First things first: take a look at that absolute hunk of manhood on the front cover. I'm not sure whether standards were just that different in the early eighties or whether the cover artist was playing a joke on all the readers who had to read about Bill Chase being good looking without bursting into laughter every time they caught sight of his portrait.

The book itself follows one of the most popular SVH patterns: someone suddenly becomes more interesting to the general school populace and Jessica or one of her friends decides to make a play for them. (See also: Racing Hearts, Rags to Riches, etc etc etc) This one has the added element of Jess doing it all for sweet sweet revenge because Bill was stupid enough to refuse her invitation to accompany her to a school dance, once upon a time. Revenge in this case is Jess making the foolish boy fall desperately in love with her, and then dangling him on a string for the majority of the book.

There's also one of the first big continuity issues with the books, courtesy of Jess getting surfing lessons from Bill when one of the early books talk about how excellent a surfer she is.

Of course, over on the sidelines, there's a girl who has always been there for the boy, and in this case that's DeeDee Gordon, who artfully conspires to almost drown in order to get some mouth-to-mouth from her crush. (Except this isn't Jess we're talking about, so she really does almost drown. But it's okay—there'll be a fake drowning in a few books' time.)

Meanwhile, Liz is having conniptions because Todd's ex-girlfriend is back in town, and she is far too beautiful for Liz's liking. Everyone feels the need to tell Liz how in-love Todd and Patsy used to be, and Liz decides that one hug means that Todd is absolutely cheating on her and refuses to so much as speak to him ~forever~, conveniently forgetting that in the last book she was hooking up with every boy in Sweet Valley and letting 1BRUCE1 touch her boobs, while I doubt Todd's even allowed to look at them.

Another continuity issue here, although this time it's an inter-series one, with Todd apparently having been with Patsy before he even knew Liz, whereas we Sweet Valley tragics know he was her first kiss in Sweet Valley Twins and one of her good friends in Sweet Valley Kids. I guess it's like the different Marvel universes. Sweet Valley 616?

This is one of my less-favoured early books, largely due to me finding Bill Chase extraordinarily dull. Duller even than Todd Dull As Dishwater Wilkins.

Moral of the Story? Drowning is super sexy.

[re-read - previously read around four times]

This one collects books 8, 9 and 10. See the individual books for my reviews.

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