Gossip Girl books questions...!?

The series is pretty different but I liked reading along with watching the show because the stories are different so it was like watching more of the show. However my mother hated the books because she thought the characters were too negative and not as clean as the tv characters (i.e. there is a lot of drinking and yes drugs) but that didn't bug me. So I guess people will like it or they won't based on how they view those characters.