SVT101 Twins In Love
I remember hating this book back when I first bought it, and I never read it again. Until now. There’s a reason why it’s one of the last SVTs to be recapped. It's irritating!!
I’ve never been a fan of that Brady Bunch shade of yellow on this cover, it’s sooo bright and looks terrible with the earthy green shade of grass and the dark purple jeans. It’s worse when you have the book in your hand, because when you flip it over the back is like YELLOWATTACK! So much yellow!
The outfit is just like the book describes, which is a thumbs up. I have no idea who’s who, since this outfit signals a part of the book where thet constantly switch places. But I’d say that Jess is the one on the right with the shifty expression.
Also, just for fun, the cover with Barbies in my backyard!!!!
Jessica and Elizabeth played by Baywatch Barbie, and Chris and Nick played by whatever Ken it is that I own. My inadequate Barbie wardrobe and bad photoshopping aside (Ken’s hair colour and the place where the two photos join, ouch) I like this version, in a not-what-really-happens-in-the-book kind of way. Whichever guy is with Liz seems to be attempting to feel her up, while she’s batting his hand away and falling backwards. The guy with Jess, meanwhile, is tapping her knee to get her attention while she stares blankly into space. Awesome.
Aaaanyway.
The A plot is irritating, and Steven has a really boring B plot.
A Plot
Chapter 1
Jessica scams a cowboy hat off Lila while gleefully anticipating the upcoming Wakefield family trip to the Triple Z Ranch (what kind of name is that? With a name like ZZZ Ranch it’s either really boring or infested with bees. Hey, maybe that explains the yellow cover). No, ghostie hasn’t got the twins mixed up - we are assured that Liz is the horsey twin, and Jess is just excited about snagging a cowboy. Jess also smugly muses that she and Liz never go for the same kind of guy, and she’d be far too busy with the horses to care about boys anyway. Could this be foreshadowing?
Yes. Yes it could.
Chapter 2
The owner of the ranch nearly makes them wear name tags so they can tell them apart, and there is discussion about how easy it would be for them to pull a switch. Y hello thar, foreshadowing. Jessica frets about not having a tv because “what if Johnny Buck gets married or something? We wouldn’t find out about it till we got back to Sweet Valley!” I want to make fun of her. But when I was about 14, someone from a band I fangirled announced she was pregnant while I was on holidays with no internet. A friend texted me the news on my dying phone and I had to wait till we got back to find out details. Oh Jessica Wakefield, I feel your pain. I understand you. We have a connection.
Right after the twins have a “Horses!” “Guys!” Horses!” “Guys!” argument (really), Liz runs into the Hottest. Guy. Evar.
And then Jess runs into the Hottest. Guy. Evar. with a mysteriously similar physical description. Jess thinks “This is it! This is the boy I’m going to have my winter-break romance with.” See, books like this are the reason I was always so disappointed on family holidays because I never had a one-week romance with some beautiful boy. Jessica Wakefield, I revoke our aforementioned connection.
Chapter 3
Liz and Jess discover that they LIKE THE SAME GUY (except they don’t really, they clearly haven’t read the back or looked at the cover). They fight over him, then realise neither of them even know his name and so they decide to let him choose who he likes better.
”I have to say, I really admire your courage, Elizabeth. You and I both know you don’t have a chance against me.”
Elizabeth snorted. “We’ll see, Jess. We’ll see.”
Chapter 4
They snipe some more, run into the guy at the stable the next day and discover his name is Nick. Jess flirts, Liz gets annoyed. This chapter has a lot of fighting and snippiness, none of which is particularly interesting. Except!! They start elbowing and shoving and they eventually push each other into a mud puddle! It’s like the dude ranch equivalent of a pool push! There’s a splash and everything!
They argue some more back at the cabin and Jessica rightly demands “What about Todd Wilkins? Don’t you care about him anymore?” Elizabeth is shocked, shocked, at this mention of Todd and utters a golden sentence which pretty much sums up her entire attitude towards him: “Todd and I are good friends, but we’re not married or anything.”
Then we meet Nick’s twin Chris, and Todd becomes moot.
Chapter 5
The twins agree they’ll never fight over a boy again (what do you mean, you don’t believe them?) and go riding with Nick and Chris. They’re each assigned to the twin they’ve already met (it was a different Hottest. Guy. Evar. each time after all), which means Jess is with Chris and Liz is with Nick. Jess tells Chris all about the Unicorns and he’s all (interestedly) “what’s the point of the club?” and Jess draws a blank. She disguises ‘to talk about boys’ as “we ensure the social well-being of every student at Sweet Valley Middle School.” Chris declares the Unicorns a noble organisation. I declare Chris a moron. Seriously Chris, it’s called the Unicorn Club. How noble can it possibly be? Meanwhile, Liz and Nick talk about Nick’s love of movies and filmmaking.
Chapter 6
The twins all double date together and everyone at the ranch lodge dining hall annoys them by staring and thinking that they’re oh so cute. Look! Two twins! How adorable! Yes, that would be irritating. I’m reminded of that Gilmore Girls episode with the twins/twins wedding. Maybe a French concierge will stick a post-it on Chris’s back or something. So yeah, the surrounding people being so enchanted by the twins/twins thing leads to a discussion of their various differences. I love this passage a thousand times over:
Chris nodded. “For instance, I’m right handed and Nick is left handed,” he said, waving his fork at his brother.
“Yeah, and I wear Reebok sneakers and Chris wears Nike sneakers,” Nick said.
“I wear a watch and Jessica doesn’t,” Elizabeth put in.
“And I have fashion sense and Elizabeth doesn’t,” Jessica sang out.
I LOVE IT. I love that the male equiv of different hairstyles is different sneakers. I love the continuity about Jess not wearing a watch. I love that three pretty mundane things precede a hilariously snarky aside from Jess.
The boys tell a story about how they went on week long separate holidays with their parents (mountain climbing for Chris and their mum, fishing for Nick and their dad) and their parents DIDN’T REALISE THEY SWITCHED until ages later when Chris let it slip. Really? Are they such terrible parents that they can’t tell which son is which after knowing them for thirteen years? That’s pretty terrible, Ned and Alice have some competition for crappiest parenting award. Ned and Alice are having dinner with the boys' parents tonight, maybe they can talk about the nightmare mansion thing. It was, after all, only concluded one book ago.
Chris cuts his dessert into sixteenths while Nick fanboys Jim Carrey. Both the girls fret that they have the wrong boy, have nightmares about being married to them, and wonder how they can possibly manage to trade without hurting their sister’s feelings. Talking about it is apparently not the clear answer.
Chapter 7
The twins skirt around the issue in the morning instead of actually asking each other. Jess runs into Nick and, in the moment, pretends to be Liz. Jessica decides that this is a brilliant idea and will just pretend to be Liz for now. Liz does the exact same thing to Chris but feels terribly guilty about it… until she sees Nick and Jess!
They run off, scream at each other, accuse each other of boyfriend stealing… and then laugh off the fact that they each liked the other guy but didn’t want to hurt their sister’s feelings. So they decide to trade… but wonder how they can possibly do it without hurting the boys’ feelings. Why, of course! They’ll switch places! Because they have learnt nothing from what just happened five minutes ago about telling the truth versus pretending to be your twin.
Now, to clarify: The original pairs were Jess and Chris, Liz and Nick. But now Jess likes Nick (Jim Carrey fan), but Liz likes Chris. Got it?
Chapter 8
They have another date (Wakefields having switched places) but they both find it awkward and boring. Elizabeth deduces that since her date waved goodbye with his left hand, so the boys also must have switched places! So they switch back - Liz with Chris (who’s pretending to be Nick) and Jess with Nick (who’s pretending to be Chris). This is totally easier than just gently suggesting to the boys that they should try trading dates. Especially since the guys clearly agree with the switch.
Chapter 9
They double date at some place called Sally’s Saloon with the Wakefields being themselves and the Handels (that’s the boys last name) switched. Except “Chris” eats with his right hand, and Chris is actually the right-handed one. Oh noes, the boys switched back as well! The Wakefields scarper to the bathroom, scoff at the mere idea of telling the boys the truth and decide it’s simpler to just switch places again. So Liz has to wear Jess’s pink minidress and Jess has to wear Liz’s pioneer-esque dress with buttons up to her neck. Why so sad Jess, I thought you liked dressing up like a pioneer?
Then they go back and the boys arrive back at the table at the same time. Jess checks the boys shoes (one wears Reebok and one wears Nike, remember?) and decides that the boys switched again too. Back to the bathroom! Except they somehow forget to trade shoes and Liz is wearing pink heels with a pioneer dress and Jess is wearing granny boots with a minidress. How on earth did that happen? Putting on a dress while wearing shoes is kind of awkward.
Two things bug me:
1) That they pick constant switching over ACTUALLY TELLING EACH OTHER THE TRUTH. It’s unbelievably irritating.
2) That they remember which boy is right/left handed and Nike/Reebok sneakers without flicking back to chapter 6 and checking.
Chapter 10
Liz refuses to go through another night like last night and Jess agrees. She has a plan. Is it telling the truth? No… it’s wearing identical outfits and each carrying a watch and a set of barrettes so they can quickly reaccessorise instead of changing an entire outfit. I’m overlooking the fact that they have identical outfits with them on a trip and that Liz apparently has two identical watches because I’m still annoyed about the concept in general. So they spy to deduce which boy is which today and accessorise accordingly. Jess is being Liz, and Liz is being Jess.
As they’re preparing for the trail ride, Alice talks to Jess about the trail ride as though she’s Liz (Jess is being Liz, remember?). Jess is shocked and a little proud that they pulled such a good switch that Alice doesn’t recognise her own daughter. Oh Jess. You could switch with Steven and Alice would probably give you copious amounts of food and Ned would play basketball with you.
Chapter 11
Since Jess is being Liz, she gets Liz’s horse. Back at the beginning of the book, this horse (called Goody Two-Shoes) was originally Jess’s but it hated her. At other points in the book it continued to hate her, and it still does. Jessica thinks “Stupid horse! I can fool my own mother into thinking I’m Elizabeth, why can’t I fool you?”
Both girls annoy the boys by being totally distracted and watching each other instead of talking to the boys. Liz and Chris nearly kiss (would that mean Liz is cheating on Todd? I call yes!) but they are distracted by Jessica’s scream as Goody Two-Shoes rears up and she falls off.
Chapter 12
The Wakefield’s switching all comes out, and the Handels are all hurt and stuff… because they weren’t switching after all! Whoops. The say that Liz and Jess aren’t the girls they thought they were and I can’t figure out if that’s meant to be a pun. But in any case, they’re effectively broken up.
Chapter 13
As they’re all preparing to leave, the Handels (dressed alike) come and tell the Wakefields (dressed alike) that they forgive them. They are four-way dressed alike. Each one of them is wearing jeans and a Triple Z Ranch t-shirt.
Nick takes Jess aside. If you remember, Nick was the one Jess actually liked. He kisses her and asks for her phone number and stuff. And as he walks away, reveals his true identity to be Chris! Gasp, they switched! Chris does the same thing with Liz - kisses her (CHEATING) and asks for her number, only to suddenly burst into a Jim Carrey impression.
So Liz and Jess meet again, all excited. Because they switched places as well! So they really did end up with the phone number for the guy they actually liked! Except… the guys each think they’re the other girl, so they can’t actually call them ever without explaining that they switched again. So… the squealing and jumping around is purely from getting the last laugh.
And I am going to stop thinking about it right now.
B Plot
Steven is looking forward to being all Fast and the Furious with these horses, and desperately wants to win the casual race that happens on the last day. He hears about a horse called Rocket that won the California Derby in its day, and he convinces the people at the ranch to let him ride her. Except Rocket is actually really old and slow, and plods v e e e r y s l o w l y down the trail. For some reason he never switches to a different horse, and all the Steven parts of this book are him being totally bored on the trail.
On race day, he doesn’t even get the starting point soon enough to take part. He inadvertently says “LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” and this makes Rocket bolt. He catches up to the race, whooshes past them all and wins. The end!
I’ve never been a fan of that Brady Bunch shade of yellow on this cover, it’s sooo bright and looks terrible with the earthy green shade of grass and the dark purple jeans. It’s worse when you have the book in your hand, because when you flip it over the back is like YELLOWATTACK! So much yellow!
The outfit is just like the book describes, which is a thumbs up. I have no idea who’s who, since this outfit signals a part of the book where thet constantly switch places. But I’d say that Jess is the one on the right with the shifty expression.
Also, just for fun, the cover with Barbies in my backyard!!!!
Jessica and Elizabeth played by Baywatch Barbie, and Chris and Nick played by whatever Ken it is that I own. My inadequate Barbie wardrobe and bad photoshopping aside (Ken’s hair colour and the place where the two photos join, ouch) I like this version, in a not-what-really-happens-in-the-book kind of way. Whichever guy is with Liz seems to be attempting to feel her up, while she’s batting his hand away and falling backwards. The guy with Jess, meanwhile, is tapping her knee to get her attention while she stares blankly into space. Awesome.
Aaaanyway.
The A plot is irritating, and Steven has a really boring B plot.
A Plot
Chapter 1
Jessica scams a cowboy hat off Lila while gleefully anticipating the upcoming Wakefield family trip to the Triple Z Ranch (what kind of name is that? With a name like ZZZ Ranch it’s either really boring or infested with bees. Hey, maybe that explains the yellow cover). No, ghostie hasn’t got the twins mixed up - we are assured that Liz is the horsey twin, and Jess is just excited about snagging a cowboy. Jess also smugly muses that she and Liz never go for the same kind of guy, and she’d be far too busy with the horses to care about boys anyway. Could this be foreshadowing?
Yes. Yes it could.
Chapter 2
The owner of the ranch nearly makes them wear name tags so they can tell them apart, and there is discussion about how easy it would be for them to pull a switch. Y hello thar, foreshadowing. Jessica frets about not having a tv because “what if Johnny Buck gets married or something? We wouldn’t find out about it till we got back to Sweet Valley!” I want to make fun of her. But when I was about 14, someone from a band I fangirled announced she was pregnant while I was on holidays with no internet. A friend texted me the news on my dying phone and I had to wait till we got back to find out details. Oh Jessica Wakefield, I feel your pain. I understand you. We have a connection.
Right after the twins have a “Horses!” “Guys!” Horses!” “Guys!” argument (really), Liz runs into the Hottest. Guy. Evar.
And then Jess runs into the Hottest. Guy. Evar. with a mysteriously similar physical description. Jess thinks “This is it! This is the boy I’m going to have my winter-break romance with.” See, books like this are the reason I was always so disappointed on family holidays because I never had a one-week romance with some beautiful boy. Jessica Wakefield, I revoke our aforementioned connection.
Chapter 3
Liz and Jess discover that they LIKE THE SAME GUY (except they don’t really, they clearly haven’t read the back or looked at the cover). They fight over him, then realise neither of them even know his name and so they decide to let him choose who he likes better.
”I have to say, I really admire your courage, Elizabeth. You and I both know you don’t have a chance against me.”
Elizabeth snorted. “We’ll see, Jess. We’ll see.”
Chapter 4
They snipe some more, run into the guy at the stable the next day and discover his name is Nick. Jess flirts, Liz gets annoyed. This chapter has a lot of fighting and snippiness, none of which is particularly interesting. Except!! They start elbowing and shoving and they eventually push each other into a mud puddle! It’s like the dude ranch equivalent of a pool push! There’s a splash and everything!
They argue some more back at the cabin and Jessica rightly demands “What about Todd Wilkins? Don’t you care about him anymore?” Elizabeth is shocked, shocked, at this mention of Todd and utters a golden sentence which pretty much sums up her entire attitude towards him: “Todd and I are good friends, but we’re not married or anything.”
Then we meet Nick’s twin Chris, and Todd becomes moot.
Chapter 5
The twins agree they’ll never fight over a boy again (what do you mean, you don’t believe them?) and go riding with Nick and Chris. They’re each assigned to the twin they’ve already met (it was a different Hottest. Guy. Evar. each time after all), which means Jess is with Chris and Liz is with Nick. Jess tells Chris all about the Unicorns and he’s all (interestedly) “what’s the point of the club?” and Jess draws a blank. She disguises ‘to talk about boys’ as “we ensure the social well-being of every student at Sweet Valley Middle School.” Chris declares the Unicorns a noble organisation. I declare Chris a moron. Seriously Chris, it’s called the Unicorn Club. How noble can it possibly be? Meanwhile, Liz and Nick talk about Nick’s love of movies and filmmaking.
Chapter 6
The twins all double date together and everyone at the ranch lodge dining hall annoys them by staring and thinking that they’re oh so cute. Look! Two twins! How adorable! Yes, that would be irritating. I’m reminded of that Gilmore Girls episode with the twins/twins wedding. Maybe a French concierge will stick a post-it on Chris’s back or something. So yeah, the surrounding people being so enchanted by the twins/twins thing leads to a discussion of their various differences. I love this passage a thousand times over:
Chris nodded. “For instance, I’m right handed and Nick is left handed,” he said, waving his fork at his brother.
“Yeah, and I wear Reebok sneakers and Chris wears Nike sneakers,” Nick said.
“I wear a watch and Jessica doesn’t,” Elizabeth put in.
“And I have fashion sense and Elizabeth doesn’t,” Jessica sang out.
I LOVE IT. I love that the male equiv of different hairstyles is different sneakers. I love the continuity about Jess not wearing a watch. I love that three pretty mundane things precede a hilariously snarky aside from Jess.
The boys tell a story about how they went on week long separate holidays with their parents (mountain climbing for Chris and their mum, fishing for Nick and their dad) and their parents DIDN’T REALISE THEY SWITCHED until ages later when Chris let it slip. Really? Are they such terrible parents that they can’t tell which son is which after knowing them for thirteen years? That’s pretty terrible, Ned and Alice have some competition for crappiest parenting award. Ned and Alice are having dinner with the boys' parents tonight, maybe they can talk about the nightmare mansion thing. It was, after all, only concluded one book ago.
Chris cuts his dessert into sixteenths while Nick fanboys Jim Carrey. Both the girls fret that they have the wrong boy, have nightmares about being married to them, and wonder how they can possibly manage to trade without hurting their sister’s feelings. Talking about it is apparently not the clear answer.
Chapter 7
The twins skirt around the issue in the morning instead of actually asking each other. Jess runs into Nick and, in the moment, pretends to be Liz. Jessica decides that this is a brilliant idea and will just pretend to be Liz for now. Liz does the exact same thing to Chris but feels terribly guilty about it… until she sees Nick and Jess!
They run off, scream at each other, accuse each other of boyfriend stealing… and then laugh off the fact that they each liked the other guy but didn’t want to hurt their sister’s feelings. So they decide to trade… but wonder how they can possibly do it without hurting the boys’ feelings. Why, of course! They’ll switch places! Because they have learnt nothing from what just happened five minutes ago about telling the truth versus pretending to be your twin.
Now, to clarify: The original pairs were Jess and Chris, Liz and Nick. But now Jess likes Nick (Jim Carrey fan), but Liz likes Chris. Got it?
Chapter 8
They have another date (Wakefields having switched places) but they both find it awkward and boring. Elizabeth deduces that since her date waved goodbye with his left hand, so the boys also must have switched places! So they switch back - Liz with Chris (who’s pretending to be Nick) and Jess with Nick (who’s pretending to be Chris). This is totally easier than just gently suggesting to the boys that they should try trading dates. Especially since the guys clearly agree with the switch.
Chapter 9
They double date at some place called Sally’s Saloon with the Wakefields being themselves and the Handels (that’s the boys last name) switched. Except “Chris” eats with his right hand, and Chris is actually the right-handed one. Oh noes, the boys switched back as well! The Wakefields scarper to the bathroom, scoff at the mere idea of telling the boys the truth and decide it’s simpler to just switch places again. So Liz has to wear Jess’s pink minidress and Jess has to wear Liz’s pioneer-esque dress with buttons up to her neck. Why so sad Jess, I thought you liked dressing up like a pioneer?
Then they go back and the boys arrive back at the table at the same time. Jess checks the boys shoes (one wears Reebok and one wears Nike, remember?) and decides that the boys switched again too. Back to the bathroom! Except they somehow forget to trade shoes and Liz is wearing pink heels with a pioneer dress and Jess is wearing granny boots with a minidress. How on earth did that happen? Putting on a dress while wearing shoes is kind of awkward.
Two things bug me:
1) That they pick constant switching over ACTUALLY TELLING EACH OTHER THE TRUTH. It’s unbelievably irritating.
2) That they remember which boy is right/left handed and Nike/Reebok sneakers without flicking back to chapter 6 and checking.
Chapter 10
Liz refuses to go through another night like last night and Jess agrees. She has a plan. Is it telling the truth? No… it’s wearing identical outfits and each carrying a watch and a set of barrettes so they can quickly reaccessorise instead of changing an entire outfit. I’m overlooking the fact that they have identical outfits with them on a trip and that Liz apparently has two identical watches because I’m still annoyed about the concept in general. So they spy to deduce which boy is which today and accessorise accordingly. Jess is being Liz, and Liz is being Jess.
As they’re preparing for the trail ride, Alice talks to Jess about the trail ride as though she’s Liz (Jess is being Liz, remember?). Jess is shocked and a little proud that they pulled such a good switch that Alice doesn’t recognise her own daughter. Oh Jess. You could switch with Steven and Alice would probably give you copious amounts of food and Ned would play basketball with you.
Chapter 11
Since Jess is being Liz, she gets Liz’s horse. Back at the beginning of the book, this horse (called Goody Two-Shoes) was originally Jess’s but it hated her. At other points in the book it continued to hate her, and it still does. Jessica thinks “Stupid horse! I can fool my own mother into thinking I’m Elizabeth, why can’t I fool you?”
Both girls annoy the boys by being totally distracted and watching each other instead of talking to the boys. Liz and Chris nearly kiss (would that mean Liz is cheating on Todd? I call yes!) but they are distracted by Jessica’s scream as Goody Two-Shoes rears up and she falls off.
Chapter 12
The Wakefield’s switching all comes out, and the Handels are all hurt and stuff… because they weren’t switching after all! Whoops. The say that Liz and Jess aren’t the girls they thought they were and I can’t figure out if that’s meant to be a pun. But in any case, they’re effectively broken up.
Chapter 13
As they’re all preparing to leave, the Handels (dressed alike) come and tell the Wakefields (dressed alike) that they forgive them. They are four-way dressed alike. Each one of them is wearing jeans and a Triple Z Ranch t-shirt.
Nick takes Jess aside. If you remember, Nick was the one Jess actually liked. He kisses her and asks for her phone number and stuff. And as he walks away, reveals his true identity to be Chris! Gasp, they switched! Chris does the same thing with Liz - kisses her (CHEATING) and asks for her number, only to suddenly burst into a Jim Carrey impression.
So Liz and Jess meet again, all excited. Because they switched places as well! So they really did end up with the phone number for the guy they actually liked! Except… the guys each think they’re the other girl, so they can’t actually call them ever without explaining that they switched again. So… the squealing and jumping around is purely from getting the last laugh.
And I am going to stop thinking about it right now.
B Plot
Steven is looking forward to being all Fast and the Furious with these horses, and desperately wants to win the casual race that happens on the last day. He hears about a horse called Rocket that won the California Derby in its day, and he convinces the people at the ranch to let him ride her. Except Rocket is actually really old and slow, and plods v e e e r y s l o w l y down the trail. For some reason he never switches to a different horse, and all the Steven parts of this book are him being totally bored on the trail.
On race day, he doesn’t even get the starting point soon enough to take part. He inadvertently says “LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” and this makes Rocket bolt. He catches up to the race, whooshes past them all and wins. The end!