Book Review: Sweet Valley Confidential by Francine Pascal.

Product details:
Publisher: Arrow
Release date: April 14th 2011.
Paperback, 293 pages.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Ages: Adult.
Source: Received from publisher for review.

Ten years after graduating from Sweet Valley High, the Wakefield twins have had a falling-out of epic proportions. When Jessica commits a complete and utter betrayal, Elizabeth flees to New York to escape the pain and immerse herself in her lifelong dream of becoming a journalist.

Jessica remains in California, dealing with the fallout of her heart-wrenching choices. She has a career she loves and lots of old friends, but misses her sister, her oldest friend. With Jessica as her enemy, Sweet Valley is no longer the idyllic town of their youth.

Jessica longs for forgiveness, but Elizabeth can't forget her twin's duplicity. She decides the only way to heal her broken heart is to get revenge. Always the "good" twin, Elizabeth is now about to turn the tables...

Sweet Valley Confidential is a fun and flirty trip down memory lane with those perfect-in-every-way sun kissed Californian twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield. For me, a long time fan of Sweet Valley High as a teen, this was a pure nostalgia fest and a true guilty reading pleasure. This book demands a light-hearted approach. It’s packed with secrets, scandals and surprises, features lots of OMG! moments, and is an all-round great summer read. If you’ve ever wondered what Elizabeth and Jessica would be like ten years on, here’s your chance to find out. I was most interested to find out if Jessica had changed at all. Was she still as selfish and self-obsessed as ever or had she finally grown up and started thinking about anyone but herself? I was also eager to find out if Elizabeth and Todd’s relationship had stood the test of time. Those guys were perfect for each other, right? Sweet Valley Confidential provides you with these answers and more, and I have to say, I was left shocked by the scandalous revelations!

From the very first pages of Sweet Valley Confidential we know something is not quite right. First off, Elizabeth is angry (an uncommon occurrence if ever there was one), and we also learn that far from being all loved up with Todd, she’s a single girl living on her own in NYC and going on dates with highly unsuitable men. She seems lonely, unhappy and unfulfilled, and it’s fair to say that something must have gone drastically wrong in her perfectly planned life for her to end up this way. Meanwhile, Jessica is living back in Sweet Valley in domestic bliss and is planning her wedding day. Something doesn’t add up. The twins are in such different places in their lives, and worst of all, they are not on speaking terms. In fact, Elizabeth is full of anger towards her twin sister, and it’s true to say she pretty much hates her! Why? Well, if you haven’t already figured it out, I’m not going to tell you, but I will say that Jessica has committed the ultimate betrayal. If it was possible to be jailed for crimes of betrayal against twin sisters, then Jessica would be serving a life sentence right about now!

The main plot deals with Elizabeth’s plan for revenge on Jessica, while we also learn where it all went so wrong for the twins through the use of flashbacks. It’s juicy stuff – I promise! Pascal also updates us on all those other Sweet Valley favourites. Some characters lives have taken more shocking twists than others. You can look forward to some dot com millionaires, a glamorous divorcee, and a shocking death, amongst a myriad of surprising revalations. Some characters are pretty much the same as they were in high school (Lila Fowler), while some characters have changed very much for the better (Bruce Patman.) I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be talking about Bruce in glowing terms, but it turns out, he’s a nice guy after all!

Sweet Valley Confidential is a fun, nostalgia filled read. It’s one that’s firmly for fans of the original series who want to revisit characters they know and love. Sure, the writing is not that of a literary master and I’ve heard that Jessica’s constant Valspeak, while it didn’t bother me, has annoyed a lot of readers. However, if you enjoy the book for what it is and don’t take it too seriously, then I promise it’s a fun read! Oh, and I’ll bet you are just dying to know who Jessica is marrying, right?!