Sweet Valley High #11: Too Good to be True

I’m pretty surprised that I never got around to recapping this one, given that I’ve had a copy for years. In fact, I think this is one of the only Sweet Valley High books that I found from when I was a kid.

Ned gets a call from an old pal living in NYC. He suggests that they trade kids for two weeks. One of the twins gets to go to NYC, while the other stays and shows his daughter Suzanne Devlin around. Both twins want to go, so Ned flips and coin and Liz wins. Jessica pitches a hissy fit because she wants to go, and she never, ever gets to leave Sweet Valley. She pulls out all the stops, even suggesting that Lila wants a shot at Todd and Liz agrees to switch places.

Suzanne “Suzy” Devlin is a blessing. She compliments everyone, does the dishes, cooks for them, and is the nicest person ever. Todd even teases Liz that she might want to swap out her twin. Suzy confesses that her dad sends her away to a bunch of boarding schools and that she hasn’t had a stable childhood. Liz feels bad for her, not realizing that Suzy is playing her like a fiddle.

Of course everyone in town wants to know the new girl. Winston falls head over heels in love with her, serenading her at all hours of the night and writing “I love you” in toilet paper on the lawn. Liz takes her to a big picnic and even Bruce wants a shot at her. Suzy goes swimming and almost drowns, but Mr. Collins saves her and brings her back. Liz thinks it’s a little odd because (a) she is making eyes at him and (b) she swam for hours in the pool without a problem.

Liz goes to put on her lavaliere one night and can’t find it anywhere. Suzy helps her look, but it’s no use. As they walk away, she smiles and fingers the necklace in her pocket. They go to the beach and swing by Collins’s house to drop something off. Suzy flirts with him, dribbles water all over her shirt, and notices that he can’t help looking. When Todd gets Lakers’ tickets, Suzy offers to take Liz’s sitting job at Roger’s house.

Roger isn’t happy, but agrees to leave her with Teddy because he has no other choice. She pretends to be the nicest person in the world, but when he leaves, she ignores him. She goes through all of his stuff and can’t even find a Playboy. Teddy falls asleep crying in front of the TV and she pretends to fall asleep on the couch. When Roger gets home, she comes on to him hardcore and he throws her out.

Suzy goes home fake crying and tells Liz that he attacked her. Liz doesn’t believe it, but tells her parents. Ned goes to the principal and the school board. They suspend him until they launch a full investigation. Everyone sides with Suzy and decides to pool their money and get her an awesome going away gift.

Suzy bounces back pretty fast and goes to Lila’s big party. Liz sneaks upstairs to hide her gift, but finds her necklace in Suzy’s suitcase. She has Todd drive her to see Mr. Collins and he admits that he didn’t touch her, though of course he didn’t bother saying anything to the school board. Why confess to someone who can save your job when you can confess to a Wakefield?

Suzanne sees Liz wearing her necklace and pretends like it got stuck to one of her shirts. Liz goes off on her, so Suzy sneaks off and tells everyone that Liz hit her head on the pool and is acting like she did in Dear Sister. Liz confronts her again and she denies everything. Winston trips and spills punch all over her dress, and she flips out. Everyone sees how she really acts and walks away from her.

Meanwhile in that foreign land known as NYC, Jessica is not happy. Mr. Devlin is never around and Mrs. Devlin treats her like a pet. No one falls in love with her and she spends most of her time cooped up in their penthouse. She meets Pete, Suzy’s boyfriend, and because this must not be a Sweet Valley book, he doesn’t fall head over heels in love with her.

Pete drops off some tickets and after she throws herself at him, he asks her out. She spends hours getting ready and the only thing he notices is that she wore Suzy’s dress. He ignores her most of the night and drops her off early. He takes her to a party with some of their friends and she meets a 16 year old girl dating a 20 something with his own apartment. She has too much to drink and he leaves her with the doorman.

They go out yet again and she pulls out all the stops. She practically gives him a blow job in the horse drawn carriage! She crawls all over him, constantly touches him, and can’t figure out why he isn’t interested. He brings her home, pours himself a drink, and then attacks her. Jess has to fight him off, wondering why he thought that was something she wanted. Eye roll. Seriously, in this day and age, she would either be a pregnant dropout or no one would touch her because they thought she had every disease possible.

Jess comes home, remembering how the Devlins came home and caught them. Pete ran off, Jess turned on the waterworks, and they promised that Suzy would never see him again. Suzy hopped a flight back without ever speaking to Liz again. The twins reunite and Liz gets a kick out of the Pete story. She doesn’t explain why she wants to see her “good friend’s” boyfriend with her sister and Jess doesn’t tell her the true story. The book ends with Steven moping because Tricia keeps ignoring him and he thinks she is hiding something from him.

*Jessica dreams of a guy in Tiffany’s giving her a million dollar necklace because it matches her eyes and fantasizes about dancing with Mick Jagger. If that doesn’t date these books…

*Speaking of dated, George teases Enid that his dream girl Bo Derek stopped by his house and begged him for a date, but he had to turn her down.

*Suzy wears a white off the shoulder Halston dress. As if we didn’t know that she had money!

*Jessica’s “best dress” is a white dotted Swiss number. Is she 16 or 6?

*Jessica is shocked that he notices her wearing Suzy’s dress. Um, it’s his girlfriend so of course he notices that.