svh018

The moral of the story: Regina Morrow is so perfect she could be a Wakefield. But since she’s not a Wakefield, she has to move to Switzerland.

Dance/Party: There’s a carnival at the high school to raise money for handicapped children. Does that count? Where are all the dances? We’re about due for one, I think.

Synopsis:

Bruce Patman and Regina Morrow are the newest couple at Sweet Valley High. Everyone is concerned about Regina (this comes across in pages and pages about how sweet, perfect and beautiful she is) because Bruce is a jackass, but she claims he’s been perfectly wonderful to her. Jessica hates their relationship, as is evidenced by the fact that “her face darkens” every time she sees them together. She’s sure they’re not going to make it and she and Lila bet their term papers that they’ll break up before the carnival.

Elizabeth is chairperson of the committee organizing the carnival and Regina’s mother is the parent adviser. For some reason, Mrs. Morrow chooses to tell Elizabeth how Regina lost her hearing, even though Regina herself doesn’t even know. Apparently, Mrs. Morrow was a model (of course she was) and when she was pregnant with Regina she used diet pills to lose weight for a swimsuit shoot. The pills messed with the tissue in Regina’s ears and caused her deafness. Now, the Morrows have found a doctor in Switzerland who may be able to restore her hearing, but it would mean living there for a year. Regina doesn’t want to leave Bruce. The Morrows have found a boy named Donald who has had the same treatment and regained his hearing. They invite him to spend a weekend at their house to try to talk Regina into going.

Jessica, as part of her plan to break up Bruce and Regina, joins Liz’s carnival committee because Regina is also on it. She comes up with the idea for a mother-daughter fashion show and offers to go talk to Regina and her mother into doing it. At the Morrows’ house, she drops hints that Bruce is only going out with Regina so he’ll be more popular and win the election for Sweet Valley Centennial Student Committee President. What the hell is that? Regina didn’t even know he was running, so she believes Jessica and breaks up with Bruce. Why do people believe Jessica all the time? Has she ever told the truth about something? While at the Morrows, Jessica meets Donald, flirts with him and hints that he should come to the carnival. Later, Todd and Liz go to the Morrows’ and Donald flirts with Liz, thinking she’s Jessica, and Todd gets all jealous. Neither one of them stop to think that maybe he thought he was flirting with Jessica, which is really stupid since Liz knew Jessica had gone over there. Ugh. They make up the next day when that bit of logic finally dawns on them.

Regina decides to go to Switzerland. She confides in Liz and tells her why she broke up with Bruce. Bruce also confides in Liz and she tells him what’s going on. He had been keeping the election secret so it would be a surprise for Regina when he won. Or something. I don’t really get his motives here. Anyway, he writes Regina a (really awful) letter and asks Liz to put it in Regina’s suitcase so she won’t read it until she’s left Sweet Valley. He’s suddenly very selfless and charming. Because he’s in love, you know.

The carnival is wonderful, Lila writes Jessica’s term paper and she gets a D, Regina finds Bruce’s letter and her love for him is renewed, Bruce wins the election and everyone is proud of him for being so selfless and wonderful. The end.

Setup for the next book: Lila goes to the construction site of the building her father is having built and meets a guy named Jack. Jack doesn’t seem at all impressed by her money or the fact that she’s the boss’s daughter. Lila is intrigued and convinced he’s really filthy rich.

Quotes:

Elizabeth didn’t like Bruce Patman one bit. He had tried to take advantage of her after her motorcycle accident when she was suffering from memory loss and wasn’t herself.

So I didn’t imagine it. Okay, so Liz is just stupid. I hate that she just goes to school every day with his punk ass and never does anything about it. She even kisses him on the cheek in this book because she’s so proud of the way he handled the situation with Regina. UGH!

He looks as if he’s seen me before, she thought. But I don’t know who he is!

Jeez, Liz is an idiot sometimes. You have a twin sister, Liz! She looks just like you!

The Cover: Regina looks cute. Hardly the beauty everyone has been claiming she is, but cute enough. She also looks like she’s having a really fun time hugging her man. Bruce looks like every guy I ever hated in high school, right down to his freakishly plump lips.