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alexblackreads 's review for:
Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later
by Francine Pascal
So this was not a good book. The Sweet Valley series was never particularly well written and the characters could be jarringly different from book to book, but they were always fun. I loved reading them on occasion because I always had a good time despite the melodrama. I picked this up because I was curious how that would translate to adult characters. Plot twist, not well.
The characters are all in their late twenties and just repeatedly cheating on their significant others. Most of them are married or engaged (or divorced after said cheating). The premise is that Elizabeth and Todd were set to get married after ten years together (I think they've been together since high school, but I'm not one hundred percent certain because I was never a serious fan) and Jessica and Todd fall madly in love and have an affair. That's the betrayal and it's just unforgivable? Like Jessica has done some petty and awful things throughout the series, but they're almost thirty now. It hits a lot different and it was super distasteful.
Also, it being Sweet Valley, you know it's going to end with Elizabeth and Jessica being somewhat happy as sisters again and it just doesn't work. She stole Elizabeth's fiance and then married him. There's no coming back from that, and this book doesn't have nearly the depth to even start that process.
A lot of this book was also told in flashbacks which was kind of annoying. It felt like most of it was happening in the past and I was just getting caught up on all the juicy details. I don't know if some of it was ripped straight from earlier books or if it was all new, but I didn't enjoy it.
Beyond that, so much of this book was recapping what had happened in all the characters lives in the ten years since they left high school. Like I said, I read this series a fair amount, but I was never a real fan so I'd forgotten all but the most important characters. I didn't really care what was going on with people who weren't directly related to the story.
If you were a big fan of the series and are just curious, then you might get a little more out of this, but it lacks the charm of the earlier books. It doesn't work as a story. It doesn't have the same vibe of the earlier books I enjoyed. Just don't expect much from this other than satisfying your curiosity.
*Tagging as YA despite the sex and swearing because it reads the exact same as the younger books.
The characters are all in their late twenties and just repeatedly cheating on their significant others. Most of them are married or engaged (or divorced after said cheating). The premise is that Elizabeth and Todd were set to get married after ten years together (I think they've been together since high school, but I'm not one hundred percent certain because I was never a serious fan) and Jessica and Todd fall madly in love and have an affair. That's the betrayal and it's just unforgivable? Like Jessica has done some petty and awful things throughout the series, but they're almost thirty now. It hits a lot different and it was super distasteful.
Also, it being Sweet Valley, you know it's going to end with Elizabeth and Jessica being somewhat happy as sisters again and it just doesn't work. She stole Elizabeth's fiance and then married him. There's no coming back from that, and this book doesn't have nearly the depth to even start that process.
A lot of this book was also told in flashbacks which was kind of annoying. It felt like most of it was happening in the past and I was just getting caught up on all the juicy details. I don't know if some of it was ripped straight from earlier books or if it was all new, but I didn't enjoy it.
Beyond that, so much of this book was recapping what had happened in all the characters lives in the ten years since they left high school. Like I said, I read this series a fair amount, but I was never a real fan so I'd forgotten all but the most important characters. I didn't really care what was going on with people who weren't directly related to the story.
If you were a big fan of the series and are just curious, then you might get a little more out of this, but it lacks the charm of the earlier books. It doesn't work as a story. It doesn't have the same vibe of the earlier books I enjoyed. Just don't expect much from this other than satisfying your curiosity.
*Tagging as YA despite the sex and swearing because it reads the exact same as the younger books.