Fate: The Winx Saga LIGHTING THE FIRE

With less than a month until the second season premieres on Netflix, a new Fate book has come out. This one is a prequel that happens before the events of the first season. 

It's written in the same interesting style as the first book, though without Bloom's first person PoV sections. There are sections about the teachers, but mostly the PoVs are from Stella, Terra, Musa, Aisha, Sky and Riven. Once again, Beatrix is left out. 

I would say Stella, Sky and Riven dominate the book with Terra coming close on their heels. There was less from Musa and Aisha, but I enjoyed what we saw of them. Especially Musa. She and Beatrix are my fave characters. 

For Musa/Riven fans, there is a great bit with those two. 

Bloom fans will find this disappointing because she's barely in it. But that's okay with me as she dominates the first book. 

There's a lot of interaction with Stella, Sky and Riven. They're sowing the seeds for the Ricki incident, although that is not covered in this book. A lot of time is spent on the ever-changing relationship between Sky and Riven. 

The best parts are fleshing out the backstory with Terra and Riven. I love both of them and she really brings out the best in him, though he needs to stop being such an ass. But then, it's Riven. That's basically his entire character always. 

The best single moment isn't something that happens, but something that's mentioned. It's said twice that there are fairies of technology. I'm not sure this is mentioned at all in the first book. THERE IS HOPE FOR TECNA YET.

So yeah, I enjoyed this and I'm rereading the first one now, then planning on rewatching the first season before the second begins. 

JUNIOR HIGH 3

Somehow this is one of Nora's best covers, even dressed in an apron. Poor Mia on the right looks decidedly bad though. They sadly never did her justice. 

This book is a mess. It's not that it doesn't hold up over time. It's simply that the entire concept is terrible. 

Nora and Jennifer write a gripe list about the school that gets out of hand and eventually leads to some of the eighth grade getting an opportunity to run the school for one day. 

Now this is obviously not the best idea in the first place, but they're completely set up for failure. 

Positions aren't chosen with any sort of logic, but by a draw. This is just stupid. Nora would have done fine as the school nurse, but Denise flips out and of course is besieged by boys faking illnesses. The cafeteria job is far too much for inexperienced children. Students may have done fine as teachers, but the faculty were clearly up to something and must have met with the 7th and 9th graders to make things extra difficult. All the student teachers have difficult classes and the 9th graders go on strike. This doesn't make sense unless it was a set up. You would think these two classes would also want a shot at this experiment, so they'd behave. 

So basically, the faculty set up the eighth grade for failure, but they didn't give them a fair shot either. A wise eighth grade would have known this day was a little bit extra. Nora was suspicious but too tired to care anymore. She was happy enough the faculty would meet with class reps to work toward positive changes.

The whole thing is just plain stupid. Jennifer was easily the best character, while everyone else was either fully annoying or simply okay. 

JUNIOR HIGH 2

Oh, gods, it's a teacher crush novel. At least we get it out of the way early. 

The cover girls are Jen, who looks pretty good, Tracy and Nora. Nora looks better than she did on the first cover, but it's not her best. She'll get many tries though. Despite the large number of characters, the only ones ever on the cover are Jen, Nora, Tracy, Mia (who they never get quite right) and Jason Anthony. I think one of the other boys is on one cover, though I'm not sure which boy it is and won't have a guess until I reread.

So we open with the girls already crushing on Mr. Rochester, their new English teacher, who's filling in for the regular teacher on maternity leave. 

This whole book is the girls trying different schemes to make sure they're the one "Cliff" likes best. Nora makes him a healthy diet plan. Tracy plays dumb. Susan shows off her intellectual prowess. Jennifer tells him about her save the whales meetings and he actually comes. Mia gives him punk albums to listen to. Then they start going to poor Steve for advice, only he gives them all the same advice, so one day they all show up with food and one day they all come in dressed to look older. 

That's when Mr. Rochester goes to Jeff, the Manns' housekeeper and the family friend who actually got him the job. Nora and Jennifer overhear an embarrassing conversation where Cliff asks Jeff for advice. He's worried he could lose his job because the drama teacher saw the girls all dressed up and suggested he was encouraging them. Jeff says they have to just let the crush burn out and it does pretty quickly. 

During this whole mess, the boys have tried different plans to get the girls to pay attention to them and Steve's at the end finally works. Although it also just happened to coincide with the collective losing interest so maybe it wasn't the plan after all. 

This was just painful. I like all the characters and a lot of the scenes were funny, but I've never gotten the whole crush on an older authority figure of some kind thing. This guy is TEN years older. That's a lot. The girls finally admit at the end that it would have been creepy if he did like one of them. 

My favorite thing was Mia and Andy. I'm a sucker for the punk couple. He's so devoted to her that he actually buys her an album she wants even though he's a) not speaking to her (Plan #1 to get the girls' attention back) and b) knows she's probably just going to let Mr. Rochester borrow it. I think Mia did get the best attention from Rochester. He gave her a compliment he had to know she'd love and he actually listened to her albums. Susan, Nora and Tracy got far less attention, though Jennifer did have a moment where he disturbed a bunch of people to sit by her at the whales meeting. As innocent as it was, it was nice to see the punk girl actually be the one to be liked the most. I think Mia treated Andy pretty horribly but she's 13, so it's to be expected. Andy is obviously my fave of the boys. He's just fun. 

My biggest critique is that they sidelined both characters who maybe could have calmed the girls down. Denise is barely in the book because she tells the girls they're too old for a teacher crush and she basically has such secondhand embarrassment for them that she can't be around them. Then there's Lucy. Lucy is too smart for this shit, so what does the author do? Pretty much leaves her out of the entire thing. 

I did think it was funny that all the girls think Mr. Rochester is married and his wife's name is Edna, but only Nora and Jen know that Edna is his cat. They make some great comments in a couple different scenes about this without ever letting anyone else know Edna is just a cat. 

JUNIOR HIGH 1

We're taking a little break from Sweet Valley to visit Cedar Groves Junior High. 

It's the first day of eighth grade for all the main cast. Let's run through a quick who's who. 

Jennifer Mann: Tall, pale, black hair, hazel eyes. Jen is really nice, though still figuring out who she is. She loves getting involved in different causes, like saving the whales and volunteering at nursing homes. Her mother died when she and her younger brother Eric were young, and her dad has a live-in housekeeper named Jeff. Jeff is pretty awesome. 

Nora Ryan: Short brown hair, brown eyes, shorter than Jen. Nora is very smart and wants to be a doctor, so she's interested in biology and health. Likes health food but also kinda eats anything. Nora is more cynical than Jen and less adaptable. Her older sister Sally wants to be a professional ballerina and is a freshman in college.  

Jason Anthony: Redheaded class clown, always on a skateboard. He's in the middle on the cover there.

Lucy Armanson: Well-dressed black girl with an afro. Look, Sweet Valley, they have a black character right away. Lucy's awesome. She's one of my two favorite supporting characters. She's witty and loves to hold her own against bitchy Susan. 

Tracy Douglas: Blonde and boy crazy. She's got a million different crushes and is a bit of an airhead. 

Susan Hillard: Always got something mean to say. Why these girls put up with her I don't know. She has some scenes where she's not outright mean, but she's always sarcastic and never pleasant. I don't think she ever got a physical description. 

Mia Stevens: My other favorite. She's the resident punk girl. Her outfit descriptions are hilarious and her hair is typically orange and spiky. Her hair is described as "tawny" so I think they mean that's her natural color. She has blue eyes. Mia can be a bit boy crazy, despite having Andy. 

Tommy Ryder: Sandy brown hair. Class flirt. 

Mitch Pauley: Brown eyes. Class jock. 

Steve Crowley: Dark brown hair, blue eyes. Family owns a restaurant. Childhood friend of Nora and Jen. Nice guy. 

Andy Warwick: Punk guy. Mia's boyfriend.

Amy Williams: Short curly hair. Round face. Wants to teach PE.

Joan Wesley: Class genius. 

I think those are all the big names except for two. You see, there's a new girl in the eighth grade. Her name is Denise Hendrix and she's from a rich family that owns a cosmetics company. Denise is the third main character after Nora and Jen. She's struggling to fit into normal American life, but she's used to Europe and Swiss boarding school. So she's definitely got a lot of culture shock. Some of the girls like her (Jen), but others think she's too different from them to be a close friend (Nora). There's some conflict between Jen and Nora with how Jen is learning a lot from Denise and how Nora is kinda mean to her. Each one takes it a bit too far. The other character I'd like to mention is Denise's older brother Tony, who a bunch of the girls think is hot. He seems nice, though definitely has no interest in a bunch of giggling 13-year-olds. (Yeah, most of them are 13. Denise is older at 14.)

The majority of the book is getting to know the main cast and Denise trying to fit in. She throws a slumber party that's mostly a big hit and then takes over the dance committee, which is less so. She kind of peer pressures the girls into more mature decorations and tries to force them to bring dates. Neither Nora nor Jen is interested in dating yet, so each one asks Steve, which leads to a big fight between the girls. That gets resolved and the dance is pretty awkward, though Denise has one moment of niceness that improves her standing in Nora's eyes. My favorite bit was Mia and Andy coming dressed as preps. 

These books were written in 1986, so they're from the same time period as the big name series. They've got a lot of the same features, including the frequent use of characters' full names. They do this so much in Sweet Valley! I think I know Lila's last name is Fowler by now, okay? I don't know why this time period has such a trend in full names in writing. It's bizarre. 

I remember loving this series more than Sweet Valley High, which is comparable in the book's physical size as well as page total. We'll see how it goes. I haven't reread it in forever. I enjoyed this one, but I didn't love it.

SWEET VALLEY TWINS 41-50 (Including Super Chiller 3)

 
The girls' grandparents are in town and at first Elizabeth thinks they'll be too old to do the fun things they did on their last visit, but their grandparents quickly prove her wrong. 

The main plot is that there's going to be a big party at the Hangout for Aaron Dallas's birthday. Steven just went there and got into a fight, started by some guys from Big Mesa High, so the Wakefields crack down and refuse to let the twins go to Aaron's party. Even Elizabeth thinks this is extremely unfair and both girls keep trying to change their parents' minds. Jessica, who's been wanting pierced ears since last book and was told she had to wait til she was 14, defies Alice and gets them pierced, knowing her parents can't punish her worse than not letting her go to the party, which is already can't go to. They're about to ground her for two months when Grandma speaks up and claims responsibility, since she told Jess she got her ears pierced at 12 and doesn't see anything wrong with it. 

Quick note, but once again, I severely question the Wakefields' parenting. Getting your ears pierced is no huge deal and considering the level of chores the girls are always doing, I think they're more than responsible enough. If you routinely assist in laundry and dinner prep, you can get your ears pierced and take care of them. 

Anyway, Lila gives Jessica the idea to sneak out but their grandparents overhear them plotting. Even though it comes to nothing, they're dragged before their parents to tell the whole story. Then their grandparents speak up and say they think the Wakefields are being too strict. After some discussion, the girls are allowed to go to the party and nothing bad happens. Seriously, one fight doesn't mean a place is bad. There have already been multiple fights at the junior high but you don't see the twins being homeschooled. 

Side plot: All of a sudden, Todd Wilkins is a character. Apparently, he's been there all along but it took over 40 books to mention him. And Jessica is interested in him because he seems interested in her...or is it her he's really interested in? Hmm.

Ah, yes, this one! I grew up with books like SVT and Just As Long As We're Together and likely others I'm forgetting that spotlighted girls getting their periods and it being some awesome rite of passage. You're a woman now! Woo! Except no woo because welcome to years of cramps, headaches and assorted other symptoms. No woo. That's why I tend to shake my head at the modern period stigma, like with Turning Red. so unnecessary. It's a natural thing. Deal with it. 

Anyway, poor Jess is the one who can't deal with it. One morning, Elizabeth acts like something major has happened. Elizabeth for some crazy reason thinks that just because she started her period that Jess started, too. 

Well, she did not and oh, boy, you are not allowed to forget it.

Jessica spends most of the book in a long run of PMS, being totally bitchy to Elizabeth because she feels like Liz is supposed to be more mature now and Jessica is clearly the more mature of the pair. 

The twins are off on a trip to see their cousin, who's a few months younger than they are. She and her family just got back from living in France. So Robin is now basically Jessica and she's getting initiated into the Jaguars, who are her school's Unicorns. Elizabeth feels constantly left out. Then comes the slumber party with the Jaguars and Becky, who is Robin's pre-Jaguars friend. Elizabeth and Becky hit it off, which is great because otherwise both would have been miserable at this shitty party. Robin's initiation task is to sneak into the house of a cute 16-year-old boy and get him to drive her to the park, where the Jags will be waiting. Jessica thinks this will be easy for her, because the boy in question is Robin's boyfriend, but Robin is a nervous wreck. Elizabeth and Becky stay behind as everyone else leaves the house at 11:30. Why are parents in bed so early in these books? Jessica manages to go along with Robin, while the Jags will wait in the park. Then it comes out that Robin lied about the boy. He's not her boyfriend. Meanwhile, so much time has passed that Liz and Becky are worried, and then Robin's little sister Stacey comes in and it's she who tells her parents. They go get the others, drop Robin, her mom and Jess back at the house, then Robin's dad drives the Jags home. Jess and Robin are pissed, though not at Stacey. Everyone's in trouble except Elizabeth and Becky and now Jess isn't speaking to Liz. Then on the bus ride home, Jess has a stomachache (riiiiiiiight) and gets off to buy a ginger ale. And the bus leaves without her. Thankfully, Liz got off, too, so while they're stuck at the bus station, they make up and yep, Jessica got her period, too. 

Not one of the best but definitely also not one of the worst. I was glad to see Robin drop the Jags after refusing to do their backup initiation. She was supposed to cut off Becky's hair in her sleep. WTF?! I'm irritated that a character had my name (Lori Ann even) and she was one of these bitchy Jags. Ugh. No, thank you. I was also glad when Jess got her period so she could shut the fuck up about it. 

Oh, hey, Todd Wilkins. You've totally been a student this whole time and it took over 40 books to mention you. It's love triangle time! 

Amusingly, the book even explains Todd's lack of visibility. Elizabeth says they've gone to school together since kindergarten but she stopped seeing him around as often or just plain stopped noticing him. Until, that is, she realizes she has a crush on him. 

So the whole book is Liz handling her first crush. She can't tell Jess because Jess thinks she and Todd are a thing. Jessica gives her a little makeover, which you see on the cover there. Bumbling Todd actually likes Elizabeth, though how he ended up talking to Jessica more I'll never know. He said he got them confused but that's pretty weak. At a big bowling party, Jessica ends up with Aaron Dallas and Liz and Todd finally talk more and he's liked her all along. She even gets her first kiss, though it's on the cheek so does that really deserve all the hubbub? 

Side plot: Steven has two girlfriends. The thing that annoyed me about this was at the end where Elizabeth was mentally telling Steven not to let Candice push him around. Candice is the one he thought he liked but ended up just wanting to be friends with, while Lindsey is the one he actually likes. I didn't like Elizabeth almost putting the blame on Candice. It's not her fault she thinks Steven likes her. He acts like he does! And seeing him show up bowling with anothe girl after lying to her, well, she had a right to be mad. But he finally tells her the truth and then Lindsey is perfectly happy to have him to herself. Not sure there was a good lesson here anywhere. Everyone ends up happy except the poor girl that was led on, though it doesn't take her long to find someone else. 

An okay book. Not a great one. 

I have been eagerly awaiting this one! I remember loving this. 

Yeah, I still love this quite a bit.

A carnival comes to Sweet Valley and the twins are some of the first to go. Jessica loves the fortune teller there but when she takes Lila and some Unicorns the next day, Lila scoffs and the fortune teller gives her a bad prediction, which comes true. Elizabeth meets a young girl named Claire there. She says she's the daughter of the owner and that she has no friends and all the employees treat her like she's invisible. But she appeals to Elizabeth's sense of wanting a good article for the Sixers by offering to take her behind the scenes where regular people can't go. 

As the story moves forward, it becomes clear that Claire has powers that she uses for scaring people and for controlling their minds. Based on her old-fashioned clothes...and you know, the book title...she's a ghost who's been doing this a long time. Seeing Claire with Elizabeth, the fortune teller puts a fake curse on Jessica, telling her to stay away from the carnival. She also sends her fiancee to do things like tap on Jess's window and tell her to stay away. Turns out she thought Elizabeth was Jess and doesn't realize until the end that the girls are twins. However, this is one thing that doesn't make sense. The fiancee has been kinda staking out the house. He should have noticed there are two girls! 

Elizabeth becomes obsessed with spending time with Claire and any misgivings she has Claire deals with by using her mind control, making Elizabeth forget her questions or obligations. Claire is actually a pretty frightening character for this target market. She's a ghost AND she can control people's minds? That's pretty serious. Amy also uncovers weird happenings at the carnival, so she's killing people or getting them to do bad things. 

It's up to Jessica to go save Elizabeth, who goes to the carnival one last time to say goodbye to Claire. Jessica has now learned that Claire is the ghost of the previous owner's daughter. He was an abusive man to both her and her mother, but when her mother died from illness, he became even worse. She ended up sneaking out to ride the Ferris wheel on her tenth birthday but as she tried to exit the car, her dress got caught and she was taken to the top where she fell to her death. She's haunted the carnival ever since, trying to create new ghost playmates for herself. Jessica gets help from the fortune teller and her fiancee and manages to get herself into the Ferris wheel car alongside Elizabeth. Claire angrily shows her true self after a bit, though Elizabeth is still under her spell. But then Claire makes the mistake of hurting Jessica and Elizabeth won't have that. Claire's spell is broken and she disappears. 

The book winds up unsatisfactorily though. The fortune teller sends the girls a nice message, but I'm not sure Claire can ever be vanquished so she'll just keep causing trouble. Still, this was a great one and as I said, Claire is a pretty frightening character for this reading level. 

Poor Lila. They hardly ever make her pretty. She's supposed to be pretty!

Okay, so there's a fire that completely destroys Amy's house. She and her family get out safely, but she trips on her shoelace and breaks her arm. She's staying with the Wakefields so she can keep up with school while her parents look for a new house.

Amy is driven by guilt because she's convinced she started the fire, so she starts craving the Unicorns' attention and her fire story spins wildly out of control. She also pushes Elizabeth away, despite the two needing to work together on their science project, which was destroyed by the fire. 

Side note: I think the stupid teacher gives them a single week extension. Losing everything in a fire is very traumatic and I feel like this was completely unreasonable. 

So Amy gets in a fight with Elizabeth, but the impending spectacle of Brooke Dennis' party pushes Amy out of the Unicorns' spotlight. She finally makes up with Elizabeth, confiding with her about everything, including her fear that she started the fire. Elizabeth works with her to both fix her Sixers story about the fire and complete their science project. Even after Elizabeth has done a new one without her because Elizabeth is incredibly nice. Too nice really. 

This is just a lot of senseless drama. Not my fave.

Who the fuck is Lucy? 

A plot: Ted is behind on his payments to the stables, so he may be at risk of losing Thunder. (Remember Thunder, who he bought from Lila eons ago?) He needs to win the junior jumping championship to get the prize money. Elizabeth is going to help.

B plot: There's been an oil spill and Jessica rescues a baby seal. She's now going to volunteer with the clean up effort and I feel it's only partially because of the cute boy involved. 

C plot: Aha, Lucy is a newer seventh grader. She's super into horses and knows a lot, says she's won ribbons, but doesn't talk about herself much and is very mysterious. She seems afraid to ride. Elizabeth is determined to figure her out, but so is Ellen. 

So Ted falls while practicing and Lucy ends up taking his place in the competition, which makes Ellen determined to find out her secret. She's able to learn that Lucy's parents don't want her riding and plans to tell them so they make Lucy drop out of the show. Ellen is a bitch. 

Elizabeth meanwhile discovers Lucy's secret through an old newspaper article. In her last competition, she fell off her horse. When Elizabeth mentions this, Lucy says it's because she had a seizure and that's when she learned she has epilepsy. Her parents are now terrified of her riding and sold her beloved horse. 

Lucy still plans on riding in Ted's place. Her parents make it there after she's made it past the first round. After a rather brief talk, they consent to let her ride.

This is ridiculous. I'm sure she talked this over with them a million times, but now after one paragraph of her defending her needs, they change their minds? Ah, only in Sweet Valley. 

Lucy beats Ellen, helped hilariously by the Unicorns doing a loud cheer DURING A JUMPING COMPETITION. Horses are notoriously easily spooked. Ted gets the money to keep boarding Thunder, although there is zero mention of this not solving his problem in the long run. Does $1000 cover being behind 3 months for boarding a horse? It feels like too little. What's he going to do to not get behind in the future? Who cares? No one in Sweet Valley apparently! And Lucy's old competitor from her riding days happens to mention that her old horse might just be up for sale soon. It was nice to see the competitor not being an asshole. She was nice. 

Meanwhile, Jessica has been very concerned over the baby seal she rescued. It's several chapters before it's clear he's going to survive and she really genuinely CARES. Lila and the others look like assholes but that's not surprising. At the end, he's big enough to rejoin the other seals in the wild. 

This book earned Jess a lot of points. She really had a good heart and never put the cute boy first. She was way more down to earth with him than she has been in the past and even though it was a pain in the ass and she ruined a ton of clothes, she kept going back to help clean the beach. Way to go, Jess.

This one is hilarious. Tired of Lila's bragging about all the things she gets from her dad, Jessica sees a contest in a teen mag. It's looking for the perfect French-oriented family to win a week-long trip to Paris. So she blows off steam by writing this ridiculous essay full of lies. Mrs. Wakefield is a gourmet French chef/prima ballerina, Mr. Wakefield is a lawyer but also a talented painter, Steven is playing trombone in a jazz band, and Elizabeth just gets to be perfect Elizabeth...only everyone speaks French at home. for funsies. 

Jess just did it for fun and had no intention of mailing it, but she accidentally leaves it out in the kitchen and Elizabeth mails it. Whoopsies. Jessica worries about it for a while, but her annoyance with Lila keeps growing and when she's called by a magazine rep, she actually schedules the interview with her family and then tries to talk them all into this charade. They agree...but make their own plans to teach her a lesson. 

In the B plot, the Unicorns want new members. (There is brief mention of Mandy Miller, who will become a key character in the future. We've never heard of her before, but she's apparently funny.) Lila decides on Brooke Dennis and the others mostly agree. Mary doesn't think Brooke wants to and Jessica isn't convinced either. Brooke herself? Nope. Not interested. But she's curious enough to go along with it to the point of Jessica giving her her pledge task: play a French maid at the magazine interview. Brooke lived in Paris for a year and speaks French. 

So Brooke gives the Wakefields ridiculous outfits to wear and they put on this insane, over the top performance to teach Jessica a lesson about exaggeration. It's really funny and they did tell the magazine rep ahead of time. She plays along nicely. I'm not honestly sure the lesson was fully deserved though. Jessica really didn't intend to mail the entry and it was Lila's bragging that drove her to even ask her family to try. She never expected them to. So at least it was a light lesson because it's not as if she did anything on purpose and she full well knew how much she was exaggerating. 

Uh oh, Jessica needs glasses. The entire last book there were hints that she was having trouble seeing. 

OMG, Aaron asked Jessica out. The Unicorns are just as tired of hearing about it as I am. And I even like Aaron.

Thanks to the help of Mr. Bowman, the Wakefields learn Jessica is having trouble seeing. After an eye appointment, she gets new glasses (violet, of course), but she spends way too much of the book refusing to wear them and somehow getting away with it, even though she's at school where Mr. Bowman can see her. 

The B plot is the Unicorns' determination to be the group Elizabeth writes about for her Junior Journalist article for the Sweet Valley newspaper. The real paper, not the Sixers. Her topic is kids who make a difference, so the Unicorns come up with the idea to hold a skate-a-thon to raise money for a new encyclopedia for the library. And they actually pull it off. But Jessica gets caught skating without her glasses on and then she's in trouble.

Determined to stay in her room forever, it takes some conniving and a twin switch by Elizabeth to get Jessica to realize she actually looks good in her glasses. Aaron thinks so. He and Jess go on their date to a Lakers game and have such a great time that he asks her to another game. I love that Jessica plays basketball and knows a lot about it. It's something not focused on a lot, but she's not afraid to broadcast her knowledge in front of the boys and even correct Bruce. 

This one wasn't bad. Jessica doesn't have to wear glasses long so you can bet they'll be magically forgotten in the next book. She does look cute in them, as cute as one can get in 80s frames. Her awesome confidence in her basketball knowledge and willingness to share it with the boys instead of hiding it to play to their egos earned her a lot of points from me.

Wow, Lila actually looks halfway decent on this cover. I remember liking Mandy so I'm glad we're finally getting to her. She's had a mention and made a brief appearance and now it's time for her focus.

Oh, Jessica's glasses actually get a mention, but she's absent them on the cover.

At the beginning, Jessica is still as annoyed with Mandy as the rest of the Unicorns are. She's been hanging around them, doing things for them, but now she's become almost a nuisance about it. Janet tasks Jessica with telling Mandy she'll never be a Unicorn. The only problem is when Jessica was late to social studies, Mandy offered to be her partner for a big project on the 1920s they're all doing. And Mandy turns out to be an excellent partner. She's a natural comedian and Jessica's never been a bad actress, so the two team up to do a Vaudeville sketch, using Mandy's grandparents' old costumes. Jessica realizes she really does like Mandy but the Unicorns pressure her into telling her the bad news and it isn't received well. The girls have a fight but make up enough to get through their presentation. Their skit and Elizabeth and Amy's project both are the ones sent on to a competition held by a museum for their 1920s festival. 

Then disaster strikes. Mandy feels worse and worse, and then Jessica learns the truth. She has a cancerous lump under one arm. There's plenty of hope but the book still tackles some tough questions for kids that age and I imagine it would have helped readers dealing with their own health issues. Thankfully, Mandy makes it through her surgery just fine, though she still does have radiation treatment and ends up losing her beautiful long. 

The Unicorns end up all realizing Mandy is special and they pool their money to buy her a fabulous wig after learning her mother could only afford one that wasn't a bit flattering. Janet also offers Mandy membership to the club, which she accepts the next day. 

Mandy is a sweet character and one I remember liking a lot. Like Mary and Belinda, she's one of the "nice" Unicorns. I honestly don't remember this book at all, so it was good to read it again and relearn Mandy's origin story, so to speak. 

Mandy may be the star, but Jessica also fucking owns this book. She sees how shallow and horrible the Unicorns are, though she's not bold enough to really let them have it. She gains some awareness of how the group really is, but I'm sure it will be short-lived. There were some great moments in there where she shut down Lila and Ellen though. 

My one nitpick is that Mandy and Jessica's performance wins first place AND Elizabeth and Amy come in second. Did no one else enter? Did Sweet Valley really have to win both prizes? No. Let Jess and Mandy's hard work get the accolades. Liz has had enough. I didn't go into detail, but Elizabeth stood in for Mandy because she was too sick to participate in having the performance filmed to be sent off to the contest. So it's Elizabeth who performs with Jess at this museum festival. Mandy is still recovering from surgery. But she is there and Jess gets her on stage to take some bows.

Ah, the new cover style debuts! SVT #49 is the first book that switches to the new style cover. I made a list earlier today of the older books I have with the new cover. I'd like to have all the older ones with the original covers, so I'll get around to replacing them all someday. And I have 2 or 3 that could use an upgrade. #48 was pretty rough. 

Like #48, I do not remember a damn thing about this book, but if I wanted to read about babysitting, there's a whole different series I could read. I do not like babysitting mixed with my SVT. 

So the girls get the idea that they want a new sibling and decide to convince Alice and Ned to go for it by babysitting their family friends' 5-year-old daughter. Chrissy is quite the handful and her big mouth reveals secrets about Todd, Aaron and one of Steven's friends named Chad. Steven decides to use this as teasing ammunition, but the girls are really upset, particularly Jessica. 

Everything wraps up decently with the girls definitely no longer wanting a baby in the family and the boy troubles all worked out. Sort of. 

The B plot has Amy doing odd jobs to earn money to buy her parents soccer tickets. A nice idea but next time plan way more in advance, Amy. Still, it was nice to see a B plot with a different character. 

The best thing about this book is the cover. Best Jess ever.

OH, HOORAY. I love Maria. At least, I remember loving Maria. It's pretty sad that it's taken SVT over 50 books to add a black character though. 

Okay, yep, I still love Maria.

There's a new girl at school and Jess thinks she looks familiar. While home sick, she watches a movie and realizes Maria was a child actor. Then she starts paying more attention to her and when Maria accidentally leaves her backpack at the Wakefields', Jessica finds a short story she's written while searching for Maria's phone number. Not realizing it's a fictional story, Jessica is convinced Maria is under cover, trying to learn what it's like to be an average 12-year-old. 

Being that it's Jessica, it's not long before the Unicorns know and then they start all paying attention to Maria. Maria slips into acting mode and spins a story that elaborates on her undercover role. She regrets not telling the truth, because all she really wants is to be herself and make friends who like her, not the star they think she is. When Lila convinces her father to throw a party for the entire cast of Maria's movie, Maria knows it's time to come clean. But she doesn't do it until the night of the party! I thought it was pretty ballsy to bring her entire family to the party and then tell everyone the truth. Thankfully, everyone accepts Maria for who she really is, an ex-child actor who can no longer find work. 

Maria is actually a lot like Elizabeth, except she loves acting as well as reading and writing. She and Mandy audition for the drama club and make it in. I loved Maria and Mandy's scenes. They're adorable. Modern day readers would totally ship them. 

The only thing I didn't like was that I think Amy is the only one who didn't want something from Maria. Mandy asks for acting tips, though that's not too horrible. I mean, they agreed to audition for the drama club together before Mandy knew who Maria was. So while it's a little self-serving, it's still doing what they planned on doing anyway. And Elizabeth, who's usually picture perfect, totally gets that Maria wants real friends, but that doesn't stop her for asking for an interview. Not cool, Liz. 

I'm glad to see Maria added to the cast. Definitely looking forward to more of her.

And that gets us through book #50! I'm going to take a break from these to reread/review the Junior High series, which were a bit longer books, more like Sweet Valley High.