Time elapsed in this book: 2 weeks
Length of their junior year: 11.5 months
Jessica’s love interests: Neil Freemount, Roger Barrett Patman
Entertainment rating: 7/10
Before I get into the recap for this book, I need to point out a detail that I hadn’t previously noticed about this cover: Roger has a popped collar! Who knew this was the cool thing to do in February 1985 (when this book was first published)? I always associated this trend with dudes in the late 90’s/early 00’s. Aside from this detail, I love the cover. Roger looks young and quite self-satisfied with his newfound richness while Jessica is scheming behind him. This book is a classic, and I am happy to say it is quite enjoyable to reread!
It’s been a week since Roger’s mother died and discovered that his real father was the late Paul Patman, Bruce’s uncle. Roger is now back at school, and Olivia asks him how it feels to turn into a millionaire overnight. There’s no question about how he’s dealing with losing his mom or mention of any sort of trauma. I didn’t notice this oversight as a kid, but it’s pretty glaring as an adult. That said, who wants to read about trauma? I think I speak for all SVH readers when I say we want an entertaining Rags to Riches story, and that’s exactly what this is! Roger can’t believe he’s now rich. Olivia asks him to explain how this happened, since even as his girlfriend, she’s mostly just heard rumors. Roger repeats the story Uncle Henry (Bruce’s dad) told him: when Roger’s mom first moved to Sweet Valley, she took a job working for the Patman family. Paul, Henry’s older brother, was married to some woman everyone hated (naturally). Roger’s mom started spending more time with Paul, they eventually fell in love, and… Roger turns red and trails off here because, you know, the story is about to get more than PG and that’s way too embarrassing for teens in Sweet Valley to discuss! Anyway, Roger’s mom got pregnant and moved away to have the baby. When Paul found out, he tried to divorce his awful wife so he could marry Roger’s mom, but he died before this could happen. Henry tried to get Roger’s mom to take Paul’s money but she refused for reasons that aren’t explained but make a tragic backstory. However, Paul had written into his will that Roger would inherit everything when he turned 21, or if anything happened to his mom. And now that his mom has died, Roger has inherited his dad’s millions! This is basically the last that we hear about Roger’s mom.
The school is buzzing with the news about Roger. Jess asks Lila if she’s jealous, since Lila had briefly interested in him until she found out he worked as a janitor. Lila says no. They start talking about the party that the Patmans are throwing for Roger, a formal dance at the Sweet Valley Country Club. Elsewhere, Todd asks Liz what she thinks about Roger’s situation. Liz says it’s none of her business, then proceeds to spout off lots of opinions, like how she worries about him living with the Patmans.
At his new home that evening, Roger doesn’t feel especially comfortable. Mrs. Patman reminds Roger to be on his best behavior that night as they have guests for dinner, saying that if he has questions about what to do, just follow Bruce’s lead. The dinner’s a disaster. Roger uses the wrong fork to eat with, then accidentally spills the guest’s drink.
At the Wakefield’s house, Liz is waiting for a call from Todd while Jess does a Jane Fonda workout playing on her walkman. I can totally picture this happening. Eventually Todd calls and asks Liz if she’s noticed anything weird about Regina, who’s been leaving school early lately. Todd doesn’t know why and when he asked Regina, she turned red and didn’t answer. Because Todd is just as eager to be in other people’s business as Liz, he suggests they follow her and find out what’s going on.
The next day after school, Liz and Todd cut class!! They skip their last period to follow Regina downtown, where she puts on lipstick, then greets a handsome older man and disappears into an office building with him. Lila suddenly appears and asks what they’re up to. Liz lies (gasp!) and says they’re meeting her father at his office. Lila says she’s downtown for a dentist appointment and points out Roger and Mr. Patman across the street at The Sports Shop, buying new running gear and a tennis racket. Apparently everyone’s downtown.
Saturday, the day of the Patman’s BBQ, arrives. In case you’re confused, this is a separate party from the fancy one at the country club. Jess picks out a sleek black swimsuit to wear, deciding her plan is to get Roger to forget about Olivia and fall in love with her instead. No mention of how Jess feels about Roger himself, but he’s rich now, so who cares about the rest? At the party, Jess ignores her date, Neil, and instead hangs off Mrs. Patman’s every word. She figures Mrs. Patman will be so impressed that she’ll encourage Roger to dump Olivia for Jess. The rest of the gang hangs out around the pool. Bruce has a handful of college girls around him; Liz says she doesn’t know where Bruce finds them. I don’t know either. George says he wants to know where Bruce found his swimsuit, calling it the tiniest thing he’s ever seen. Todd agrees and says it looks like a Band-Aid. I really wish I could drop into this scene and see Bruce’s swimsuit for myself because WHOA.
At some point, Liz goes over to Olivia, who says she doesn’t feel like she belongs and doesn’t feel like Mrs. Patman approves of her. Olivia’s not wrong: Mrs. Patman is currently in the house, sipping lemonade with Jess and asking what Jess thinks of Olivia. Jess says Olivia is nice but too shy; Mrs. Patman says Roger needs someone more like Jessica herself and that she hopes Jess will be Roger’s date to the party at the country club. Jess says she hopes so too!
Lila asks Regina why she didn’t bring her older man to the party. Regina turns red and says she doesn’t know what Lila means. Caroline Pearce hangs onto the entire conversation, ready to spread the gossip. Liz witnesses this and knows that Lila must have seen Regina while downtown! Liz thinks Lila is determined to make Regina’s life miserable because Lila’s intimidated by there being another beautiful rich girl in town.
Jess goes over to Olivia under the guise of helping her fit in. She encourages Olivia to take a second plate of food laden with desserts, which is laughed at by Bruce, and then Olivia tries to jump in the pool and does a bellyflop. Jess thinks her work kicking Olivia to the curb is off to a great start!
Later that afternoon, Bruce checks out Jess in her swimsuit. There’s no mention of her checking him out in his swimsuit, but I can only assume this is happening because how could it not?? Bruce invites her to play a game of tennis. Jess says she’ll play him on Tuesday and suggests that he invite Roger and Olivia so they can play doubles.
Monday at school, Lila and Cara witness Regina’s mystery man picking her up. Lila is pleased that Regina continues to do damage to her reputation.
After school, Jessica goes to The Tennis Shop with Olivia to help her pick out an outfit for their game the next day. Olivia feels awkward trying on tennis outfits, so Jess tells her she should just wear what feels comfortable and Olivia agrees, saying she’ll wear her most comfortable pair of track shorts. Jess then suggests they go to The Designer Shop to look for a dress, saying Olivia has to be ready to play the part of rich Roger’s girlfriend. Of course, the dresses there are all ridiculously expensive so they don’t buy anything. Jess tells her that Roger told Todd he was having problems with Mrs. Patman and that it would be easier if Olivia fit in better.
The next day at school, Lila gloats about Regina and the older man. Caroline comes over, and although they usually shoo her off because she’s an annoying gossip, this time Lila’s happy to have her there so Caroline can hear more about Regina and spread the news. After that, Caroline asks who they’re going to the Patman’s party with; neither Jess nor Lila know yet. Caroline says she wishes her boyfriend, Adam, could come, but he lives in Cold Springs and can’t make it. Lila and Jess are dumbfounded because they assumed Caroline had never had a date in her life!
After school, Jess, Olivia, Bruce, and Roger play tennis. Jess borrowed a tennis dress from Lila, and Bruce and Roger are also wearing all-white; it’s just Olivia who looks like she doesn’t belong. The amount of tennis played in these books is astounding. This series was my first introduction to the world of tennis and how I learned that you typically wear all white when playing. That said, I understand Olivia’s outfit. Who buys a tennis dress unless you play tennis seriously?!
They first play boys against girls. Jess makes every shot; Olivia misses every shot. The second game, Jess says she’ll get all the hard shots and starts doing that but then changes her strategy and falls back at the last second, telling Olivia it’s hers so Olivia is confused and doesn’t know what’s going on. Roger’s having a blast. Bruce is vaguely annoyed because he’s carrying their team by doing all the work. Eventually Olivia trips and skins her hands. Jess feigns concern and when they call it a day, she offers to drive Olivia home. Olivia tells Jess it wasn’t her fault that she was such a disaster. Jess thinks that she wouldn’t use the word “fault,” she’d use the word “credit,” and she would indeed give herself all the credit for how the day went! What a sociopath. And yet I love her for this insanity!!
Later that week, Regina invites Liz over after school. Regina tells Liz that Lane Townsend of the Lane Townsend Agency (which Liz claims is one of the best modeling agencies on the West Coast) spotted Regina while out in town. He gave her his business card and explained that he’d been running a contest to find the perfect model for a story in Ingenue magazine and thought she’d be perfect for the role. In fact, she’s so perfect for it that Regina’s going to be on the cover of next month’s issue! She says she didn’t want to tell anyone about it until the magazine came out. Regina didn’t even tell her mom until she knew for sure that the cover would run, since her mom used to be a model but gave it up when Regina was born. Apparently doctors thought one of the medications she’d taken while pregnant might have caused Regina’s deafness. But her mom was overjoyed to hear that Regina was discovered because she’d always hoped that Regina would be a model too! I don’t know how Regina, as a minor, was able to land a modeling contract and magazine cover without her parents getting involved in the legal side of things, but this is me thinking things over as an adult. As a kid, this was all just so glamorous and glorious! Liz is thrilled for Regina. When Todd asks her later what Regina wanted to talk to her about, Liz says she can’t share and Todd is displeased. No punches fly, but he gives a very noncommittal “mmmm.” Which, incidentally, is how I felt about Todd as a kid (the “mmmm” part, not the noncommittal part. I was ready to commit to that guy!).
Another day after school, in The Oracle office, Olivia asks Liz if she thinks Olivia dresses strangely. Liz says no. Olivia is having an identity crisis and Liz’s reassurances don’t make her feel better. Olivia then goes back to her house with Jess, who offered to help Olivia hem her dress for the upcoming party. Jess, who’s no seamstress, is critical of the dress Olivia made; it looks like a swimsuit coverup instead of something you’d wear to the country club. She gently voices her concerns to Olivia, who starts thinking twice about this outfit because she realizes it’ll be the first time she’s publicly presented as Roger’s girlfriend in front of the Patman family. She thinks Mrs. Patman will laugh at her and wonders how she ever thought she and Roger could stay together!
Meanwhile, at the Patman mansion, Mrs. Patman makes the smallest of efforts to get to know Roger. He says he likes running, and she says it’s not a social sport. He says he wants to become a doctor, and she says it’s a “messy” profession. She asks if he plans to bring Olivia as his date to the country club and is displeased when he says yes.
The next day, Lila follows Regina downtown and trails her to Lane’s office, hoping to catch them in the middle of something. Lila has no idea what Regina is doing at a modeling agency, so she walks inside. The receptionist asks if she’s there about the Ingenue contest. Lila, sensing an opening, says yes and asks for more information. The receptionist says she doesn’t know much because Lane is handling it but that she can set up an appointment with him for Friday so Lila can talk to him directly. Before Lila leaves, she hears someone talk about how Regina’s going to be on the cover of Ingenue, and Lila is determined to make sure that doesn’t happen!
Back at school, Roger and Olivia sit on the lawn. Olivia tells him she can’t go to the country club with him. Roger says he’s already told everyone she’s coming with him and that the Patmans aren’t so bad once you get to know them. They break up and go their separate ways.
Liz runs into Olivia downtown and sees how miserable she looks. She mentions this to Jess when she gets home, and Jess immediately perks up. Jess says she needs to go offer her consolations, since she and Olivia have gotten so close… but she leaves out the fact that the person she needs to see is Roger! Jess goes to the Patman manor and asks how Roger’s doing. She tells Roger that Olivia didn’t feel like she fit into his new life and that Olivia wanted to break up so he’d have to go to the party alone. Can you imagine a worse offense?!? Jess casually mentions that she doesn’t have a date. Roger takes the bait and invites her. Mrs. Patman is thrilled when she hears the news.
Friday afternoon, Lila meets with Lane and asks about the Ingenue competition. Lane says the contest ended weeks ago and that the winner is Regina, who’s going to be on the cover of the magazine plus have a full feature story about her inside. I have to wonder how the receptionist was so out of the loop that she didn’t know the contest ended. Why even bother scheduling a meeting with Lane? Does he really not have anything better to do than meet with a random teen?? Although I’m glad they met because in one of the most epic moments ever, Lane tells Lila she doesn’t have the bone structure to be a model anyway because her face would look flat in photos.
The day of the party, Roger overhears Mrs. Patman talking to a friend about how after Mrs. Patman told Jess she wanted Roger to date someone like her, a week later, Jess had managed to break up Roger and Olivia and finagle an invite out of him to the party! Roger realizes he’s been played by Jess. Seriously, it took him this long? Roger goes to the Wakefield house and tells Jess and Liz that he won’t have a fun time at the party if Olivia is at home, hating him, so he wants all three of them to convince Olivia to go with him after all. Jess realizes that Roger knows what she did, so she gives up and tells Roger and Liz to go convince Olivia to go. Zero repercussions for Jess, as usual. As soon as Liz and Roger leave, Jess calls Neil and asks him to be her date to the country club. Jess is never single for long and certainly never without a date!
Roger and Liz go to Olivia’s, and he tells her all. They make up, and she decides to wear her homemade cotton dress to the party. The party is super swanky, and all the couples are dancing. The new issue of Ingenue has been released, so Regina’s secret is out. Todd tells Liz he understands she didn’t tell him about Regina’s secret because it wasn’t hers to tell and that she’s a good friend. Jess and Neil are making the rounds. Roger and Olivia are there proudly together; Mrs. Patman is shocked, but Mr. Patman is happy to see anyone who makes Roger happy. Lila is there with some college guy named Drake Howard. They run into Caroline Pearce, who has a copy of Ingenue, and everyone knows that Regina wasn’t having a romance with some older man. Lila is annoyed that Caroline has called her out, so Lila asks where Caroline’s supposed boyfriend Adam is. Caroline says he couldn’t make it but reads an overly dramatic letter Adam wrote to prove he’s in love with her.
Coming up next: Is Caroline’s long-distance boyfriend for real?
Notes:
Jess describes Neil to Cara as, “He’s OK until something better comes along.” This is 100% Jessica and I’m loving it!!
Shops visited in this book include The Tennis Shop, The Sports Shop, and The Designer Shop. 1/10 rating for store names.
My favorite exchange in this book, in full:
“I want to know where [Bruce] found that bathing suit,” George announced. “It’s the tiniest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“It looks like a Band-Aid,” Todd agreed, laughing.