Sweet Valley High Magna Edition: Elizabeth's Secret Diary

This is the very first magna edition in the Sweet Valley High series and the first Secret Diary book too! It takes place between Todd leaving for Vermont and Liz hooking up with Jeffrey, for the first time if you count their relationship in Sweet Valley Senior Year.

So, Liz and Todd are making out in his room and on top of his desk when Ken calls. While they talk, she starts going through the papers to see what they were sitting on and finds a letter from this chick named Michelle. It's full of little flirty jokes, including her calling him cute buns, which is absolutely scandalous. Michelle ends the note with kisses and wishes that he was still in Vermont.

This sends Liz off the deep end. She seriously accuses Todd of cheating on her and waves the letter in his face as proof that he has some secret girlfriend back in Vermont. Todd is at first upset and then extremely pissed off that she would dare to read his private letters. They basically break up, though really, Liz just tells him to go back to Michelle and then runs home in tears.

Though she's completely heartbroken, Jessica somehow manages to convince her to put on a new dress and platform sandals and go dancing that very same night. Liz has a little fun but then gets all mopey and depressed, so she takes a walk on the beach. Jeffrey conveniently stumbles upon her and gives her a big speech on how he's still in love with her. They hug, he confesses his feelings, she realizes that he hasn't held her like that since she broke his heart, er, ended things, and they wind up kissing all night. Liz then goes home and feels confused rather than guilty for being a cheating whore and sits down with her diary.

Like I said, Elizabeth's Secret Diary covers the time period between Todd leaving and her an Jeffrey getting together. She's super sad that he's leaving but agrees to keep their relationship going. This leads to her cheating on him with Nicholas and then them deciding to see other people. We also get to hear about Steven and Cara getting together, Jessica trying to break up Danielle and Jay, Amy moving back to town, and some other random stories.

The only big revelation is the made up story about her secret relationship with Ken. He goes to Vermont for a long weekend and comes back to tell her that Todd asked him to keep an eye on her. They start spending a bunch of time together, which leads to them eventually kissing. Liz throws herself into setting up Jeffrey and Enid as a way to distract herself because she feels so guilty.

She really can't stay away from Ken though. They kiss a few times and wind up making out on the beach. Liz keeps trying to work up the nerve to end things but then gets caught up in his kisses. She finally sits him down and tells him that it's not a real relationship if they can't hold hands at school and kiss in front of their friends. This also leads to her getting together with Jeffrey literally two days later.

After reading through her diary, Liz goes downstairs because she can't sleep and sees Todd in her driveway. He apologizes and admits that Michelle was just a friend, a flirty friend, but just a friend. The only woman he loves now and forever is Elizabeth Wakefield. After telling her that he'll always love her, they kiss. Liz ends the book thinking about how Ken and Jeffrey both had a small piece of her heart but that Todd will always be the only man for her. Blah.

*Can we point out that Todd once again apologizes to Liz when she's the one who fucked up? He did nothing wrong. He seriously got a letter from a friend on the other side of the country. Liz flipped out on him and then spent most of that same night kissing some other dude on the beach. Todd apologizes to her, and she never tells him what she did.

*In the beginning of the book, when they're making out, Liz says that she and Todd usually don't study in their bedrooms because they know how they can get carried away. There are some other comments that are about sex in a roundabout way.

*After they made up after he caught her with Nicholas, Todd supposedly sneaked into her room that night. She says he became the first guy in history to scale Mount Wakefield, which is (a) hard to believe given who her sister is and (b) makes it sound very sexual.

*Speaking of sexual, Todd grabs her by the hand and leads her to the bed. She tells him that if he thinks they should [fill in the blank] because they might not see each other in awhile, he's crazy. That's two sex comments in the same book!

*I remember the big scandal when it came out that she and Ken dated and how Jessica and Todd went cray cray. This book makes their “relationship” seem really lame. They basically kiss a few times, go to the beach, and have dinner together once. That's it. On the other hand, she says that she has a hard time controlling herself around him and that this kisses make her feel things she never did before.

*So, remember how Liz suddenly realized she was in love with Jeffrey after spending way too long trying to keep him and Lila apart and getting him and Enid together? The whole time that was going on, she was apparently in a secret relationship with Ken. She actually ends things with him and goes to a dance a few days later. That's the same dance when she suddenly realizes that she loves Jeffrey and admits it to him. That's pretty slutty, even for her!

*Poor Jeffrey gets no resolution in the end. He literally admits that he never stopped loving her and spends several hours kissing her on the beach. She gets back with Todd the following morning and never says anything to him.

*This book really makes Liz look bad! Not only does she cheat on Todd with Nicholas while he's in Vermont, but she also dates his best friend behind his back and then cheats on him with her ex-boyfriend.

*There's a weird continuity error that screws with the timelines of the later books. Liz says that Enid and Amy don't know each other because Amy moved in seventh grade and Enid moved to town in eighth grade. Except, that Amy isn't in The Unicorn Club books when they're in seventh grade because she already moved. When they get to eighth grade, they moved to Sweet Valley Junior High and wouldn't have even known Enid.

*Also, Enid and Liz have only been best friends since last year, 10^th grade. I'm also super confused about how Enid became the big druggy alcoholic. In the early books when her secret comes out, they say she moved to Sweet Valley after everything that happened with George. Was she seriously an alcoholic drug user in middle school???

*When the Ken/Liz thing comes out in the cheerleader books, she can't stop thinking about the “secret beach” he took her to all the time. In this book, they literally go to that beach once. I think Liz remembered things a little differently than Ken did!