Sweet Valley High Super Edition: Malibu Summer

Jessica really wants to go to Malibu for the summer because Lila got a job working as a nanny for a rich family, even though the family has a bunch of other helpers. Liz wants to work at the newspaper, but their parents decided Jess could only go if Liz does too. Lila makes her feel bad by claiming that Jessica wants this more than anything so of course she caves.

Lila tells Jess that babies are better than older kids because all they do is sleep (ha!). She learns that the agency has two families available in Malibu, one with a baby and one with a younger, troubled girl. When she discovers that the family with the baby is related to her new favorite singer Tony Seargant, she decides to take that one. Liz has to cover for her during the interviews because of cheerleading camp and discovers that Jess’s house is teeny tiny. Jess still wants it because of the Tony connection. Also, she doesn’t believe that it’s really small until she sees it for herself.

Liz gets a job at this huge house with the Bennett family. They are rarely home, so she spends a lot of time with this six-year-old daughter Taryn. Jess hates her house because she sleeps in the baby’s room and Lucy and Josh don’t have enough room for all her stuff. She tries pretending that she’s allergic to their cat, but Liz calls her on it because she went through an allergy test in the past. She finally bonds by telling the little girl stories about a “wicked little girl” that makes her smile.

Jessica meets this cute guy named Cliff that lives next door to Liz’s family. He throws a party and she gets Liz to take over her job so she can go. They fall in love, natch. Liz goes to the other house and they tell her about a house guest showing up that night. His name is Jamie, he’s 21, goes to Harvard and loves everything Liz does.

She doesn’t really want to date him because he’s way too old for her, but then she decides that she can talk it over with her parents later. They sneak around town constantly and go out without telling anyone. One night they meet at a local café and come face-to-face with a large man named Frankie. It turns out that Jamie is actually Tony. He had a drink with a girl one night and she had a boyfriend in prison named Frankie. Frankie started stalking him and following him around, so he ran off to his cousin’s house. Frank attacks, Liz hits him over the head and knocks him out.

Jess goes to check on Liz and discovers that Taryn is missing. She heard her parents fighting, thought they hated her and ran away. She finds her trapped on a broken footbridge. The cops can’t save her because it’s a Sweet Valley book and the authorities have no place in these books. Jess tells her a little story and the girl gets close enough that she can grab her.

Liz runs into Jess at the hospital and stops in Taryn’s room. Her parents can’t reach her, but Jess tells them about the little stories. Her mom tells her a story, calling her parents the wicked people and Taryn hugs her. Liz spends the rest of the book moping around and not talking to Tony, while Jess moans over not recognizing him.

Tony sends them free tickets to a big charity concert. Jess convinces her to go, even though she doesn’t want to see him again. Tony plays a song called “Summer Girl” about spending time and falling in love with a girl and dedicates it to Liz. She starts crying and then smiles because she knows that they will always have their one summer…or something like that.

Oh and Lila spends the first half of the book complaining about immature high school guys and then meets a cute older guy that turns out to be a year younger than her. She really likes him and decides to go for it, but Jess is a huge bitch about it. She makes fun of her constantly for dating a younger guy and it is super annoying.