunteers at a hospital, plays piano for the school musicals and daydreams!
- Scholastic.com

Reviews

[Emma Beckett · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Pointy stars, but also 5 regular stars because CBC writes like a dream.

'If they made enough noise, perhaps they would not care that last year had hurt, and that this year might hurt more'
Oh, CBC!!

[Alaina · Rating 4 out of 5]

New Year's Eve was really cute, funny, and refreshing. It's about the same five girls - Molly, Emily, Beth, Kip, Anne - and how they want this night to be absolutely perfect. However, these girls never actually get their perfect nights now do they? First there was a flood, then a fire, now what's going to happen disaster wise? These girls find themselves in so many different situations, like: family problems, ex-boyfriends problem, new unexpected love, and a marriage proposal?!?

I seriously love these books they are just so funny. My favorites are still my favorites. Then there's Molly, who I just feel so freaking bad about. It's like she's always going to be seen as the slutty girl and I just want more for her character still. I feel like she will start to grow on me, well hopefully soon. I just need more!

I can't wait to read the next and final book to this series. I hope

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite so far.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The edition I was reading had no page breaks, which made it very difficult to follow when the book switched to following another character. I have not read the series this book connects to, so I was somewhat confused by who was who. I liked mike and Emily the best. They were cute. This was a good NYE read which is why I picked it up. (I’m such a seasonal reader!)

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

"New Year's Eve" by Caroline B. Cooney was funny and refreshing. It's the story of a group of girls who are looking forward to their big night on New Year's Eve. They get all dressed up, cut their hair and get ready to have the time of their life.
Unfortunatly, like more things, especially when you're a teenager, this particular New Year's Eve doesn't work out like they plan, and they find themselves in some pretty racey situations that they never thought would have before...including little brothers, an ex-boyfriend and a turned-down marriage proposal. And, one of the girls finds love where she leasts expects it.
I really liked "New Year's Eve." It kept me laughing and wanting to read more...it almost makes me wish I would have read this book as a teenager, and not some 15+ years later...
I give it 4 stars.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fab, fab, FAB. Full of Cooneyisms, pacey, frustrating, beautiful. Loved it.

[Hope Broadway · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in high school and again recently. It was good.
Although, honestly, I don't like Kip as a person. Every book, it's not that she's bossy and organized, but she's just sometimes an a-hole. She was rude to Roddy in the first book. She was okay in the second book. But in this book, we here how she tried to juggle Lee and Mike. Look, if a dude only pays attention to you because someone ELSE is interested and you KNOW IT, you tell that dude to kick rocks, you don't decide to date HIM and the quality guy that actually cares for you, which is what Kip did. Of course, she paid for it. Of course, she also does cool things, too. Which I guess redeem her. But overall, she's not that great.
And, WHAT THE HELL Molly?! Trying to get people in trouble for drugs? Sheeesh. I'm glad Christopher twarted her plan. Even if it was just powder, that's a low down thing to do.

[Cara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third installment of this author’s Saturday Night series. A lot of the story in the previous books were recapped in this book so I think it can technically be read as a standalone, however the story is so slow moving. Obviously this is a book for a younger demographic so with that being said, it’s only 200 pages where the characters attend a New Years Eve part but none of them get to the party until about page 90. The characters are as to be expected; immature. Not sure how this book is so highly rated other than the fact a lot of people probably rated it higher based solely on nostalgia.

[Marisa Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75*

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven’t read these books in years - I think the last time was when I was a teenager.

I still like them 😃

[Melanie Wissel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Third book in the Saturday Night series

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third book in a series of four and I haven't read the others. A lot of this book is recounting the backstory so you probably don't need to have read previous instalments.
There are quite a lot of characters and keeping them all straight was a bit difficult. Plot-wise, there's not much here. It takes them around 80 pages to even get to the party, and after that there's a lot of date swapping and some minor drama with a bitter girl in a hideous dress that could have only come from the 1980's.

Not one I'd recommend.

Reread 03/08/25: Improves a bit knowing the backstory and characters better but it's still the weakest in the series so far. Con, Mike, Gary and Molly are trash humans. It was actually nice seeing the development in Christopher, but the change in Emily's father came out of nowhere and felt like wish fulfilment.

[C.W. Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series was one of my favorites when I was in middle school. Rereading as an adult I couldn't help laughing at Beth and her balloons. I couldn't understand why she took them to a dance, but this book is all over the place. One more book and I will have reread the whole series.