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Sweet Valley University Thriller Editions #3
Kiss of the Vampire
A creature of the night...
Elizabeth Wakefield is falling in love... with Nicholas des Perdu, her boyfriend Tom Watt's new boss. Nicholas is tall, dark, dangerously handsome... and keeper of deadly secret. Will Elizabeth abandon her friends, her family - and even her life - to be with the man she longs for?
Jessica Wakefield is desperate to save her twin sister - but she's up against a force stronger than any she's ever known. Together Jessica and Tom must fight the evil that threatens to destroy them all.
Don't shut your eyes, Sweet Valley. Nobody sleeps tonight.
Elizabeth Wakefield is falling in love... with Nicholas des Perdu, her boyfriend Tom Watt's new boss. Nicholas is tall, dark, dangerously handsome... and keeper of deadly secret. Will Elizabeth abandon her friends, her family - and even her life - to be with the man she longs for?
Jessica Wakefield is desperate to save her twin sister - but she's up against a force stronger than any she's ever known. Together Jessica and Tom must fight the evil that threatens to destroy them all.
Don't shut your eyes, Sweet Valley. Nobody sleeps tonight.
281 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1995
3 people are currently reading
228 people want to read
About the author
Francine Pascal
1,139 books1,844 followersFrancine Paula Pascal was an American author best known for her Sweet Valley series of young adult novels. Sweet Valley High, the backbone of the collection, was made into a television series, which led to several spin-offs, including The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. Although most of these books were published in the 1980s and 1990s, they remained so popular that several titles were re-released decades later.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 29, 2017
When it comes to vampires, these girls never learn. First Jessica and now Liz.
Tom wins a scholarship in New Orleans for a few days (in the middle of October? Okay.) with noted journalist Nicholas des Perdu. Liz and Jess are busy decorating the local Hollow House for an upcoming Halloween bash. Liz is so pathetic that when she finds out about Tom’s internship - which is literally 48 hours - she does not know how in the world she can get on without him. Once he leaves
she mopes and counts the hours and then minutes until his return. I was shocked she didn’t just go with him.
While in New Orleans Tom tries to get caught up in his work but finds everything... eerie, to say the least (I guess he’s seen American Horror Story: Coven). Things get stranger when a woman of the House, Marielle, corners Tom one night and starts making out with him. See, apparently vampires can bend your thoughts to their will, and both Tom and later Liz are helpless in the presence of them.
Once Tom comes to his senses he wants to leave immediately. But before he does he sees what looks like a coffin in the basement. At the airport Liz is waiting for him and drooling all over the floor.
While in New Orleans Nicholas saw a picture of Liz and thought it was his long-lost love Lisette. So then we have to get her boring backstory. Anyway, once he finds out that Tom knows Liz, he is determined to come to Sweet Valley.
Nicholas, once in SV, tells Liz that he is working on an “award” for Tom, but she must keep it a secret from him. Liz agrees to help Nicholas find articles by Tom. But what she doesn’t bargain for (even though she should have, given how often she cheats) is falling in love with Nicholas. It’s that helpless thing again. Liz starts acting stranger and stranger and Tom is aware something is going on. When she gets flowers from an “N” Jessica finds it odd but doesn’t think much of it. Then Tom starts to see Nicholas around campus and believes he’s going crazy. But is he? Before he left New Orleans, Tom took note of a string of murders occurring around town. Now that he has supposedly seen Nicholas around campus, the murders have begun again.
Tom begins to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. But what he comes up with is that Nicholas is a serial killer. Well... close enough. At the Hollow House Party Tom is frantic to find Liz. He has a private chat with Jess about what’s been going on, and she mentions the flowers to him. She should have automatically believed him anyway because of her encounter with a vampire in high school, but whatever.
After going back to the dorm and realizing Liz isn’t there, Tom realizes with dread that they must be headed back to New Orleans. He and Jess try to leave the same night, but of course the flights are all booked up. They have to sleep in the airport and wait until morning. Meanwhile, in Liz-land, Liz has just Up and agreed to go to New Orleans and Paris with Nicholas without even once thinking about Jessica. That has to be some kind of record. It isn’t until the next morning when she wakes up that she realizes something is very wrong. As Nicholas is emerging from his coffin downstairs, Liz sees a photo of her as Lisette in an old wedding dress. He catches her looking at the photo and hands her the same dress to put on. Liz agrees, but only to buy time. Nicholas’s plan all along has been to wait for the right moment to bite Liz and make her his “forever.” She has already been bit a little, hence the fog she is under.
Tom and Jess arrive in Orleans and head for Nicholas’s house. And it’s a good thing, too, because Nicholas has trapped Liz in a corner to bite her again. Jess and Tom break a glass window downstairs and enter the house. At this point Liz has knocked over a candle and things have begun to burn down.
Then we have hijinks of Tom rescuing Liz but forgetting about Jessica. Nicholas doesn’t know they are twins and calls her Lisette too. Jessica begins to bend under his spell as Tom takes a barely alive Liz outside. But once he’s out there he realizes the house will collapse with the fire and Jess is still inside. So, once again, he must re-enter the house and attempt to punch Nicholas in order to save Jessica. Obviously he is successful and manages to save both twins. That’s pretty much it, and all we hear in the last chapter is how Liz is mostly recovered (she wears a scarf to cover up the bite marks) and Jess is getting back to her bubbly self. Jess receives flowers in the mail but, knowing they’re from Nicholas, tosses them in the dumpster.
In the most inane side plot ever, Jessica and Alison spend the entire book fighting over the best room in the Theta house. That is... until Alison gets most of her blood drained by Nicholas the night of the Hollow House Party and both of them decide there’s no way they’d want to live there anymore. Ugh, they could have saved so many pages and just had Alison get bit sooner.
Quotes:
“Jessica took a deep breath and tried not to roll her eyes. After all, she had been known to be lovesick once or twice in her life.”
Once or twice??!!!!!
“In a way her feelings for Tom were almost scary, she thought ruefully. It was as if she actually needed him in a physical, chemical way.”
Liz, that’s called codependency.
“Elizabeth’s brow furrowed. Why had she agreed to meet him secretly? It seemed so unlike her.”
Is it really that unlike you though, Liz?
“...To when he first became aware of the unbearable unfairness of mortality.”
That’s the alternate title for this book.
“‘I’m not blowing Tom off,’ Liz responded. ‘Good grief, it’s not like we’re joined at the hip. It’s not a crime if twenty-four hours pass without our talking.’”
This from the woman who could not stand to be apart from Tom while he was in New Orleans a few days prior.
“Alone of all the bouquets, this one had a single blood-red rose right in the middle of the white ones.”
Fucking run, Liz! You of all people know what white roses mean!!
Tom wins a scholarship in New Orleans for a few days (in the middle of October? Okay.) with noted journalist Nicholas des Perdu. Liz and Jess are busy decorating the local Hollow House for an upcoming Halloween bash. Liz is so pathetic that when she finds out about Tom’s internship - which is literally 48 hours - she does not know how in the world she can get on without him. Once he leaves
she mopes and counts the hours and then minutes until his return. I was shocked she didn’t just go with him.
While in New Orleans Tom tries to get caught up in his work but finds everything... eerie, to say the least (I guess he’s seen American Horror Story: Coven). Things get stranger when a woman of the House, Marielle, corners Tom one night and starts making out with him. See, apparently vampires can bend your thoughts to their will, and both Tom and later Liz are helpless in the presence of them.
Once Tom comes to his senses he wants to leave immediately. But before he does he sees what looks like a coffin in the basement. At the airport Liz is waiting for him and drooling all over the floor.
While in New Orleans Nicholas saw a picture of Liz and thought it was his long-lost love Lisette. So then we have to get her boring backstory. Anyway, once he finds out that Tom knows Liz, he is determined to come to Sweet Valley.
Nicholas, once in SV, tells Liz that he is working on an “award” for Tom, but she must keep it a secret from him. Liz agrees to help Nicholas find articles by Tom. But what she doesn’t bargain for (even though she should have, given how often she cheats) is falling in love with Nicholas. It’s that helpless thing again. Liz starts acting stranger and stranger and Tom is aware something is going on. When she gets flowers from an “N” Jessica finds it odd but doesn’t think much of it. Then Tom starts to see Nicholas around campus and believes he’s going crazy. But is he? Before he left New Orleans, Tom took note of a string of murders occurring around town. Now that he has supposedly seen Nicholas around campus, the murders have begun again.
Tom begins to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. But what he comes up with is that Nicholas is a serial killer. Well... close enough. At the Hollow House Party Tom is frantic to find Liz. He has a private chat with Jess about what’s been going on, and she mentions the flowers to him. She should have automatically believed him anyway because of her encounter with a vampire in high school, but whatever.
After going back to the dorm and realizing Liz isn’t there, Tom realizes with dread that they must be headed back to New Orleans. He and Jess try to leave the same night, but of course the flights are all booked up. They have to sleep in the airport and wait until morning. Meanwhile, in Liz-land, Liz has just Up and agreed to go to New Orleans and Paris with Nicholas without even once thinking about Jessica. That has to be some kind of record. It isn’t until the next morning when she wakes up that she realizes something is very wrong. As Nicholas is emerging from his coffin downstairs, Liz sees a photo of her as Lisette in an old wedding dress. He catches her looking at the photo and hands her the same dress to put on. Liz agrees, but only to buy time. Nicholas’s plan all along has been to wait for the right moment to bite Liz and make her his “forever.” She has already been bit a little, hence the fog she is under.
Tom and Jess arrive in Orleans and head for Nicholas’s house. And it’s a good thing, too, because Nicholas has trapped Liz in a corner to bite her again. Jess and Tom break a glass window downstairs and enter the house. At this point Liz has knocked over a candle and things have begun to burn down.
Then we have hijinks of Tom rescuing Liz but forgetting about Jessica. Nicholas doesn’t know they are twins and calls her Lisette too. Jessica begins to bend under his spell as Tom takes a barely alive Liz outside. But once he’s out there he realizes the house will collapse with the fire and Jess is still inside. So, once again, he must re-enter the house and attempt to punch Nicholas in order to save Jessica. Obviously he is successful and manages to save both twins. That’s pretty much it, and all we hear in the last chapter is how Liz is mostly recovered (she wears a scarf to cover up the bite marks) and Jess is getting back to her bubbly self. Jess receives flowers in the mail but, knowing they’re from Nicholas, tosses them in the dumpster.
In the most inane side plot ever, Jessica and Alison spend the entire book fighting over the best room in the Theta house. That is... until Alison gets most of her blood drained by Nicholas the night of the Hollow House Party and both of them decide there’s no way they’d want to live there anymore. Ugh, they could have saved so many pages and just had Alison get bit sooner.
Quotes:
“Jessica took a deep breath and tried not to roll her eyes. After all, she had been known to be lovesick once or twice in her life.”
Once or twice??!!!!!
“In a way her feelings for Tom were almost scary, she thought ruefully. It was as if she actually needed him in a physical, chemical way.”
Liz, that’s called codependency.
“Elizabeth’s brow furrowed. Why had she agreed to meet him secretly? It seemed so unlike her.”
Is it really that unlike you though, Liz?
“...To when he first became aware of the unbearable unfairness of mortality.”
That’s the alternate title for this book.
“‘I’m not blowing Tom off,’ Liz responded. ‘Good grief, it’s not like we’re joined at the hip. It’s not a crime if twenty-four hours pass without our talking.’”
This from the woman who could not stand to be apart from Tom while he was in New Orleans a few days prior.
“Alone of all the bouquets, this one had a single blood-red rose right in the middle of the white ones.”
Fucking run, Liz! You of all people know what white roses mean!!
October 9, 2024
"Randy Mason, boy nerd turned Greek god" is not a sentence I thought I'd ever read, but here we are. Apparently the computer nerd extraordinaire has indeed grown up, filled out, ditched his glasses and even lost his freckles! He's always been gaga for Jessica, and now she's actually happy to have him around. He appears to be her latest boytoy, at least for this book, and my classic SVH canon mind just cannot wrap around this LOL.
This is, of course, the least ridiculous thing about this book, which is basically SVU meets every Dracula derivative ever. It is better than SVH's take on the vampire myth; at least this ghostie has the guts to stick the landing, so to speak.
So, onto the plot. Tom and Liz are competing for an "internship" to go to New Orleans for a couple of random days in October to work for the world famous journalist Nicholas des Perdu. Tom wins and heads to the Crescent City, taking along a picture of his lady love. Tom and Elizabeth miss each other like crazy during their whole two days of separation, but never manage to connect on the phone. (This being 1995 and all.) Tom thinks New Orleans and Nicholas are extremely strange, and he's almost seduced by Nicholas's housekeeper, for which he feels deeply ashamed. He finds his picture of Liz missing one night, but when it magically appears the next morning, he figures he just mislaid it somehow, though he tore his room apart looking for it the night before and fell asleep incredibly upset at having lost it.
He didn't lose the photo; no, Nicholas stole it because he finds the face of his long-dead child bride and instantly falls in love again. Apparently Nicholas and Lisette were married right before the French Revolution; while he's off fighting the peasant uprising, word reaches his household that he was killed, and Lisette commits suicide, unable to bear the idea of living without him. Nicholas, of course, is not dead, but he certainly wants to be when he arrives home and finds his lovely bride a corpse. In his own musings, he believes that he sold his soul to the woman who 'turned' him into a vampire, and until glimpsing this picture of Tom's girlfriend, has nothing to live for.
Oh, yeah, and there are lots of unsolved murders of people around New Orleans who have mysteriously bled to death, which no one seems to be taking very seriously.
Anyway. Nicholas takes one look at Liz's picture and decides that he has to have his beloved Lisette back, so he follows Tom back to Sweet Valley and begins stalking her. He meets Elizabeth and tells her that Tom is up for some BS journalism award, and that he's looking for 'background info' on Tom to help sway the judges in her boyfriend's favor. Liz turns into a complete mutton-head around Nicholas, even sneaking off to Moon Beach with him to make out under the stars.
Meanwhile, Tom is frantic because Elizabeth is acting strangely and not returning his calls. He fears he's being dumped, perhaps because he feels so guilty for his own almost-betrayal in New Orleans. He tries to enlist Jessica to help figure out what's going on with her twin, but Jess is locked in her own battle over a new bedroom at Theta House. Jessica and her mortal enemy, Alison Quinn, are fighting over who will claim the new, single bedroom, and this consumes most of Jessica's time.
The twins have set up a haunted Halloween party in a nearby abandoned house, and the whole campus shows up. Jessica finally realizes that Liz is indeed acting strangely, and neither she nor Tom can find Liz at the party. Tom has done a little digging around and has figured out Nicholas has arrived in the Valley; there are suddenly a lot of unsolved murders around the campus which no one seems to be taking very seriously; Jessica puts two and two together about a mass of roses delivered to her and Liz's dorm room that evening with a cryptic note about "being together tonight." The two of them figure out that Nicholas is there to kidnap Elizabeth, which he successfully manages to do. He takes her back to New Orleans and tries to 'marry' her again, but Liz is with it enough to realize that something is wrong, and she misses her twin and her boyfriend. Tom and Jessica ride to her rescue and end up torching Nicholas's creepy New Orleans mansion in their quest to save Elizabeth.
There's a lot of ridiculousness in this story, but most of it is fun. Nicholas does indeed sleep in a coffin in the basement! There are no mirrors in his home! The telephone isn't connected, so no one can call out! Nicholas is stunned when Jessica confronts him, as he had no idea she even existed!
The main plot and the subplot cross streams when Nicholas crawls into the window of the new bedroom at Theta house on Halloween and attacks Alison, who has set up camp there by locking Jessica out. He leaves a bloody mess behind and Alison is on the brink of death. Jessica firmly decides that no way does she want that bedroom now, so she'll stick with Liz in the dorms! L.O.L.
Jessica is pretty awesome here. She's the one with her head screwed on straight (most of the time) while Liz is lolling around like an idiot. I like this Jessica a lot, and I'm glad she's the heroine of this story.
Does this book many any sense? No. Is it fun? Yes. It was a great way to start this year's nostalgia re-readation, and I'm looking forward to the next!
This is, of course, the least ridiculous thing about this book, which is basically SVU meets every Dracula derivative ever. It is better than SVH's take on the vampire myth; at least this ghostie has the guts to stick the landing, so to speak.
So, onto the plot. Tom and Liz are competing for an "internship" to go to New Orleans for a couple of random days in October to work for the world famous journalist Nicholas des Perdu. Tom wins and heads to the Crescent City, taking along a picture of his lady love. Tom and Elizabeth miss each other like crazy during their whole two days of separation, but never manage to connect on the phone. (This being 1995 and all.) Tom thinks New Orleans and Nicholas are extremely strange, and he's almost seduced by Nicholas's housekeeper, for which he feels deeply ashamed. He finds his picture of Liz missing one night, but when it magically appears the next morning, he figures he just mislaid it somehow, though he tore his room apart looking for it the night before and fell asleep incredibly upset at having lost it.
He didn't lose the photo; no, Nicholas stole it because he finds the face of his long-dead child bride and instantly falls in love again. Apparently Nicholas and Lisette were married right before the French Revolution; while he's off fighting the peasant uprising, word reaches his household that he was killed, and Lisette commits suicide, unable to bear the idea of living without him. Nicholas, of course, is not dead, but he certainly wants to be when he arrives home and finds his lovely bride a corpse. In his own musings, he believes that he sold his soul to the woman who 'turned' him into a vampire, and until glimpsing this picture of Tom's girlfriend, has nothing to live for.
Oh, yeah, and there are lots of unsolved murders of people around New Orleans who have mysteriously bled to death, which no one seems to be taking very seriously.
Anyway. Nicholas takes one look at Liz's picture and decides that he has to have his beloved Lisette back, so he follows Tom back to Sweet Valley and begins stalking her. He meets Elizabeth and tells her that Tom is up for some BS journalism award, and that he's looking for 'background info' on Tom to help sway the judges in her boyfriend's favor. Liz turns into a complete mutton-head around Nicholas, even sneaking off to Moon Beach with him to make out under the stars.
Meanwhile, Tom is frantic because Elizabeth is acting strangely and not returning his calls. He fears he's being dumped, perhaps because he feels so guilty for his own almost-betrayal in New Orleans. He tries to enlist Jessica to help figure out what's going on with her twin, but Jess is locked in her own battle over a new bedroom at Theta House. Jessica and her mortal enemy, Alison Quinn, are fighting over who will claim the new, single bedroom, and this consumes most of Jessica's time.
The twins have set up a haunted Halloween party in a nearby abandoned house, and the whole campus shows up. Jessica finally realizes that Liz is indeed acting strangely, and neither she nor Tom can find Liz at the party. Tom has done a little digging around and has figured out Nicholas has arrived in the Valley; there are suddenly a lot of unsolved murders around the campus which no one seems to be taking very seriously; Jessica puts two and two together about a mass of roses delivered to her and Liz's dorm room that evening with a cryptic note about "being together tonight." The two of them figure out that Nicholas is there to kidnap Elizabeth, which he successfully manages to do. He takes her back to New Orleans and tries to 'marry' her again, but Liz is with it enough to realize that something is wrong, and she misses her twin and her boyfriend. Tom and Jessica ride to her rescue and end up torching Nicholas's creepy New Orleans mansion in their quest to save Elizabeth.
There's a lot of ridiculousness in this story, but most of it is fun. Nicholas does indeed sleep in a coffin in the basement! There are no mirrors in his home! The telephone isn't connected, so no one can call out! Nicholas is stunned when Jessica confronts him, as he had no idea she even existed!
The main plot and the subplot cross streams when Nicholas crawls into the window of the new bedroom at Theta house on Halloween and attacks Alison, who has set up camp there by locking Jessica out. He leaves a bloody mess behind and Alison is on the brink of death. Jessica firmly decides that no way does she want that bedroom now, so she'll stick with Liz in the dorms! L.O.L.
Jessica is pretty awesome here. She's the one with her head screwed on straight (most of the time) while Liz is lolling around like an idiot. I like this Jessica a lot, and I'm glad she's the heroine of this story.
Does this book many any sense? No. Is it fun? Yes. It was a great way to start this year's nostalgia re-readation, and I'm looking forward to the next!
November 30, 2017
The last we read of Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, they were on a summer cruise ship after their freshman year of college. Now, get ready for something a little scarier. In this thriller edition, the girls and their friends are back at school and getting ready for Halloween.
When Tom wins a journalism contest, he flies to New Orleans to spent time with a famous reporter. But, as soon as he gets there, he’s sucked into the man’s spell. Nicholas is charming, absorbing, persuasive, very pale, handsome, and only seen at night. Then, when he comes across a photograph of Elizabeth, he becomes obsessed with the idea of meeting her!
Kiss of the Vampire is a great book to pick up right around Halloween, and since it’s such a quick read, you can probably finish it before the other holidays roll around. I loved the character of Nicholas, and it was an interesting twist that he was interested in Elizabeth, since Jessica is usually the one who gets all the male attention. It’s a very yummy love triangle, and I’m not even a fan of vampire stories! If you are, you’ll love this volume even more than I did.
http://hottoastyrag.weebly.com/svu-14...
When Tom wins a journalism contest, he flies to New Orleans to spent time with a famous reporter. But, as soon as he gets there, he’s sucked into the man’s spell. Nicholas is charming, absorbing, persuasive, very pale, handsome, and only seen at night. Then, when he comes across a photograph of Elizabeth, he becomes obsessed with the idea of meeting her!
Kiss of the Vampire is a great book to pick up right around Halloween, and since it’s such a quick read, you can probably finish it before the other holidays roll around. I loved the character of Nicholas, and it was an interesting twist that he was interested in Elizabeth, since Jessica is usually the one who gets all the male attention. It’s a very yummy love triangle, and I’m not even a fan of vampire stories! If you are, you’ll love this volume even more than I did.
http://hottoastyrag.weebly.com/svu-14...
September 6, 2025
Elizabeth Wakefield's boyfriend, Tom Watts, wins a trip to New Orleans to study with renowned journalist Nicholas des Perdu. While there, Nicholas sees a picture of Elizabeth, and she just happens to be a dead ringer for his long-dead bride, Lisette! When Tom returns to Sweet Valley, Nicholas quickly follows, and immediately starts making the moves on Elizabeth. He uses his vampire powers to get her to fall for him. Tom notices Elizabeth withdrawing from him and vows to find out what is going on.
I've had a lot of trashy fun with the Sweet Valley University thrillers that I've read so far, but this one falls a bit flat. It certainly takes way too long to get going. Why not have Elizabeth win the prize and go to New Orleans, since she entered the competition as well? It takes a long, plodding time for Nicholas to get to Sweet Valley and try to claim Elizabeth. Proceedings are padded out with a completely unnecessary and arbitrary subplot involving Jessica Wakefield competing with another sorority sister to take possession of an available room in their sorority house. Why was that here?
I did appreciate that this wasn't a cringey insta-love vampire story, as is usually the norm. It is clear that Nicholas is using mind control. But as a thriller, it just wasn't fast-paced and suspenseful enough, and it didn't land for me.
I've had a lot of trashy fun with the Sweet Valley University thrillers that I've read so far, but this one falls a bit flat. It certainly takes way too long to get going. Why not have Elizabeth win the prize and go to New Orleans, since she entered the competition as well? It takes a long, plodding time for Nicholas to get to Sweet Valley and try to claim Elizabeth. Proceedings are padded out with a completely unnecessary and arbitrary subplot involving Jessica Wakefield competing with another sorority sister to take possession of an available room in their sorority house. Why was that here?
I did appreciate that this wasn't a cringey insta-love vampire story, as is usually the norm. It is clear that Nicholas is using mind control. But as a thriller, it just wasn't fast-paced and suspenseful enough, and it didn't land for me.
May 26, 2010
When in the middle of the reading i can already make some hypothesis on what already happened and the probably of the endings, but i still stick until the end.
October 13, 2024
Somehow kid!me either did not realize, or I forgot, that Nicholas is pretty much a ripoff of Interview's Louis, at least in looks and pining. And home base. I'd also forgotten how the SVU thrillers do tie into the actual series (at least for now), so having Randy Mason be mentioned at the same time as setting up Louis was kind of a shock.
I will never get over how down for vampires the SV universe is in general. Time after time, they have the chance to just have someone think they're a vampire and each time canon says nope, vampires are totally real and they totally have a thing for the Wakefield twins. Is there an AU where Steven also has a run in with a vampire? If not, I should get right on that. Anyway, as per usual parts of this book are batshit crazy and require your brain to be in the off position (a two day internship for why, Nicholas? What was the point?) and then parts of it would zig where a normal SV book would zag. Keeping Jessica a mystery from Nicholas was another thing I'd totally forgotten. I loved that basically Elizabeth had no chance because Nicholas very clearly went all mind control on her right away, making this one of the few times Liz did not willingly and happily cheat on her boyfriend.
Loved Lila and Bruce as a couple tripping the twins up because of their lifetime feud until recently, and I love that Lila decided Elvira was the perfect costume and the thought process behind it.
I'd totally forgotten Allison's fate (probably because it makes no sense. How did Nicholas wind up at Theta House and why? What're the odds, man?) and kept waiting for Lila to wind up with the room until, well... yeah.
The SV take on the South is always a wild ride of WTF, though at least this one pretty much just hits all the vampire New Orleans beats like a paint by numbers and calls it a day. A bunch of unsolved vampire murders around the city? Write it up in the newspaper but don't let it be a big thing at all. Right, right.
How many dopplegangers are the twins up to by now? Imagine if Nicholas had run into Margo or Nora instead. Just imagine!
Anyway, I also loved Jessica for the most part. Not so much her bailing on Liz after the window incident but pretty much the rest of the book. Yes, her room sounds like it'd be a tacky disaster by today's standards (and probably by 95's) but it's definitely Jessica. Her asking Liz who Nicholas is and if Liz doesn't want him can Jess have him AND her "ooooookay, clearly this guy's a nutjob" realization both made me cackle.
I do love me some backstory, and Nicholas does deliver that along with some oddly realistic moments, like the maids at the hotel joking/not joking about there being bodies in his room since he won't let anyone in to clean.
I wonder if I'd actually like this one more if Tom didn't make me want to smack him for his actions in the future?
Anyway, overall fantastic kickoff to this year's buddy read. :D
I will never get over how down for vampires the SV universe is in general. Time after time, they have the chance to just have someone think they're a vampire and each time canon says nope, vampires are totally real and they totally have a thing for the Wakefield twins. Is there an AU where Steven also has a run in with a vampire? If not, I should get right on that. Anyway, as per usual parts of this book are batshit crazy and require your brain to be in the off position (a two day internship for why, Nicholas? What was the point?) and then parts of it would zig where a normal SV book would zag. Keeping Jessica a mystery from Nicholas was another thing I'd totally forgotten. I loved that basically Elizabeth had no chance because Nicholas very clearly went all mind control on her right away, making this one of the few times Liz did not willingly and happily cheat on her boyfriend.
Loved Lila and Bruce as a couple tripping the twins up because of their lifetime feud until recently, and I love that Lila decided Elvira was the perfect costume and the thought process behind it.
I'd totally forgotten Allison's fate (probably because it makes no sense. How did Nicholas wind up at Theta House and why? What're the odds, man?) and kept waiting for Lila to wind up with the room until, well... yeah.
The SV take on the South is always a wild ride of WTF, though at least this one pretty much just hits all the vampire New Orleans beats like a paint by numbers and calls it a day. A bunch of unsolved vampire murders around the city? Write it up in the newspaper but don't let it be a big thing at all. Right, right.
How many dopplegangers are the twins up to by now? Imagine if Nicholas had run into Margo or Nora instead. Just imagine!
Anyway, I also loved Jessica for the most part. Not so much her bailing on Liz after the window incident but pretty much the rest of the book. Yes, her room sounds like it'd be a tacky disaster by today's standards (and probably by 95's) but it's definitely Jessica. Her asking Liz who Nicholas is and if Liz doesn't want him can Jess have him AND her "ooooookay, clearly this guy's a nutjob" realization both made me cackle.
I do love me some backstory, and Nicholas does deliver that along with some oddly realistic moments, like the maids at the hotel joking/not joking about there being bodies in his room since he won't let anyone in to clean.
I wonder if I'd actually like this one more if Tom didn't make me want to smack him for his actions in the future?
Anyway, overall fantastic kickoff to this year's buddy read. :D
December 19, 2024
Seriously bad. I mean SERIOUSLY BAD. It gets 3 stars because it's SO funny. I'm amazed at how readily they accept that he's a vampire. I also love how completely ripped off this book is, from all the weird films they made of 'Dracula' (though those films never actually used the real story from the book). Perhaps my favourite bit, though, is how somehow it's Halloween...in a book that comes AFTER their Christmas book...and yet they're still in their first year of university and still 18 years old. And perhaps I'd say you're meant to read them in a different order...except they're all in relationships that only happened well after the previous October...so yet again, in Sweet Valley, no one ever grows older! Fabulous!
June 10, 2021
I love it
Interesting novel
Interesting novel
Read
October 20, 2023Just ordered this through Thriftbooks and can't wait to read.
May 7, 2008
I wish I had read more of Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley SVU series when I was younger.
I admit, I was never much into her earlier books when I was considerably much younger (mostly, it was your everyday drama that your everyday girl dealt with while in school; mundane; jealousies, mostly; I was never one who read a lot into romances or cat fights; those type of novels just never were my type of thing)... but this series was very different from her other novels (including her college series, which they were alright). Maybe it was because it was a mystery novel... or that it had a bit of horror aspect to it (mostly I think it was the mystery aspect coupled with the vampire theme; I was a sucker for vampires then and still am a bit mystified by them). I was very skeptical about how this book would go... but it defied my odds. Yes, it is a romance... which I was pleasantly surprised by, even though I'm sure I should have expected it. None the less, it was a decent read. It did get a little slow in some parts, but I can't say I wasn't pleased. I liked it. At the time, a lot. It made me want to read more of the other books, mostly to find out Elizabeth's and Jessica's relationship as twin sisters.
Being a twin myself, the way they interacted with each other, was very realistic to me. I'm glad Francine could pull that part off. Some many people don't understand what it is like to a twin. I think she spelled that part out well, because it is more intense of a relationship than just siblings. Twins protect each other... even more so, I believe than other relationships.
Well done, for the content.
I admit, I was never much into her earlier books when I was considerably much younger (mostly, it was your everyday drama that your everyday girl dealt with while in school; mundane; jealousies, mostly; I was never one who read a lot into romances or cat fights; those type of novels just never were my type of thing)... but this series was very different from her other novels (including her college series, which they were alright). Maybe it was because it was a mystery novel... or that it had a bit of horror aspect to it (mostly I think it was the mystery aspect coupled with the vampire theme; I was a sucker for vampires then and still am a bit mystified by them). I was very skeptical about how this book would go... but it defied my odds. Yes, it is a romance... which I was pleasantly surprised by, even though I'm sure I should have expected it. None the less, it was a decent read. It did get a little slow in some parts, but I can't say I wasn't pleased. I liked it. At the time, a lot. It made me want to read more of the other books, mostly to find out Elizabeth's and Jessica's relationship as twin sisters.
Being a twin myself, the way they interacted with each other, was very realistic to me. I'm glad Francine could pull that part off. Some many people don't understand what it is like to a twin. I think she spelled that part out well, because it is more intense of a relationship than just siblings. Twins protect each other... even more so, I believe than other relationships.
Well done, for the content.
December 17, 2015
This was the first Sweet Valley University book I have read and I really enjoyed seeing the twins older and in college. I also enjoyed meeting a new group of friends. The story line was good as well although not very original. I will read more of the twins adventures in college and see where their lives go from here.
August 6, 2009
Haven't they had enough vampires in this series? lol
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June 29, 2012Oh my so bad. It's all I can say. I used to love this series growing up. Rereading them, I'm not sure why.
July 9, 2013
I have read so many of these books I can't remember all of them.
March 27, 2017
Been a long time since I’ve read any of the Sweet Valley books. Picking up this one and reading it again, I was drawn easily back into the world of Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield and their friends and family. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book again.
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