Young Adult Revisited

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...

Emily Mayer is feeling down in the dumps. Her mom left town and she told everyone that she died. Her dad remarried a rich, bitchy woman named Karen and they now have a baby Karrie. She’s crushing on her bandmate Dan, but even he doesn’t seem to realize she exists. She volunteers to write an article for the paper, at the behest of Karen, which leads to a friendship with Liz. No matter what Emily does, Karen doesn’t approve. Even though her dad supported her drum playing, Karen thinks it’s a waste of time. She refuses to let her practice anytime Karrie is in the house, which is always, and her dad sides with his wife. She invites Dan over to practice because Karrie has a doctor’s appointment. Karen comes home early and explodes. She calls Emily’s mom a tramp and she runs off in tears. She goes to the Wakefield house and they try to help, despite never suffering a bad day. They convince Emily to call her dad, but he sides with Karen again and demands she come home. The next day, Emily...

Todd Wilkins is leaving Sweet Valley! Oh noes! Actually, when you consider that he is supposedly one of the most popular guys at SVH, no one really seems to give a shit except for Liz. She cries quite a bit and mopes over his leaving. She tells both Steven and Enid that they decided to stay a couple and not see other people. Both try to convince her that it doesn’t make sense. Enid throws Todd a going away party and they sneak off for a few minutes together. Todd tells her that his dad sat him down for a talk over their relationship and it isn’t fair of him to keep a hold on her. She tells him that she can’t picture dating anyone else and cries again. He gives her a gold locket, she promises to never take it off and they decide to stay together. Given that she can’t even stay faithful when he’s 10 minutes away, I don’t see this ending well. Jessica takes it upon herself to find another guy for her twin and Nicholas Morrow is just perfect. She goes to Mr. Collins and asks him to ass...

Originally, I planned on doing a straight recap of Sweet Valley Confidential, but I just can’t do it. I think I’ll just do a couple of separate blog posts to cover stuff in the books. Be warned guys, I despised this book. Sweet Valley Confidential could have been so great, but this wasn’t great at all. There are some big spoilers here too, so if you don’t want to read spoilers, then skip this post. I thought I’d start with the 5 biggest disappointments in Sweet Valley Confidential. #1- Major changes to the overall characters that we know and love. Lila, who was one of the best parts about Sweet Valley University, is now back to a spoiled, bitchy character. She doesn’t even make funny quips: she’s just there to throw a party, be a bridesmaid and screw around on her husband. Steven is now a philandering husband that cheats on his wife constantly. Enid is a doctor that sleeps with AJ Morgan, but doesn’t really like him. #2-Lack of respect paid to original characters. Yeah, I’m sorry...

I just finished reading the first chapter of Sweet Valley Confidential. If you sign up as a "Super Fan", the publisher emails a copy to you. Actually, if you're like me, you register/sign up, watch it say that you registered, wait around for a day without getting anything and then go back to the site. Register again, watch as you get a message thanking you for updating your information and then (and only then) get the chapter emailed to you. Seems like a lot of work for something I was kind of disappointed with. Maybe it's working as a writer. Granted I do non-fiction and will never reach the level of success (or money!) as Ms. Pascal, but I do understand passive voice...and I read a couple of them in the one chapter that made my head hurt. Hopefully those disappear before the book comes out. Plus, I wasn't crazy about Liz and orgasms in the first chapter. Yes they're all grown up now, but the Liz we knew and loved wasn't so gung ho about sex talk. Now she...