Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal

Anyone inspect your life and think, yeah, this is totally not what I expected ten years ago? Not like, oh, dang, just you could never have predicted what life would be like for you in ten years? Sweet Valley Confidential is ten years after high school for the Sweet Valley Twins. I grew up reading the Sweet Valley books, so when I learned this book was coming out I was very excited. Of course, it's written when Jessica and Elizabeth are 27 years old. Technically, if it was 2011 in Sweet Valley Confidential, and the twins were 15 when the first SVH book was published in 1983, they'd actually be 43 now. Not 27. But still, I couldn't help but want to read this book.

Here's the summary from Goodreads: 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 Elizabeth 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...

What I Liked: Reading SVC is like catching up with old friends. Ya know after you are gone for a while, then come back and have to catch up with everyone. Going back to school after summer break, or meeting up with old high school friends after being away at college. Nothing about Elizabeth and Jessica's lives were what I would have anticipated. That is an interesting perspective about books. When I finish a book or series that I've become really invested in, it's almost like the characters have become so real, I just assume that their lives continue even after the books have ended. And what I had pictured for the Wakefield twins was so completely different than this book. But something about being back in that universe was like...comfort food for my soul. 2) Alternating perspective. I know, I know, I am usually anti-alternating perspective. But it works for this book. Maybe that's because I know the characters so well. But this book would not work without the alternating perspectives of the twins. 3) Continuity of characters. Ms. Pascal did not leave us to wonder what became of very many of our beloved characters in Sweet Valley. At the very end, she even gave us a list of the characters and a small bio as to where they were now, 10 years later. I loved reading that. 3) Unexpected surprises. There were many surprises about the futures of the people of Sweet Valley. Not all of them pleased me, but in my opinion, if everything was as I imagined it would be, this book wouldn't have been very interesting.

What I Didn't Like: I know that the Sweet Valley books weren't the best or most creative books ever written. But I can't bring myself to criticize something that made me as nostalgic as this one did.

Overall thoughts: For fans of the Sweet Valley series, I suggest you pick this one up. This is a great opportunity to catch up with some old friends and see what they've made of their lives. You'll be surprised, excited, happy, and sad at different points in the story. Be prepared for a round of nostalgia as you travel to the old stomping grounds of Sweet Valley, California.

Overall rating: 4 shots