Time elapsed in this book: 3 weeks
Length of their junior year: 1 year
Jessica’s love interests: Surprisingly none
Entertainment rating: 7/10
For some reason, the end of this book struck me vividly when I first read it as a kid, and I don’t know why the story has stayed with me all these years. For being a book that was not specifically about the Wakefield twins, this was so well done! So much entertainment in here. You have a fake boyfriend, kids who can’t tell 19th century love letters from contemporary ones, Jess and Lila scheming together (always a favorite!), and a few surprising callbacks to earlier books.
The star of this book is Caroline Pearce, who lives near the Wakefields and is known as the school gossip. It’s the morning after the Patman’s big party at the country club for Roger, and Caroline is basking in the fact that people paid attention to her after she told them about her boyfriend, Adam, who lives in Cold Springs and writes her super romantic letters. Only problem is, Adam isn’t real. Caroline made him up because she thought having a boyfriend would be her way to popularity. Sadly, she’s right: people suddenly became interested in her after she mentioned Adam and shared his gushy love letters with them.
Caroline wants to keep improving her status, so she heads over to the Wakefield’s house, hoping to get a ride with them to the beach, since she’d heard Cara say that she’d drive Jess there. Jess sees who is at the door and pushes Liz to answer, not wanting to deal with Caroline. Liz blows Caroline off too, saying she’s working on a one-act play for the school wide competition and doesn’t have time to go to the beach. Caroline asks about Jess, so Liz lies and tells her that Jess is still asleep. Caroline leaves and takes the bus (the BUS!!!) to the beach instead. On her way to the bus stop, she picks up the lid to the Wakefield’s trash can, which had been knocked off, and finds a juicy letter on top, which she pockets.
Jess, Cara, and Lila eventually make it to the beach. Lila is still complaining that Regina somehow landed the cover of Ingenue. She’s happy that no one else knows about her attempt to land it because that would be embarrassing, but Jess does tease Lila about being jealous. Caroline makes her way over to the trio, much to their displeasure. Trying to fit in, Caroline tells them how Annie Whitman and Ricky Capaldo got into a fight at the Patman’s party. Cara muses that maybe this means Ricky is available and that even though he’s not her type, sometimes she feels like she can’t be choosy. Kinda sad. Lila says that John Pfeifer isn’t bad, which is true at this point in the series but is also some no doubt unintentional foreshadowing to book 90, Don’t Go Home with John, in which Lila finally dates him and discovers he is, in fact, bad.
Caroline tells them that it’s worth waiting for the right guy, like Adam is for her. They want to hear more about Adam. Lila asks when she’ll see Adam again, and Caroline gets a bit flustered because he doesn’t actually exist. At some point, Caroline gets mad at Jess and says it’s too bad Jess might be leaving Sweet Valley soon. Jess doesn’t know what she’s talking about, so Caroline pulls out the letter she swiped from their trash, which is a letter from Mrs. Wakefield to a design firm in San Francisco thanking them for the offer and saying she wouldn’t be able to move her family there for another month. Why is a letter from Mrs. Wakefield in the trash? Shouldn’t it be a letter from the design firm? Questions without answers. At any rate, Jess is flabbergasted and heads home to get to the bottom of this. She says she’ll take the bus (Jess!! Taking the BUS!!!!) but Cara says she’ll drive her. Whew, crisis averted.
Jess tells Liz and they confront their parents about the move. Mrs. Wakefield says she didn’t tell them because they wanted to discuss it before looping the twins in. Mr. Wakefield tells them they should be supportive of their mom, since this is a big deal for her. As a subplot, this is pretty mediocre because we all know that they’re not going to leave Sweet Valley.
Liz works on her play a little bit. She’s writing about the love story between Emily Barrett Browning and Robert Browning and all the letters they wrote to each other. Then she goes to the Dairi Burger with Todd, where they meet up with Roger and Olivia. Caroline is there too and approaches their table. She asks Liz to apologize to Jess for her and says that she didn’t mean to bring up their mom’s news in front of others. Todd asks what she’s talking about. Caroline says oops, she put her foot in her mouth again. Liz sighs and tells Todd the news about San Francisco.
On Monday after school, Jess drops by her dad’s law office to try to convince him to not leave his practice here. He says he’s been checking out firms in San Francisco. He also has a divorce case file on his desk, which Jess comments on. Strange that he handles divorce cases and land rights cases, but apparently there’s no part of the law that Ned doesn’t handle. On her way out, Jess runs into Dennis Creighton, who she’d previously had a fling with until she discovered he was only fifteen! He’s happy to see her, but she blows him off, figuring that if her days in Sweet Valley are numbered, she’s not wasting them on a younger guy! I guffawed at this.
Caroline goes to the library and checks out more books about Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning and then hurries home so no one will see her. She thinks the letters they wrote to each other were super romantic, so she’s been copying them (with a few tweaks) on her typewriter to pass off as letters from “Adam.” At home, she fakes a call with Adam in front of her older sister, Anita, who’s a freshman at Sweet Valley College. Anita is suddenly interested in Caroline’s life and offers to give her a makeover. Caroline is thrilled that having a boyfriend is catching her sister’s attention too!
Jess and Liz visit the Sweet Valley Chamber of Commerce and request that brochures about Sweet Valley be sent to their parents.
At school, Caroline debuts her makeover. Her enthusiasm is short-lived because Bill Chase is short with her when she tries to talk to him about the play he’s writing for the competition; Caroline assumes this is because he’s cheating and getting help from Mr. Jaworski. Then Annie confronts Caroline about the rumors she’s been spreading about her and Ricky. Caroline tries to salvage the day by “helpfully” telling Liz that she thinks Bill is cheating on his play. After Caroline leaves, Liz and Todd discuss the accusation and Todd says he can’t picture Bill cheating. Liz cuts him off to point out that Regina and Bruce are across the cafeteria together. She says something’s going on between them and she doesn’t like it. Not sure why it’s any of her business, or why this was worth interrupting Todd during their conversation, but I guess the world relies on Liz’s approval.
Caroline wanders over to Cara, Lila, and Jess. They ask if she got another letter from Adam and she says yes and that she carries them around all day so she can reread them whenever she wants. They read the letter, which includes, in part:
“My dearest Caroline, your letter came this morning and the promise it contained of another made me restless all day… Now I will go out and walk where I can be alone, and think thoughts of you, and love you. I will look in the direction of Sweet Valley, and send my heart there…”
Lila asks if this guy is for real because he sounds like something from Masterpiece Theater. 100%, Lila. I’m with you. How does anyone believe these letters are written by a contemporary sixteen year old boy? Jess asks when they get to meet him. Caroline promises they’ll meet him soon. Her heart sinks as she realizes they won’t be satisfied with reading letters forever. I mean, duh.
That evening, Liz reads her play to her family. Jess is kinda bored until she realizes that the letters Liz is quoting are the same ones from Adam’s letters! She immediately calls Lila, who says clearly Adam isn’t a poet, he’s a plagiarist, and that Caroline probably doesn’t know. Jess thinks Adam isn’t real and that Caroline’s writing these herself since they’re always typed and besides, who would fall in love with Caroline?
At the next Pi Beta Alpha meeting, Lila and Jess corner Caroline (because of course she’s a member. This is the least exclusive sorority ever; even Enid is a member!) and ask when she’s visiting Adam next. She says that weekend. They say perfect, that means he can visit Sweet Valley the following weekend! Lila says she’ll throw a party in his honor and Adam won’t be able to resist. Lila says Caroline needs to tell Adam this is the plan, not ask him, because that’s how you deal with guys. I love her dating advice!!
Jess and Liz continue with their quest to convince their parents of Sweet Valley’s greatness. Jess brings her dad out to a beautiful viewpoint, they order food from their favorite restaurants, and Jess mentions that there’s probably good food in San Francisco’s Chinatown, which is funny because Mr. Wakefield is “allergic to Chinese food.” Whoever ghostwrote this book did not understand how allergies work because how is this even possible??
Jess spots who she thinks is Caroline at the grocery store that weekend, so she figures Caroline will have some excuse about why she couldn’t visit Adam. But on Monday, Caroline shows up at school in a Cold Springs Athletic Department shirt (something she got from her cousin Sally, who’d dated someone in Cold Springs and gave Caroline the shirt when they broke up) and says the visit was magical. Jess is shocked and doesn’t know how Caroline pulled this off. Lila and Jess ask if she told him about the party, and Caroline says she doesn’t know if Adam can afford a bus ticket to visit. Lila dangles a bus ticket in front of Caroline and says she’s happy to provide the bus ticket since she doesn’t want to keep the two lovebirds apart. Now Caroline really doesn’t have an excuse! I love the fact that Lila actually went out and bought a bus ticket for her! Jess tells Caroline that she should read some of Adam’s letters to Liz, since Liz is an expert on love letters these days, as she’s writing a play about the Brownings. Caroline realizes that they know her letters are fake and that when Liz reads her play to the school, everyone else will know too!
Liz runs into Regina, who gushes about how nice and considerate Bruce is and refers to him as her boyfriend. Liz is shocked but Regina leaves before Liz can meddle more.
Liz, Jess, and Lila are sitting together in the cafeteria when Lila waves Caroline over. She says that Caroline just has to read one of Adam’s letters to Liz. Caroline is reluctant to talk about Adam or read the letters, but they push her until she does. Liz recognizes the letters as Robert Browning immediately. Jess and Lila make excuses and leave, happy with what they’ve done. Liz doesn’t know how to break the news to Caroline. Before she can say anything, Caroline confesses that the words aren’t Adam’s and that it’s not her boyfriend who’s a plagiarist, he’s fictional and she’s been copying the letters!
Liz confronts Jess and says she now knows why Jess was suddenly interested in her play. Jess laughs and says she’s excited to see whether Adam actually exists or not; Jess thinks he doesn’t but Lila thinks he might. Liz asks why they don’t just tell Caroline to her face that they don’t believe Adam is real. Jess says that would spoil all the fun.
Caroline is miserable at home that evening. Anita asks if she’s gotten any more letters from Adam, and Caroline confesses that she made him up. Anita asks why she’d do that, and Caroline tells her it was a way to finally make people pay attention to her. Anita gives Caroline some sage advice about how listening to people instead of gossiping is a way to make people like you and that she’ll still help Caroline with another makeover for the party.
At school, Caroline tells Lila and Jess that Adam didn’t actually write the letters. She doesn’t admit to making him up, but she acknowledges that the words aren’t Adam’s. She then tells Liz that she’ll tell them the full truth before the party. Liz and Todd discuss it and decide to help by putting together what they dub “Operation Rescue.”
Caroline apologizes to Bill Chase for spreading the rumor that he’d been cheating on his play. Bill says he dropped out of the competition but that he wasn’t cheating. He had been getting help from Mr. Jaworski for an audition he had in Hollywood that ended up going well.
Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield tell the twins they’ve decided not to move to San Francisco after all. Apparently they’d decided this awhile back but hadn’t told the twins since they were entertained by the efforts to keep them in Sweet Valley. Seems like another example of terrible parenting, not informing your teenage daughters about something they’re clearly stressed out about, but what else do you expect?
The playwriting competition happens. Everyone’s captivated by the play Liz wrote and, naturally, she wins the competition. I have to wonder how much of the play she actually wrote since she’s quoting directly from their letters.
Saturday night is the party at Fowler Crest. Caroline tells Lila that she has an announcement to make. She’s about to tell everyone that Adam isn’t real, but then a hot guy rushes up and gives Caroline a kiss and tells her to introduce him as Adam. She does! The guy later tells her he’s Jerry, one of Todd’s friends from Woodgrove High (a school I don’t think is ever mentioned again). He’d been asked to pretend he’s Adam, since Liz and Todd didn’t want Jess and Lila to “win” by embarrassing Caroline. They have fun together at first, but then Caroline decides she needs to make another announcement. Caroline tells everyone at the party that “Adam” isn’t real and that the guy she’s with is actually Jerry. Jerry says he’s proud of her for being so honest and asks to see her again. I’m pretty sure we never hear about him again either, but perhaps he’s around for another book or so.
Coming up next: Regina falls hard for Bruce, despite Liz’s concerns.
Notes:
It’s mentioned that Sweet Valley College is less than five miles from where Caroline lives, which is why Anita lives at home and commutes to school. Why is Steven living on campus?? And why, when Liz and Jess and over half their friends attend what’s re-named Sweet Valley University two years later, are they all living on campus too?
When Jess visits her dad’s office, she sees a divorce petition that he’s working on. Apparently the types of law he practices knows no bounds, since he last handled a case defending the SVH football field. I decided to add a new running list of all the different types of cases he handles, just to keep track of how amazing his law practice and knowledge is!