Young Adult Revisited

I have a confession to make. I bought and read all six of The Sweet Life e-books and never recapped them. Each book was a little more ridiculous than the last, and I think I was too annoyed to write reviews. The other day, while on a trip to pick up cleaning supplies from Dollar Tree, I found the hardback with all six e-books inside and decided to give it another try. Jessica is working for one of George Fowler's companies and is now in charge of marketing for some green cosmetics company. I always assumed the only green thing she cared about was making sure her hair didn't turn green from the chlorine in the swimming pool. After making a pitch to Revlon, which is really just her deciding to throw a party with naked models painted to look like they aren't naked (how is that selling makeup?), everyone oohs and ahs before she goes home to find Todd playing with their son. Todd and her snip at each other before he takes off. It turns out that she and Todd separa...

How can a Sweet Valley book be so freaking boring??? The Sweet Life opens with Jessica getting ready to give a big presentation. She’s now a big muckety muck at the PR firm where she works (despite the fact that she changed majors from communications to art history in SVU). Her assistant/friend Katy keeps her on her toes, making sure that she remembers to take the right photos into the meeting with Revlon. Jessica decides to throw a party to launch the new line, complete with naked women walking around and painted to look like they were painted in clothing. Grrr. It’s kind of like they want people to think it’s paint, then think it’s clothes, and it’s actually paint. Everyone drools all over themselves because it’s the best idea ever! Except Courtney, a middle aged (gasp) woman who got replaced by Jessica. She rushes home to find Todd playing with their two-year-old Jake. Todd seems kind of cold, gets pissed that she’s late, and storms off to cover a basketball game. She calls Liz ...

I stumbled across this earlier and had to share it. 1 Bruce 1 has some pictures up that show the covers of the new Sweet Valley Confidential sequels: The Sweet Life. Even though Francine herself said it several interviews that these were short installments, it looks like they are actually books . If not, I want to know who the heck is paying $14+ for an ebook! It also looks like the original serials will cost $1.99 per book. Francine said the ebooks would come out in May (last month for those who don't pay attention to dates), but the first book will actually come out next month. The hardcover version hits stands in October, so I'm betting that you get all six ebooks for one price. I'm still on the fence about whether or not I want to buy these. On the one hand, it's new Sweet Valley books. On the other hand, it's Sweet Valley 2.0. I wasn't a fan of Sweet Valley Confidential at all. I've read some of the older books 20 times or more, but I haven't y...

I don't know if any of you are staying up to date with the world of Sweet Valley, but I came across something today that made me stop in my tracks. Pascal is going ahead with her plan to release six short serial books set after the horrible events in Sweet Valley Confidential. The first in the series The Sweet Life #1 comes out in May. According to the short synopsis available online, the books pick up three years after Sweet Valley Confidential ended. Liz is now an ace reporter (natch), Jessica is a huge success in the PR world (of course), and naturally the twins are now best friends again. The synopsis says something to the effect that Jessica does not find motherhood as easy as she thought. Are you kidding me with this crap? Is Pascal writing stuff because she wants to see our heads expose? Look, we all expected something completely different from Sweet Valley Confidential. I know that a lot of us thought if she actually did the serials, she would try to make up for that. N...