Sweet Valley High #42 Caught in the Middle, #43 Hard Choices, and #44 Pretenses

In Sweet Valley High #42, Caught in the Middle, Sandra Bacon and Manuel Lopez have fallen in love.  Unfortunately, Sandra's parents are prejudiced against Latinos.  They believe that all Latinos are untrustworthy.  Sandra tries to bring up the subject, but her parents won't budge.

When Manuel is accused of a crime, Sandra must decide whether to tell the truth—that she was with him and that he is innocent—or lose Manuel forever.

This story is still relevant today.  The statements that Sandra's parents make in this book are exactly the same as ones I hear people making nowadays.

On page 40, Liz and Sandra go into the student lounge so that they can be alone to talk privately.  I have been wondering about the student lounge ever since early in the series.  Why is it that no students are ever in the student lounge except for the ones who need to talk privately?  Additionally, isn't having a student lounge just asking for trouble?  Why would a high school have a private place where students can gather without faculty supervision?  Yikes.

On page 69, Jessica and Cara work on Lila's birthday banner in the student lounge.  The banner is for a surprise party.  How do they know Lila won't walk in?  I guess because nobody is ever in the lounge except for the students who are in the book's current scene.

I enjoyed this book.

In Sweet Valley High #43 Hard Choices, Enid's grandmother comes to live with Enid and her mother.  Enid expects to have a wonderful relationship with her beloved grandmother, but she finds that Mrs. Langevin has changed.  Mrs. Langevin acts helpless and sullen, needing someone to watch after her constantly.  Enid soon finds that she has no life, and that all she can do is take care of her grandmother.  Will Enid's life ever be the same?

I have not enjoyed reading about Enid's problems in the past, but in this book, I am totally Team Enid.  I really felt for her and was quite absorbed by the story as I wondered how the conflict with Enid's grandmother would be resolved.

This is a very good book.

In Sweet Valley High #44, Pretenses, Cara Walker feels like her relationship with Steven Wakefield has gone stale.  Jessica encourages Cara to add mystery to the relationship.  In short, she should make Steven jealous.  What kind of idiot would follow Jessica's dumb advice?

I cannot stand these boring Cara and Steven books where the two of them come up with some stupid reason for not trusting each other.  We've already read a variant of this story before.  So here we go again.

Cara sees Steven reading a letter, and she wonders why Steven acts weird about it.  The letter is from a secret admirer, and so why wouldn't Steven act weird about it?  What's bizarre is that Cara wonders why Steven acts weird about the letter.  The reason this is bizarre is because Cara is the one who wrote the letter, so she knows what is in the letter.  This plot is so dumb!

I did not enjoy this book.