Sweet Valley High #37 Rumors, #38 Leaving Home, and #39 Secret Admirer

In Sweet Valley High #37, Rumors, Susan Stewart was raised by her aunt.  She has plenty of money and has always been told that her mother is someone wealthy.  Susan will not be told her mother's identity until she turns 18.

Meanwhile, Susan has been invited to the exclusive Bridgewater Ball.  Lila Fowler is jealous and spreads a vicious rumor that Susan's mother is criminally insane.  Susan's aunt won't tell her anything, so Susan believes that the rumor is true.  Susan is confused and lonely, feeling that she has lost everything.

Jessica believes that Mrs. Wakefield is pregnant.  She and Liz drop hints, but their parents won't reveal anything.  Jessica begins spying on her mother.

As usual, the subplot is hilarious.

On page 50, we learn that Jessica borrows her mother's clothes in addition to Liz's.  Really?  We know the twins are identical, but their mother must be the same perfect size 6 and the same height.  Wow.

From page 140:

"Liz!  Emergency!"

"What?  What is it?"  Elizabeth looked up from the book she was reading.  Jessica's emergencies usually involved running out of Diet Coke or finding a split end.

This is a very good book.

In Sweet Valley High #38 Leaving Home, Liz has her heart set on going to boarding school in Switzerland.  She applies and will be interviewed for a scholarship.  Jessica and Steven are horrified and decide to do whatever they can to ruin Liz's chances of getting admitted to the exclusive school.

Winston Egbert purchases a lottery ticket for the upcoming lottery.  On a trip to the convenience store, Winston's jacket gets taken accidentally by a man, and Winston is left with the man's jacket.  Winston's lottery ticket was in his jacket, and he now has the man's lottery ticket.  The lottery ticket wins the prize of $25,000, but only Winston knows that the money isn't really his.

The main plot is annoying.  Jessica and Steven are very mean to Liz and ruin Liz's dream.  If this story had been set in any universe other than Sweet Valley, there's no way that Liz would have forgiven them.

The $25,000 lottery prize seems a bit low.  With inflation, the prize is now worth just $55,000.  That's still a lot of money for a high school student to win, but it's low by modern lottery standards.

I like the lottery subplot much better than the main plot.  The main plot is just weird.

This is a good book.

In Sweet Valley High #39, Secret Admirer, Lynne Henry creates a personal ad feature for the school newspaper.  Penny Ayala has never had a boyfriend, and at Liz's urging, she takes out an ad in the column.  Penny goes with a bizarre comedic ad, thinking that it will give her a chance with a boy who thinks the same way she does.

Unknown to Penny, her ad is answered by a group of boys who are playing a prank on her.  Liz finds out, and she worries that Penny will get hurt.

Liz is rather mean in this book.  She decides to get revenge on the boy who is responsible to thinking up the prank.  Her behavior is quite out of character and more like what we would expect from Jessica.

I enjoyed this book.