Sweet Valley High #61: Boy Trouble

Time elapsed in this book: 3 weeks

Length of their junior year: 4 years, 1 month, 2 weeks

Jessica’s love interest: Vincent Delano

Entertainment rating: 2/10

This book was a dud. Even the subplot, Jess taking credit for someone else’s art in order to snag a hot guy, wasn’t great. Let’s get this recap over with… the next book is WAY better.

In addition to the “Eyes and Ears” gossip column, Liz is writing a new column for the Oracle called “Personal Profiles” that will feature profiles of various seniors. The first senior she wants to interview is Patty Gilbert, who’s DeeDee Gordon’s best friend, a dancer, and one of the few Black characters at SVH.

Patty is looking forward to a weekend visit from her boyfriend, Jim Hollis, a student at Pacific College. Before she can get too excited, Patty’s older sister, Jana, says she’s visiting for the weekend and has some big news to share. Patty tries to call Jim but can’t reach him, so he drives to Sweet Valley. It’s unclear why Jim and Jana can’t visit the same weekend, especially since he’ll also be visiting his own family, but whatever. Patty goes to his house and says she’s going to be busy all weekend with her sister in town. Jim explodes and says he understands that Jana is more important than he is and that he may as well have stayed at his college for the weekend and that clearly he means nothing to her. Yikes. 0 to 100 in like 5 seconds. They break up, and Patty is sad about this for some reason. So far, there is nothing redeeming about him.

Jana arrives with a handsome man in tow. It’s her fiancé, Ted Brewster! Mr. Gilbert pours everyone (including Patty) a glass of champagne to toast to this news. Ted’s in the Air Force and leaves for West Germany (this book was published in 1990!) in three weeks, so they plan to get married in two weeks! Patty is happy for Jana but sad because she feels like she’s now lost her boyfriend and her sister.

On the weekend, Jess goes to a craft fair, where she sees DeeDee selling painted t-shirts. DeeDee asks Jess to watch her stand for a few minutes. Jess is bored… until she spots the most gorgeous guy she’s ever seen! He introduces himself as Vincent Delano. He co-owns Blue Parrot Crafts and wants to sell “her” amazing shirts in the store. Can he call her to talk about it? Jess is not one to let a hottie leave, so she tells him sure, she’s the one who made the shirts and of course he should call!

Patty goes to the movies with friends and sees Jim there with another girl. He calls her later and says it wasn’t what it looked like, but she doesn’t want to hear it. Jim then accuses her of cheating on him since she was with another guy. This guy! Ugh. Later, Liz calls to interview Patty for “Personal Profiles,” and Patty confides all to Liz because why not?

Vincent calls Jess and asks if she has more shirts to show to his business partner. Jess says no, they sold out, and hopes he’ll start talking about taking her out for dinner and dancing. Vincent keeps it professional and says she should make more shirts and meet him next week. Jess agrees and then realizes he might actually be interested in the shirts, not in her. She doesn’t know what to do. She decides to paint shirts herself.

Patty wants to tell Jana about Jim, but Jana is stressed about the wedding and says everything’s going wrong (I mean, duh, she’s planning it in 2 weeks). Patty is tired of Jana talking about the wedding, so she tells Jana she doesn’t even want to be in it. Patty proceeds to skip the bridal shower and feels sorry for herself when their mom says Jana will probably ask their cousin, Tracy, to be maid of honor instead.

Jess tells Liz she met Jim’s cousin at the craft fair, and Liz realizes that’s who he was at the movies with. She rushes over to tell Patty, but Patty isn’t home. Liz mentions to Jana that Patty and Jim broke up, and Jana’s shocked! When Patty gets home, Liz tells her the news, and Patty can’t believe she ever distrusted Jim. She writes a letter to Jim but doesn’t send it.

Patty drives Jana to her dress fitting and is amazed at how beautiful Jana looks. They make up, and Patty agrees to be maid of honor again.

Jess makes a bunch of shirts and takes them to Blue Parrot Crafts. Vincent and his business partner, Cassie, are unimpressed. Jess pretends she was attempting a new type of art but they aren’t buying it, so she admits that she’s not the real artist and tells them to contact DeeDee instead.

Patty tells Liz about Jana’s wedding and how Ted’s parents are hosting a rehearsal dinner at the Valley Inn. This makes Liz nostalgic because the last time Liz went there was with Jeffrey French shortly before they broke up. Apparently the Valley Inn makes Patty nostalgic too because at the rehearsal dinner, she thinks about how she and Jim dined there a few months ago for their second anniversary. Together that long, yet zero maturity or communication skills. Amazing.

The next day at the wedding, Patty is shocked to see Jim! Apparently Jana found the letter Patty wrote to Jim and mailed it for her, and then Ted drove to pick up Jim after the rehearsal dinner, since Jim didn’t have his car. Patty says she’s lucky to have them all in her life.

There’s a reason I barely remembered this book. The drama is here was not fun. Thankfully, the next book is fun!

Up next: Jess schemes to revive her love life!