Princess Amy

Sweet Dreams

by Melinda Pollowitz

While spending a month at an isolated summer retreat with relatives, Amy meets two very interesting boys from two very different worlds.

Genres: Young Adult, Romance

168 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1981

Reviews

[Mira · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite Sweet Dreams novels because it was Teen Romance with a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS SUBPLOT! The perfect book for me right? Anyway Amy is adorable. I always loved these books because growing up the UK it was very excited to read about KIDS IN AMERICA who had rich friends with swimming pools and whatnot.

Anyway - yes. Love this book! :)

[Samantha Goldman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rally liked Amy. She didn't want to be with Guy but, she didn't want to hurt his feelings so, she went horse back raisins with him. Amy realized she should be with Peter instead. Peter is really protective of Amy it's really sweet. When Guy said he would take Amy to the doctors peter said "You've already done enough."(167) He didn't want him anywhere near Amy. It was really sweet.

[Sian Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read and reread this book as a young teenager, about 12 or 13 and loved all of the sweet dreams books. But this one was one of my favourites.
This tweenage romance from the 80s hasn’t aged too badly considering there isn’t a mobile phone in sight! Haha loved it

[Gale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in 2006.

[Nattie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, as usual there are many annoying characters. Candace and her crowd, especially Guy, are the worst. These people have the nerve to call anybody else weird?

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

CW: This book has a LOT of mean characters fat-shaming our heroine in it, although the author clearly thinks it's nonsense.

Amy is an ordinary teenager who loves working at her family's pizza place, eating the pizza, reading lots of books, and hanging out with her male best friend who is obsessed with UFOs. Unfortunately, instead of a summer doing all of those things, her mom has sent her off to stay with ritzy relatives on a famous car-free island in Lake Huron (I think) where she will hopefully be transformed into the kind of daughter her mom wants -- thin, popular, and dating a rich guy she can marry to ensure her future. (All of this is in the first few pages of the book and touched on so briefly that a reader could easily miss how awful Amy's mom apparently is, but it really stuck out to me.)

Once on the island Amy has to deal with her aunt and cousin Candace, both of whom share her mom's values -- be thin, be popular, marry rich -- and does it with good humour and a lot of grace given that she's a 16-year-old in an entirely new social situation. She gets along well with her uncle and gives her 7-year-old cousin Brandon the attention he craves. She gives Candace's friend group a try and is flattered by & attracted to Guy, the rich playboy whose obsession with his live-action D&D-style game gets him into all kinds of trouble -- but her heart isn't with any of those kids, it's with teen gymnast Amber and security guard Pete (and his cute dog). Both boys are interested, and eventually she picks Pete, who will talk to her about books and come visit her in the city to eat pizza. It might not last, but it's a healthy fun relationship for a teenager to have, and the book ends on a sweet note.

So that's the book, but for me it is a bit more than that, because I read this book as a very young child when it was new, and was absolutely enthralled by the live-action D&D style game that makes up part of the plot -- I wanted the entire book to be about that, and didn't understand why Amy didn't want to play. Who *wouldn't* want to get to pretend to be a princess with a bunch of other kids pretending to be knights? In retrospect, a lot of my future ultra-geeky activities were prefigured by my young self thinking that this was the coolest thing she had ever heard of.

Reading it as an adult, I am fascinated by the choice to capitalise on the public awareness of D&D as a 'dangerous thing' -- I'm sure the author was familiar with the 1979 news stories about the teenage boy who committed suicide *supposedly* because of going into the steam tunnels at his university to play live-action D&D. I *think* for a contemporary teen reader Guy would have seemed like bad news as soon as his game was mentioned and the more it becomes clear that he'll prioritise playing the game over anything else, the more he would have seemed like an actual threat rather than just kind of a jerk. I don't know, though; I was too young to be aware of that in 1981!

As far as I know, Melinda Pollowitz wrote very few other books, but I just now realised that her other Sweet Dreams romance (Country Girl) is another I read as an adult and found pretty enjoyable!

I am tempted to do a Sweet Dreams read-through to complement all my Harlequins, but I got rid of most of my SD romances years ago and they are a lot harder to find now than vintage Harlequins, alas.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although the title is "Princess Amy", this book is no fairytale. In fact, it is quite realistic. The protagonist, Amy, has to choose between two boys; one who is serious but sweet, and another who is charming but childish. Yes, it's a typical love-triangle scenario going on, however, the execution makes it refreshing and fun. Also, the plot is relatively unpredictable for a Sweet Dreams book. Usually, I can predict accurately what is going to happen at the end of the story but this one left me doubtful and unsure till the very last page. The writer, Melinda Pollowitz, seems to knows how to keep readers engaged and invested. Additionally, I really enjoyed the variety of the characters used in this book. In conclusion, this is a must-read for teenage romance fans, and not to mention, Sweet Dreams lovers.

[Desiree Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always had to remind myself that Amy’s only 16 and she’s got a lot to learn, a lot of time to find her backbone, to be more assertive, to learn to say no. I was getting worried about when she’ll make her decision. *spoiler - it was in the last few pages* Thank goodness it happened though. New milestone achieved!

[daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

80s teen romance drama books >> I wish I could find more vintage books like these

[Jeanne Roland · Rating 2 out of 5]

poor girl doesn’t know how to say no

[Chloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good