Sweet Valley University #6: The Love of Her Life

Fair warning: I came dangerously close to throwing this book out the window by the time I got to the last 20 or so pages!

Mike’s in the hospital and Steven is in jail, charged with attempted murder and felon assault. Jess stays with Billie until she realizes that Billie will be up all night just trying to find Steven a lawyer. Liz hears about the incident on the police scanner in Tom’s room when they’re talking about the secret society story and she rushes over to help.

Everyone else in the book seems pretty happy. Danny and Isabella are all in love and Winston and Denise are in love, but he’s irritated because everyone assumes that they’re sleeping together. Todd learns that he has to sit out a season of basketball and move out of the athletic dorm, but he can play again next year and keep practicing with the team. His buddy Mark, Alex/Enid’s boyfriend doesn’t get off as easy because he got money and a new car. The school drops his scholarship, expels him and tells him that they’ll block him from playing for any other school. He breaks things off with Alex and heads to LA where he has an audition for a pro team.

Liz and Tom keep working on the story, but every time they turn around, William and Celine are there. She even comes home one day and finds Celine wearing lingerie and hanging out with Celine about five minutes after they finished having sex. He tries to get her back, but she tells him that she knows the truth. There must be something about Liz though because Todd wants her back too. He dumps Lauren and sits around his room, moping over old pictures of her and thinking about how he never should have ended things with Liz.

The book is really about Jess and how she’s a completely spoiled brat who I want to smack in the face. About, oh say three minutes after Mike is rushed to the hospital, she realizes that she wants to breakup with him. Then she learns that he’ll never walk again and decides that they never should have gotten married because she just wants to be a regular college student. Hey guess what, why didn’t you think about that before you got married?

She runs back to her old dorm room and cries to Isabella. She even talks about the two of them going on a double date when she gets back. It’s really annoying because she doesn’t even think about Steven, until he’s released on bond and even then, she just worries about herself. She packs up all of her stuff and starts moving it back, but then Mike’s mom calls. He’s been coming in and out of consciousness and keeps asking for her. She slams down the phone and tells her that she doesn’t want to see him.

She goes right back into planning her own life. She’s talking about all the phone she’ll have in college, hanging out in the dorm, going to parties, dating and trying to get into the sorority. Jessica has always been really selfish and horrible, but this goes a little too far. She finally decides to visit him in the hospital and she sees his leg move a little.

This is when I started wanting to toss the book. She decides that being married was a choice and that she chose to stay with him no matter what, after spending 170+ pages talking about leaving. She’s not attracted to him anymore because he’s all pale and weak looking, but it’s her “duty” as a wife to stay with him. She tells him that and he thinks they should stay together because they love her.

Elizabeth tells Celine that her story will air the next day so she runs and tells William. That same night the secret society kidnaps Liz (her 700th kidnapping). She tells them that it won’t matter because she already filmed the story and the tape will air. They don’t believe her, until it shows up on television. William decides that he has to kill her and Celine sees something in his face that scares the crap out of her so she runs to call Tom.

Todd stops by Liz’s room and sees her door all busted in, but doesn’t find that odd! He just leaves a note and walks off to talk to Winston. He goes back the next day and it finally clicks in when he sees the note still there. He runs off to find Liz at the same time that Tom does.

Tom and the cops go to the frat house and he leads them to the secret room in the house. The cops bust in and start arresting people and Peter the ass, throws himself at their feet. He was a big wuss who didn’t want to hurt anyone. Tom sees William dragging Liz off and gives chase, with Celine right behind. Of course he manages to save her and William falls in some hole thing, but Tom saves him too. Celine tries to sneak off and the cops grab her.

Liz makes plans to see Tom later, but then runs into Todd. He tells her that he still loves her, doesn’t care about Tom and wants them to get back together. She realizes that they’re in “their” spot from earlier in the year and remembers all the promises he made to her there and then broke so she turns him down.

Jess goes back to see Mike and he tells her that he changed his mind. He says that she deserves the chance to be a regular college student and do what the kids do. He should have told her that he deserved the chance to marry a grownup. He tells her that it’s not fair for her to be stuck with him for every. He also agrees to testify in court that the accident was his fault.

Cut to the court and the judge asking Steven how he pleads. His lawyer tells the judge what Mike says, but Mike says it isn’t true. Jess makes a scene and they throw her out of court. She starts yelling at Mike to tell the truth, because hurting Steve won’t win her back. Mike gives in, takes responsibility and they throw the case out of court. He tells her one last time that he loves her before he leaves.

Tom shows up at the dorm and sees Liz. They talk about the society and everything that happened and he confesses that he was worried about her and didn’t know what he’d do without her. Then he quotes a line from that damn poem and she realizes that he wrote it. They start kissing and then confess that they’re in love.

Oh my fucking god am I glad this book is over. First of all, all this shit happens and somehow their parents don’t know about it. Then Steve is charged with attempted murder and assault, but gets out of jail? Plus where did Billie get bail money in the middle of the night? Then the whole thing with Mike! He went from a drunken, dominating asshole to the perfect guy…almost in the same book. Not to mention the whole thing with Jess and her duty. It pissed me off even more when I realized that by the next book, she’ll be dating someone new…