Review: "Sweet Valley Confidential"

Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal
3 out of 5 stars

Oh the drama in these books! How I've missed you! The twins are back with their "long, golden hair, blue-green eyes, a tan, and a dimple in their left cheek." Only they're 10 years older and not the BFF's we remember. 


As a teenager of the 90s, I of course devoured these books. I mostly stuck with SVH and the specials, my sister loved the SVKids and Twins. I don't know that I read them all or even in order like the BSC books, but it didn't seem to matter. They were such wonderfully trashy books lol. I do still have a handful of the books, mainly the Margo "evil-twin" arc (books 95-100 I think), the family history books and the secret diaries. 


Reading this so makes me want to go back and reread them all but I think I'll wait a while lol...plus it is super hard to find these at Half Price! I got nearly all of my BSC books I was missing from them, but I've only ever seen a handful of the Sweet Valley ones. It's weird, are people just keeping them more or is someone snatching them up right away? Hmm....there's a closeted SVH fan out there in the DFW area hoarding books!! Hah!


Okay, on to the review. :) As much as I love the drama-rama, the book was not very well written. I know she had ghost writers for the majority of the series and maybe that had something to do with it. Although I don't think the series' were very well written either lol. There were some pretty big inconsistencies though, which was annoying. (As was Jessica's Valley Girl accent she apparently grew in 10 years.) Overall though, if you were a fan of the original, you'll love this one!


The twins are 26 years old now and still as beautiful as ever (jerks) but living completely different lives. Elizabeth is in New York trying to become a writer, but barely making it as a reviewer for off Broadway plays. She's alone and miserable and says it's all Jessica's fault. Jessica is still in Sweet Valley, working for a cosmetics company called MyFaceIsGreen, and is hugely successful for once. But baby did a bad, bad thing.(probably NSFW lol)

Jessica slept with Todd Wilkins. More than once. They fell in love and broke Elizabeth's heart. And Liz will never forgive her. Or so she says. From what I remember of the books, I don't think Todd deserved either girl, but that's just my opinion. I was more of a Bruce Patman and Winston Egbert fan myself. Speaking of, they've both changed a LOT. Bruce for the better: he's redeemed himself from the egotistical rich guy and is now best friends with Liz!! And also, secretly in love with her. I really enjoyed their story and where it went in the end. Winston not so much. I don't care how much money he got, I don't think he would have changed that much.


Steven turning out to be gay was an interesting turn. Kind of shocking, but I didn't hate it. When Liz finally figures out that Jess & Todd are together (after way too long), she runs off to New York and won't speak to either of them. For like 8 months, until their grandmother's birthday and she is guilt-tripped into coming back. She decides to get some revenge on the two and brings along this hot actor she met in NY to seduce Jess. It almost works, but surprisingly Jessica resists. 


Of course, there's an epiphany at the end, with both girls realizing they did awful things and judged each other, etc...and they finally hug and make-up in the end. I don't know if I would have been as forgiving as Liz, even if she didn't love Todd anymore. I mean come on.