Sweet Valley High #15: Promises

Front Cover: Somehow, Jessica will get rid of Betsy!

Back Cover: Bad girl in town...

Steven Wakefield is crushed when his girlfriend, Tricia, dies after a tragic illness. The only things that keep him going are the memory of their love and his promise to Tricia to take care of her sister, Betsy, after she's gone.

Betsy Martin's wild exploits with drink, drugs and boys have left her with the worst reputation in Sweet Valley. But when Steven takes her into the Wakefield home, Betsy makes a promise to change. And as her goodness grows, so does her love for Steven.

 Jessica, Steven's conniving younger sister, doesn't like this one bit. She makes a little promise of her own - to get Betsy out of the house and out of Steven's life... forever!

I like how this book doesn't hide the fact that Jessica is totally mean and a bitch. Betsy's sister just died, and Jessica is all "But what about me? ME!!!" I really wished people in the book called her out on her behaviour more often.

Even though Jessica and Elizabeth still feature prominently in this book, it's largely about Steven, which I really liked. I wish we got more books about him. I'm excited for all the books in the future that feature him being all creepy about Tricia haha

I wonder if anyone ever brings up the fact that Betsy's name must be Elizabeth. I mean, I suppose it's always possible that her parents just named her Betsy straight-up, but generally, "Betsy" is a nickname for "Elizabeth". Oh the irony!

Anyways, what basically ends up happening is that Betsy stays true to her word. It's not easy, and with Jessica's machinations, she very nearly decides to forgo it all and just resign her life to being poor white trailer trash. But of course, it wouldn't be a Sweet Valley book without everything ending up all hunky-dory in the end. Steven and his friend Jason Stone decide to enter Betsy in an art contest to get a scholarship at an art school. Of course, she wins, so I'm guessing that means we won't be seeing much of her anymore.

Jason Stone seemed like such a generic nice-guy. I'm guessing in the future, if he or Betsy ever get mentioned, it'll be that they're dating.

The subplot is that Roger Barrett's mom is dying, and Bruce Patman's father is being super-nice about it. In the end, we find out that Bruce's uncle, Paul, who died in a plane accident long long long ago, is actually Roger's father.

Hook: Now Roger is as rich as Bruce, but how muvh will he have to change to fit in to the Patmans' world?

I'm guessing that at first, Roger will be all like, "This doesn't change anything. I mean, I won't have to work so many hours and I won't have to worry about money for school, but I'm still the nice guy I've always been!" But then Jessica is going to sink her hooks into him, and convince him to change, and others will have an influence on him, and the next thing we know, he'll break up with his girlfriend, date Jess (who will realize that despite the money, she thinks Roger is the most boring person ever) and eventually realize that money can't buy happiness and that he was better off before. So even though he'll still have the money, he'll eschew the lifestyle and everything will pretty much be status quo haha

Sweet Valley High #12: When Love Dies

Front Cover: What terrible secret is Tricia keeping from Steven?

Back Cover: The end of romance...

The Wakefield twins' older brother, Steven, is heartbroken. His girlfriend, Tricia Martin, no longer seems interested in him. She breaks their dates and doesn't return his calls. Steven can't understand why Tricia's feelings have changed so suddenly.

Jessica is thrilled that Steven isn't dating Tricia anymore. She sees it as the perfect opportunity to pair him with her best friend, Cara Walker. Elizabeth , Jessica's twin, thinks that scheming, gossipy Cara is all wrong for Steven. She's determined to find out the reason for Tricia's stranger behaviour - and horrified when she discovers the awful truth.

 Omg I hate Jessica so much!

So yeah, Tricia is dying of cancer, and she wants to spare Steven the pain of seeing her deteriorate. So she acts all distant and eventually they just break up. Steven is of course heartbroken, which is a foreign concept to Jess, so she tries hooking him up with Cara right away. Even if Steven was over Tricia, I hate Cara. She's so whiny and immature. She's actually worse than Jessica. Of course, Elizabeth figures out what's going on, and everything is fine in the end. Except that Tricia is still dying.

I hope we get to see her die in a book or two. I know she couldn't have possibly died in this book. She's near the end, but definitely has a few days, even weeks, left, especially if she's still going to school part-time. So unless she suddenly dies of cardiac arrest or something, she shouldn't have died yet.

The subplot in this one is that a TV host is in the hospital for a broken leg, so Jessica convinces Elizabeth that they should become candy stripers, so that Jessica has a chance to get close to him. Of course, it's Elizabeth who is assigned to his ward, and he loves her, because Elizabeth is all calm and mature and treats him like a human being, instead of a celebrity. Jessica eventually cons her way into his room, and is so starstruck that she acts like an idiot, is a total klutz, and just generally makes his life miserable. Of course in the end, everything comes up roses and Jessica gets to be interviewed and on TV.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth gets kidnapped by a creepy orderly. They rarely fully set-up plots in advance, so this was nice to see. Carl works at the hospital and is just generally weird and creepy. St Elizabeth, friends to all things, tries to be friendly, but even she admits to being creeped out by him. The last few pages has her getting kidnapped from the parking lot by Carl.

Hook: Will Elizabeth be saved?

Of course she will! It's funny, because at this point, the books were being released once a month, but according to my copy, readers would have to wait AN ENTIRE EXTRA MONTH to find out! I can't help but wonder how it would've been to be a preteen in the 1980s, eating this shit up like candy, anticipating the next novel. I'm sure I would've known that yes, Elizabeth would be fine in the end, but I wonder if I'd still be anxious just see exactly how and what unfolded. As it is, I'm pretty excited to read the next novel now haha