Time elapsed in this book: 4 weeks
Length of their junior year: 1 year, 10 months
Jessica’s love interest: Cliff Sherman
Entertainment rating: 7/10. The believability factor was like a 2/10.
Another Super Edition! Once the idea of a SVH Super Edition came to fruition, they started cranking these out after every couple of books, allowing the reader an escape from the “normal” timeline of Sweet Valley into some kind of school break. The timelines in the Super Editions are always a little fuzzy because they seem to exist in the same world, yet completely separate from the main series. Case in point: this is the second “summer” Super Edition, the first being Perfect Summer, in which the twins and friends go on a bike trip along the California coast. You’d think the summer chronicled in this Super Edition would be the same summer as the one in Perfect Summer, but you’d be wrong to look for logic in Sweet Valley. In this summer, Liz is single (she was dating Todd in Perfect Summer, since he hadn’t moved to Vermont yet in the book that immediately preceded Perfect Summer’s release), whereas Liz is single in this summer. Personally, I liked Perfect Summer better than Malibu Summer, as I loved the idea of a bike trip with the usual SVH gang and that book had so many epic moments (come on, a bad girl trying to steal Todd from Liz and the amazing moment that was Jessica vs. a BEAR! How do you top that?!?). By contrast, this book mostly just features the twins and occasionally Lila instead of the entire crew, and it’s not nearly as epic, even though there is a rock star in it.
The cover: Not my favorite. Jess looks amazing in her bikini, while Liz’s striped one-piece is okay. It’s a solid look at the twins and pretty indicative of a summer at the beach, but it’s not particularly memorable.
The book opens with Jess trying to convince Liz to become “mother’s helpers” in Malibu for the summer. I haven’t heard of this term before to refer to a nanny or au pair, but it’s pretty sexist, especially reading this book today. There seems to be little training and absolutely no oversight to signing up for this. Jess wants to do this because Lila is going to be in Malibu all summer, and Jess knows her parents will only allow her to go if Liz does. So much for their parents encouraging their individual pursuits. Liz wanted to get an internship at the local newspaper, but she says she’ll do this instead so long as Jess does all the work to set it up.
Jess finds an agency to sign up with. The woman there is excited to hear that twins want to work for them since they don’t have any twins on their books yet. I’m not sure why this is so exciting, but I’m sure this fed into my childhood understanding that twins = really cool. Jess tells the woman that she’s especially good with infants, assuming they’ll be less work since all they do is sleep. The woman says there’s a family named the Sargents who have a three month old son. Jess asks if they’re related to rock star Tony Sargent, who she’s in love with, and the woman says yes, Tony is their cousin! So nice of her to provide all this personal information without vetting anything about Jessica! Jess starts daydreaming about Tony Sargent dropping by while she’s living there and them falling deeply in love. The woman then suggests that Liz work for the Bennett family, who have a six year old daughter. She gives Jess the phone numbers of both families and says it’s on her and Liz to arrange an interview with the families, after which the family will call the agency and confirm they approve of Jess and Liz for the positions. Things were apparently really lax in 1986, when this book was published. Or maybe they were only this lax in Sweet Valley.
The house Liz is living in is huge and right on the beach. The house Jess is in is small, six long blocks from the beach, and the Sargents expect Jess to share a room with the three-month-old in case he cries during the night. Jess says they probably want to keep their guest room free in case Tony Sargent drops by. She’s dismayed to hear that they aren’t close, so Tony will almost certainly not be dropping by.
Jess and Lila catch up about their jobs at the beach. Lila tells Jess that her own plan for the summer is to meet handsome men. She says she needs an older man who’s mature and that this is the summer she’s going to find him. Lila wants someone like Rock Owens, the hero of the romance novel she’s reading. Jess reads a passage from the book and is not impressed:
“Rock was tall and swarthy. His dark eyes flashed like fire in his tanned face. The minute Elinore saw him she knew this was it… he was the one. The muscles rippled in his arms as he raised her to him, his manly face filled with passion. ‘Kiss me, Rock,’ Elinore moaned softly.”
I am impressed by how perfectly the ghostwriter of this book captured what a romance novel sounds like! This is A+ writing right here.
Liz and Taryn, the girl she’s watching, join Jess and Lila on the beach. Taryn is sullen and Liz doesn’t quite know what to do with her. Jess catches sight of some guy on the beach and falls in love with him from a distance. Liz says she knows the guy: he’s Cliff Sherman and he lives next door to the Bennetts! Cliff comes over and introduces himself, then invites all the teens to a party he’s having that Saturday. Jess is smitten and decides she wants to swap houses with Liz for the summer so she can be next door to this hottie! Liz says no.
Jess gets more bad news when she goes home to the Sargents and hears that they expect her to babysit on Saturday night! She will miss the first party of the summer! She tells Liz the bad news and Liz says she’ll babysit instead so Jess can go to the party.
Jess and Lila go shopping in Santa Monica. Lila waits outside a store while Jess tries on some swimsuits and meets a guy from San Francisco who introduces himself as Ben Hogan. He is attractive and invites her to go wind surfing with him. They make plans to meet at the beach the next day, and Lila thinks that this could be the older, sophisticated guy she’s been dreaming about!
Jess visits Liz while she’s taking care of Taryn. Liz feels sympathy for Taryn, whose parents are always arguing and don’t seem to pay her much attention. Jess whispers a story to Taryn about a “wicked little girl named Taryn” and Taryn finds it so entertaining she giggles and actually looks happy.
Lila and Ben meet up for windsurfing and have a blast. She’s really good at it because she took lessons the previous summer, but she doesn’t tell Ben this so he thinks it’s thanks to his instruction. She invites him to the movies, but he says his car’s in the shop and suggests a walk on the beach instead. Lila agrees and then they start kissing. Lila is delirious and can’t wait for their moonlight walk!
When they meet up that night, Lila tells Ben she wants to know more about him. She asks if he goes to college in San Francisco, and he says no. She asks what he does then and if he has a job. He looks embarrassed and says he’s still in high school. Lila figures that he’s probably eighteen or nineteen and had been held back a year or two (how charitable!) so she tells him that’s okay, she’s in high school too and just finished her junior year. We finally have information about when this summer is supposed to take place!!! Ben tells her he’s going to be a junior in high school in fall and that’s why he doesn’t have a car; he’s not old enough to drive yet. Lila decides that no one can know she’s dating a younger guy. She asks Ben to go to Cliff’s party with her and to lie to her friends about his age while there. Ben says that Cliff is one of his best friends and he’s the guest of honor at the party so he won’t be able to lie. Lila can’t believe her terrible luck!
Saturday night, Liz heads over to the Sargents’ house to babysit while Jess is at the party. Taryn throws a fit in front of her parents while Liz is leaving, and Liz feels bad for her. When she gets to the Sargents’, it’s almost a relief since their house is so warm and happy. On their way out the door, they tell Liz that an old family friend named Jamie Galbraith is coming to stay with them and will be arriving that night. They ask her to let him in and tell him to make himself at home.
Jamie shows up that night and immediately charms Liz. He tells her he’s twenty-one and a junior at Yale, studying English. Liz tells him she wants to major in English too. They put on some jazz music and he asks her to dance. Liz can’t help but fall in love with him, even though she knows he’s too old for her. He invites her out to lunch on Monday at a cafe on the beach called the Beach Cafe (clever) and she accepts.
Meanwhile, at Cliff’s party, Jess is in good spirits but Lila is miserable as she waits for Ben to out her as a romancer of a youngling. Jess is impressed by Ben when she sees him because he is a hottie! She’s also impressed by the way Cliff whisks her off her feet when they dance together to the sound of Tony Sargent’s latest hit, titled “Tonight Is For You, Girl.” I’m getting total Milli Vanilli vibes from that title alone. Jess asks Cliff how old Ben is and he says fifteen. Jess can’t believe Lila would go out with someone younger than her after all her talk about older men! She vows to start teasing Lila immediately.
On Monday, Liz goes to her secret date with Jamie. They talk and Liz falls in love with him more, but she acknowledges that he’s older and says her parents would never approve. She says that nothing can ever seriously come of their budding romance and that she needs to talk to her parents about it.
We then cut to Jamie’s point of view. He’s not really a college student named Jamie Galbraith. He’s really the seventeen year old rock star Tony Sargent!!! Who would have ever seen this coming?!?? He’s currently in hiding because he went out for drinks with a girl named Lisa (drinks?? At seventeen? Okay… I mean, why start making it believable here?). She’d seemed nice but she actually had a violent boyfriend named Frankie who was in jail. As soon as Frankie got out of jail, he found out Lisa having a drink with Tony and started sending him threatening letters!! The police haven’t been able to track Frankie down so Tony’s in hiding, disguised as Jamie, until Frankie can be arrested! He didn’t expect to fall in love with Liz while in hiding. He hopes that if she finds out the truth, she’ll still like him.
Jess teases Lila about Ben’s age, and Lila isn’t in the mood to hear it. Jess then brings Cliff around the Sargents’ house, where they ignore Jamie, since Jess thinks Jamie is really weird. Jamie takes off for Santa Monica, and Jess thinks good riddance. Jamie is actually heading out to see Liz! They have another great date, talking about books, looking at the stars, and kissing.
Later that week, Liz meets up with Jamie at the Beach Cafe again. There’s a storm heading in, but she decides to chance it because she doesn’t want to miss an opportunity to be with him! Back in Malibu, Jess goes over to the Bennett house to see how Liz is faring in the storm. The housekeeper says Liz is off with a friend, which confuses Jess since she was unaware Liz had any friends in Malibu. Jess suggests that they get Taryn and drive away from the beach to somewhere safer. But Taryn’s not there! She’d overheard her parents fighting yet again and decided to run away! Jess and the housekeeper call the police.
The Sargents receive a phone call from Tony’s manager, saying that he needs to talk to Tony right away. They tell him that Tony’s at the Beach Cafe. Such solid secret keeping. A short time later, the phone rings again and a different voice says he’s Tony’s manager and that he needs to find Tony because Frankie knows where he is! The Sargents realize that the first guy was an imposter, probably Frankie himself, and that Frankie must be on his way to the Beach Cafe!
The police tell Jess and the housekeeper that they’ve spotted Taryn near a bridge. They hurry over and Taryn is struggling to hold on. Jess knows that if Taryn moves closer to her, they can pull her to safety, so she starts telling Taryn her “wicked little girl” story and Taryn steps closer to hear more. They save her! I do not understand why Taryn loves these wicked little girl stories, but I love these SVH stories, so I guess I can’t judge. Anyway, kudos to Jess for figuring out what Taryn likes. But the drama is not over: Taryn has a fever and is being taken to the hospital!
At the hospital, the Bennett parents stress about how they’ve been terrible parents. Taryn wakes up briefly and asks for Jessica. The doctor warns them that Taryn will only make it if she wants to make it. Again with the terrible medical advice. Jess tells Taryn’s mom about the wicked little girl stories that she’s been telling, and her mom tells Taryn a story like this. It works! Taryn wakes up and wants to hear more! Taryn’s parents promise to be better to each other and to Taryn! I find myself not caring.
We cut to something more interesting: at the Beach Cafe, Liz and Jamie are stranded due to the storm, killing time together. The door opens. Frankie comes in with a knife, threatening Jamie and calling him “Sargent!” Frankie attacks Jamie, and Liz acts on instinct. She grabs a vase and hits Frankie on the head with it! He crumples to the floor. The police rush in! They arrest Frankie and make sure Jamie and Liz are okay. Jamie admits to Liz that he’s really Tony Sargent, rock star. Liz can’t believe he lied to her and feels like she was just someone to be entertained by while he was in hiding. The police ask for Tony’s autograph and take Tony and Liz to a hospital to get checked out.
Jess is at the same hospital and can’t believe it when she finds out that Jamie Galbraith was actually Tony Sargent! She wishes she hadn’t ignored him for so long.
Tony and Liz say their goodbyes. He’s going to leave Malibu and head back to Los Angeles. Liz says it’s probably for the best that they don’t see each other again.
Tony calls Liz multiple times over the next week but she doesn’t answer. I kinda get where she’s coming from, but she’s feeling miserable and doesn’t realize she’s doing it to herself. Liz goes to a Tony Sargent concert the next night with Jess, Cliff, Lila, and Ben. Tony sent over tickets for them. The opening band is The Number One, who actually played at one of Lila’s parties in the main series. Continuity! It’s impressive that a big band like this was available to book for a high school party, even if it was a party at Lila’s.
The concert is crowded and amazing. Tony announces that he has a new song to debut called “Summer Girl” and dedicates it to Liz. She swoons a little. I swoon less. For some reason, this romance didn’t move me as much as her cheesy interactions with Todd. Anyway, after hearing him sing a song about her, Liz thinks this was the most magical summer she’s ever had and that she’ll never forget Tony! I mean, she will forget him, since I don’t think he’s ever mentioned again, but what a nice sentiment to end on.