Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I did expect something more but realistically I shouldn't have. The horrible inconsistancies are a trademark of all of the Sweet Valley series. Remember how Elizabeth and Jessica met Todd, the NEW boy in town in book #1 Double Love, but then he was in all the Sweet Valley Kids and Sweet Valley Twins books? How about this big one: Olivia Davidson dies in the horrible series changing earthquake at the end of junior year in high school and then is back alive and well in Sweet Valley University at a reunion? We should have fully expected this book to be a disaster of inconsistancies. I just can't believe I still care enough that it really ticked me off. Here are the inconsistancies that most irked me in "Confidential". I won't list them all because that would pretty much be the full content of this book. Some may be slightly "SPOILER"-y. - Aaron Dallas and Jessica ever much liked each other. Um, hello, they were THE couple most of the way through Sweet Valley Twins and they dated anytime Jessica needed a last minute date in High School. - Jeffrey French was a weird DJ/Goth in Senior Year. They never should have changed his character that drastically from junior to senior year, but they did. To have no mention of that was odd. - Jessica and Todd never happened until college? Um, hello Secret Diaries anyone? - Steven is married to Cara Walker in "Confidential". There is no mention of the fact that she moved to another flippin' country in Sweet Valley High. Also not mentioned a peep is Billie Walker, Steven's live in girlfriend whom he dated in both Sweet Valley High and SVU. They even suffered a life changing miscarriage together for crying out loud and she never was mentioned. For all the good the character of Cara in "Confidential" was, she could have easily been replaced by Billie and the story would have made a LITTLE bit more sense. Also mentioned is the fact taht Cara loves Elizabeth but never liked Jessica. Um, Cara was Jessicas friend in SVH, not Elizabeths although they grew to like each other a little more right before Cara moved away. - In the list of deaths, Olivia Davidson's name is a glaring omission. - George Fowler apparently had a name change in the past ten years, because his name is now Richard Fowler. - The book mentions briefly Jessica's marriage to Mike McAllerly but doesn't mention Lila was married to a Count. Lila's extremely serious and believeable relationship with Bruce Patman in college is downgraded to a brief "fling" back in college. -Annie Whitman is married to Charlie Markus which is okay but he is mentioned as being the one that saved her in high school. Sorry, that was Ricky Capaldo... - There is a cute mention of Bruce and Elizabeth and it is noted that he never kissed her while she was concious...I am sure that is a reference to the memorable scene in #7 "Dear Sister" but its not true. They had a brief thing in one of the later books (actually a trilogy) when they believed Alice Wakefield was having an affair with Bruce's father. - The entire Senior Year series is ignored. Yes in reality it never should have happened, but it did and to ignore it is just another mistake. Now for what was even more annoying: The author completely changed her characters. They are not the same people. Yes time changes people and some changes could have been exciting and realistic. But to completely ignore the core of the person you have created and change it altogether just doesn't work. Some examples: - A character we have known and loved throughout the entire series is gay. This character just realized he is gay. This is completely and utterly unbelievable. Never were any seeds planted and thats not realistic. The person this character falls with is also unbelieveable as a gay character. There were so many better choices for Francine to choose to have come out in this book. This was laughable, and yes, I did laugh. What about Tom McKay who really does question his sexuality in one of the later Sweet Valley books? That was such an exciting plotline and then it was just dropped.... Big Spoiler ahead: Big Spoiler ahead: Jessica would NEVER ever Never have fallen in love with Todd. Never. She maybe would have cheated with him and broke Liz's heart but this is not the man that would have taught her to love only one man. I can't really explain why but I think any serious readers of the series would have to agree with me here. This was totally out of character. The person Liz ends up with is a little more believable as we have seen this character show deeper sides throughout the course of the Sweet Valley series. This one is just personally a peeve for me as I liked this character a lot. A.J. Morgan. A.J. Morgan is the sweet, shy redhead who was the first boy Jessica dated seriously. He was smart, gorgeous, and kind. In "Confidential" he is suddenly a dumb loser who can only sell shoes. Oh yeah, he now has long, gross, blonde hair. Now there is something good about "Confidential". Pascal made it happen. Maybe it was for the quick buck to cash in on Diablo Cody's Sweet Valley High movie coming out next year, but she didn't have to put a ten years later book out at all. It was fun to read these names again and it brought back a ton of memories from my junior high years when I loved these books so much that they were a huge chunk of my life. I remember my friend giving me book #23 "Say Goodbye" in the hallway after one class....I read it through the next class and threw it against the wall during the next passing period because I was so upset that Todd was moving to Vermont. The saddest part of that episode is that many other girls understood my distress because they were reading the book too. This series is a part of my childhood. I remember thinking back then that Francine and her team of ghost writers really should check their facts with me before publishing each book so I could clean up the errors...apparently Francine should still be checking with me because "Confiential" makes some of the most horrendous mistakes in this series's history. What really became obvious to me after finishing "Confidential" is that we fans love Sweet Valley and the characters MORE than their creator does. What a shame that she couldn't have cared enough to make sure that this was done correctly. In conclusion, I am going to chalk this book up to being a bad Sweet Valley dream and I will continue to believe that Liz and Todd are married somewhere with a bunch of basketball playing, book reading kids and that Jessica is in New York starring on a Broadway stage and going from man to man to man. (Billie and Steven are also happily engaged in a completely heterosexual marriage).