What do you think?
Rate this book
Sweet Valley University Thriller Editions #5
Running for Her Life
A stab in the dark...
Elizabeth Wakefield's journalism paper my cost her her life. She wrote up her theory that a young movie star's suicide was actually a murder, and two days later her dorm room is trashed. Someone doesn't like Elizabeth's theory. Somebody may even be willing to kill her for it.
Jessica Wakefield is minding her own business in the campus coffeehouse when a bullet just misses her head. Suddenly she and her twin sister are running for their lives.
Tom Watts, Elizabeth's boyfriend, is frantic. His girlfriend has narrowly escaped campus with her life. Can he help her catch a murderer before the murderer catches her?
Elizabeth Wakefield's journalism paper my cost her her life. She wrote up her theory that a young movie star's suicide was actually a murder, and two days later her dorm room is trashed. Someone doesn't like Elizabeth's theory. Somebody may even be willing to kill her for it.
Jessica Wakefield is minding her own business in the campus coffeehouse when a bullet just misses her head. Suddenly she and her twin sister are running for their lives.
Tom Watts, Elizabeth's boyfriend, is frantic. His girlfriend has narrowly escaped campus with her life. Can he help her catch a murderer before the murderer catches her?
- GenresYoung Adult
277 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
About the author
Francine Pascal
1,149 books1,884 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Read
October 7, 2026We certainly chose to start this year's nostalgia re-readathon with a bang - quite literally. I have never seen this many bodies fall this fast in an SV book before. As I said on GR: this shit's insane, even by Valley standards!
Jessica's latest obsession is a young movie star called Julie Reynolds. She has just broken her contract with a big studio to make a maverick film with her fiance, Matt Barron, at a new, small upstart studio. She is mere weeks away from getting married, and she insists on doing her own stunts to overcome her fear of heights, because she wants to be ready for her skiing honeymoon. One stunt is to jump from a fourth story window. It's all set up, but Matt notices the mattress that is supposed to break her fall has a tear in it. While the crew searches for another one, Julia comes flying off the set, and jumps to her death.
The world thinks its a tragic suicide, but Jessica - and Matt - are skeptical. Julie had so much to live for, and a deliberate jump doesn't make sense. Matt is completely broken up, and anxious because he can't find any evidence that she left a note. No one takes their concerns seriously - the media, the police, etc.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth has been given an assignment in her journalism class, to take a recently published article and basically try to make a counterarguement from it - show the side that is missing from the original article. She takes inspiration from Jessica's mountains of movie magazines and tabloids, and throws herself down a 48-hour rabbit hole investigating Julia's death. She comes up with a vast, far-ranging conspiracy theory about how Julia's former studio had her killed for breaking her contract with them.
Liz knows it sounds crazy. She won't even let her friends, or Jessica, read the 30-page final paper. She can't quite make heself believe it, but the facts are there, apparently. Her professor is so impressed with the paper that she sends it along to her old college roommate, a Hollywood reporter, with an eye towards publication.
Liz is ecstatic, until she barely survives a mail bomb that was sent to her professor; around the same time, the reporter is shot point blank in the back of the head. Liz is interviewed after the bomb explodes in the English faculty building, but the detective dismisses her thoughts that it could be linked to her paper. When she hears of the reporter's death, she's even more concerned and takes it to the chief of the Sweet Valley police, but he also brushes her off.
A few days later, someone takes multiple shots at Jessica at the campus, and Liz returns to her dorm to find her computer smashed into pieces and the disk that had a copy of her paper on it gone. She decides its time to take off, with Jessica in tow - first to a small motel in the middle of nowhere, and then, when the assassin follows them, to LA.
Meanwhile, Matt Barron has heard of Liz's paper and the deaths of her professor and the newspaper reporter. He's desperate to track her down and find out what she knows. He runs the twins to ground at the Santa Monica Pier, and of course Jessica falls all over herself over him (she'd already encountered him at Julia's grave without knowing who he was). Liz decides that its nice to have someone on board who believes that her paper is at the root of all this death and destruction, and Matt eagerly joins the twins as they try to unravel the plot and find the killer before he kills again.
They are not lucky. Another big name movie star dies a suspicious death, along with an informant who'd reached out to Matt and an FBI agent. Yet another movie star is targeted at the Acaedemy Awards (where Liz is the stage girl directing winners to the press room, and Jessica is Matt's last-minute date as he goes to accept an award in Julia's honor), because why the hell not? This is 1996, it's not like Hollywood took security seriously or anything, or even cared when Big Names are being picked off at an alarming rate.
As if that wasn't crazy enough, we have insight into the killer's world. Turns out Liz's conspiracy theory is absolutely on the money. The original studio head wanted Julia killed, and basically blackmailed the guy into doing it. He has the police in his back pocket and is gambling buddies with the governor, so law enforcement is helpless to step in. The guy doesn't want to hurt anyone until he's about 3 deaths in, and then he's basically like "target practice fuck yeah!" and makes more than a few attempts on Liz's life.
I mean - none of this could happen in real life, but it also seems implausible for Sweet Valley. Nobody caries that movie stars are dying on set? Where's the media, where's the police, where's the DA? Nobody is doing anything except Liz and her Wonder Crew, and they aren't exactly prize-winning genuises here. Liz winds up being arrested after a huge kerfluffle at the Oscars where a shot is taken at yet another actor. WTAF is going on here??
This felt much darker than a regular SVU thriller, maybe because people were dropping like flies and our heroes were all teenagers plus a 30-something actor.
Final body count? 6. In less than 300 pages. YIKES.
Jessica's latest obsession is a young movie star called Julie Reynolds. She has just broken her contract with a big studio to make a maverick film with her fiance, Matt Barron, at a new, small upstart studio. She is mere weeks away from getting married, and she insists on doing her own stunts to overcome her fear of heights, because she wants to be ready for her skiing honeymoon. One stunt is to jump from a fourth story window. It's all set up, but Matt notices the mattress that is supposed to break her fall has a tear in it. While the crew searches for another one, Julia comes flying off the set, and jumps to her death.
The world thinks its a tragic suicide, but Jessica - and Matt - are skeptical. Julie had so much to live for, and a deliberate jump doesn't make sense. Matt is completely broken up, and anxious because he can't find any evidence that she left a note. No one takes their concerns seriously - the media, the police, etc.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth has been given an assignment in her journalism class, to take a recently published article and basically try to make a counterarguement from it - show the side that is missing from the original article. She takes inspiration from Jessica's mountains of movie magazines and tabloids, and throws herself down a 48-hour rabbit hole investigating Julia's death. She comes up with a vast, far-ranging conspiracy theory about how Julia's former studio had her killed for breaking her contract with them.
Liz knows it sounds crazy. She won't even let her friends, or Jessica, read the 30-page final paper. She can't quite make heself believe it, but the facts are there, apparently. Her professor is so impressed with the paper that she sends it along to her old college roommate, a Hollywood reporter, with an eye towards publication.
Liz is ecstatic, until she barely survives a mail bomb that was sent to her professor; around the same time, the reporter is shot point blank in the back of the head. Liz is interviewed after the bomb explodes in the English faculty building, but the detective dismisses her thoughts that it could be linked to her paper. When she hears of the reporter's death, she's even more concerned and takes it to the chief of the Sweet Valley police, but he also brushes her off.
A few days later, someone takes multiple shots at Jessica at the campus, and Liz returns to her dorm to find her computer smashed into pieces and the disk that had a copy of her paper on it gone. She decides its time to take off, with Jessica in tow - first to a small motel in the middle of nowhere, and then, when the assassin follows them, to LA.
Meanwhile, Matt Barron has heard of Liz's paper and the deaths of her professor and the newspaper reporter. He's desperate to track her down and find out what she knows. He runs the twins to ground at the Santa Monica Pier, and of course Jessica falls all over herself over him (she'd already encountered him at Julia's grave without knowing who he was). Liz decides that its nice to have someone on board who believes that her paper is at the root of all this death and destruction, and Matt eagerly joins the twins as they try to unravel the plot and find the killer before he kills again.
They are not lucky. Another big name movie star dies a suspicious death, along with an informant who'd reached out to Matt and an FBI agent. Yet another movie star is targeted at the Acaedemy Awards (where Liz is the stage girl directing winners to the press room, and Jessica is Matt's last-minute date as he goes to accept an award in Julia's honor), because why the hell not? This is 1996, it's not like Hollywood took security seriously or anything, or even cared when Big Names are being picked off at an alarming rate.
As if that wasn't crazy enough, we have insight into the killer's world. Turns out Liz's conspiracy theory is absolutely on the money. The original studio head wanted Julia killed, and basically blackmailed the guy into doing it. He has the police in his back pocket and is gambling buddies with the governor, so law enforcement is helpless to step in. The guy doesn't want to hurt anyone until he's about 3 deaths in, and then he's basically like "target practice fuck yeah!" and makes more than a few attempts on Liz's life.
I mean - none of this could happen in real life, but it also seems implausible for Sweet Valley. Nobody caries that movie stars are dying on set? Where's the media, where's the police, where's the DA? Nobody is doing anything except Liz and her Wonder Crew, and they aren't exactly prize-winning genuises here. Liz winds up being arrested after a huge kerfluffle at the Oscars where a shot is taken at yet another actor. WTAF is going on here??
This felt much darker than a regular SVU thriller, maybe because people were dropping like flies and our heroes were all teenagers plus a 30-something actor.
Final body count? 6. In less than 300 pages. YIKES.
October 8, 2026
There were only a few things I remembered about Running for Her Life and only one was I pretty sure about, and that was it being a rip-off of The Pelican Brief (tbf, I knew it was a rip-off of a Grisham book/movie with Julia Roberts).
I'd forgotten that they weren't content for just that, we have SV's answer to Julia Roberts (curly auburn hair, killer smile) also in the book briefly before her death kicks off the storyline.
Cackling at the most 90's haircut/style for dudes being described as: "Matt pushed his brown chin-length hair away from his face. It fell in a natural part down the middle of his scalp, perfectly framing his chiseled features."
Also cackling at Liz trying to convince the chief of police that of course her paper on Julia's totally bogus suicide is what's caused a string of murders. I mean, we know she's right but it's one of those things where if a work of fiction was like, "hey, no one would believe me if I tried to convince them of this" I would be on board moreso than them actually trying to convince the authorities of it right away.
Other things of amusement: our reluctant hitman thinking 80 degrees is scorching, Jess "puckering her lips" when pursed lips was right there and less clunky, said hitman not realizing until it was too late that helping kill someone is a bigger crime than less than legal gambling, and the Evil Studio Head not realizing that killing a bunch of people in an effort to keep the Suicide still thought of as a suicide would actually make it look more like a murder, or at least garner more attention, to say nothing of the fact that I don't even think the 90's would've had people thinking Julia fucking Roberts (or a fictionalized version of her) would jump out of a building on set, during a stunt gone wrong, and think suicide and not, well, stunt gone wrong.
Seriously, how many Hollywood sets have inadvertently gotten people, even their stars, killed? I can't think of too many (any?) where the first thought was suicide and not negligence. I realize the book does try and point out that duh, of course the studio is pushing the suicide angle and not the negligence/tragic accident thing but... seriously? It's one of those things where two narratives would spin out at the same time and one would be the ~official~ and the other would be what everyone else thought at the time as they all waited for the officials to, you know, drop the act.
Then again, I'm not sure anyone reads SV anything for realism and this book did start out trying to convince us that a scene from a movie trailer was actually happening in the book sooooooo... let that set the tone for the rest of the book, I suppose.
This felt very much like an extreme popcorn book, right from the start. I do appreciate that it did take time to try and ground things at least a little (Jess calling back to something traumatic that happened to her to try and help Liz with her grief/trauma), although those moments were few and far between and also really highlighted how fucking bonkers the rest of the book was. Like Jess can take a moment to remember her assault, but nearly being gunned down at the coffee house was only good for a momentary freakout before we return to normal Jessica programing? Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. I did enjoy our brief visit with Izzy and Lila because they're fabulous and we rarely get enough of them. (Li deciding that maybe she should give Matt a week to mourn his beloved's death before she hits on him and obviously Bruce would understand because hello, Matt is a movie star! is classic Lila.)
I think I could forgive more in this book if it pretended to have Hollywood act anything like reality. The bar for reality in Hollywood, even 90's Hollywood, is fairly low, but we still managed to limbo right underneath. I'm glad we didn't have Jess and Matt declaring their love for each other since that would seriously cheapen Julia's death and also, y'know, he's too old for Jess.
Seriously though, this book thought there could be an attempted murder at the Oscars and bedlam wouldn't ensue? WTF. Especially when paired with two other deaths in such a short period of time.
Of course, this book also thought we'd have our hired killer go from not wanting to hurt or kill anyone (and feeling genuinely sick and remorseful over the part he played in the deaths) to just going balls to the wall cuckoo and wanting to just off everyone. I mean, I guess maybe he snapped but it comes across less like a snap and more like we subbed in another person entirely.
I guess I should also take back my crack about 80 not being scorching since it's either February or really early March but nah. And rejoice, book, for you get my first partial star rating here on GR. Huzzah!
On a superficial note, I do love this cover more than I should.
I'd forgotten that they weren't content for just that, we have SV's answer to Julia Roberts (curly auburn hair, killer smile) also in the book briefly before her death kicks off the storyline.
Cackling at the most 90's haircut/style for dudes being described as: "Matt pushed his brown chin-length hair away from his face. It fell in a natural part down the middle of his scalp, perfectly framing his chiseled features."
Also cackling at Liz trying to convince the chief of police that of course her paper on Julia's totally bogus suicide is what's caused a string of murders. I mean, we know she's right but it's one of those things where if a work of fiction was like, "hey, no one would believe me if I tried to convince them of this" I would be on board moreso than them actually trying to convince the authorities of it right away.
Other things of amusement: our reluctant hitman thinking 80 degrees is scorching, Jess "puckering her lips" when pursed lips was right there and less clunky, said hitman not realizing until it was too late that helping kill someone is a bigger crime than less than legal gambling, and the Evil Studio Head not realizing that killing a bunch of people in an effort to keep the Suicide still thought of as a suicide would actually make it look more like a murder, or at least garner more attention, to say nothing of the fact that I don't even think the 90's would've had people thinking Julia fucking Roberts (or a fictionalized version of her) would jump out of a building on set, during a stunt gone wrong, and think suicide and not, well, stunt gone wrong.
Seriously, how many Hollywood sets have inadvertently gotten people, even their stars, killed? I can't think of too many (any?) where the first thought was suicide and not negligence. I realize the book does try and point out that duh, of course the studio is pushing the suicide angle and not the negligence/tragic accident thing but... seriously? It's one of those things where two narratives would spin out at the same time and one would be the ~official~ and the other would be what everyone else thought at the time as they all waited for the officials to, you know, drop the act.
Then again, I'm not sure anyone reads SV anything for realism and this book did start out trying to convince us that a scene from a movie trailer was actually happening in the book sooooooo... let that set the tone for the rest of the book, I suppose.
This felt very much like an extreme popcorn book, right from the start. I do appreciate that it did take time to try and ground things at least a little (Jess calling back to something traumatic that happened to her to try and help Liz with her grief/trauma), although those moments were few and far between and also really highlighted how fucking bonkers the rest of the book was. Like Jess can take a moment to remember her assault, but nearly being gunned down at the coffee house was only good for a momentary freakout before we return to normal Jessica programing? Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. I did enjoy our brief visit with Izzy and Lila because they're fabulous and we rarely get enough of them. (Li deciding that maybe she should give Matt a week to mourn his beloved's death before she hits on him and obviously Bruce would understand because hello, Matt is a movie star! is classic Lila.)
I think I could forgive more in this book if it pretended to have Hollywood act anything like reality. The bar for reality in Hollywood, even 90's Hollywood, is fairly low, but we still managed to limbo right underneath. I'm glad we didn't have Jess and Matt declaring their love for each other since that would seriously cheapen Julia's death and also, y'know, he's too old for Jess.
Seriously though, this book thought there could be an attempted murder at the Oscars and bedlam wouldn't ensue? WTF. Especially when paired with two other deaths in such a short period of time.
Of course, this book also thought we'd have our hired killer go from not wanting to hurt or kill anyone (and feeling genuinely sick and remorseful over the part he played in the deaths) to just going balls to the wall cuckoo and wanting to just off everyone. I mean, I guess maybe he snapped but it comes across less like a snap and more like we subbed in another person entirely.
I guess I should also take back my crack about 80 not being scorching since it's either February or really early March but nah. And rejoice, book, for you get my first partial star rating here on GR. Huzzah!
On a superficial note, I do love this cover more than I should.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 12, 2018
Taking a break from the normal ups and downs of the Sweet Valley gang at Sweet Valley University, this thriller edition will keep you on the edge of your seats. And if you’re not that into scary books, feel free to skip this one and move onto For the Love of Ryan without missing anything in the regular timeline. The thriller editions are like “extra credit” and never include critical plot points.
Elizabeth, the studious journalist that she is, develops a conspiracy theory about why a famous movie star has mysteriously “committed suicide”. The trouble is, her theory is completely correct! Hollywood big wigs are desperate to stop her article from reaching a wider audience, and while they chase her—and she, well, runs for her life—other lives hang in the balance. As is what usually happens in these books, quite a few ancillary characters don’t make it through, but don’t worry yourself too much about the regular crowd. The next book finds them on summer vacation!
http://hottoastyrag.weebly.com/svu-20...
Elizabeth, the studious journalist that she is, develops a conspiracy theory about why a famous movie star has mysteriously “committed suicide”. The trouble is, her theory is completely correct! Hollywood big wigs are desperate to stop her article from reaching a wider audience, and while they chase her—and she, well, runs for her life—other lives hang in the balance. As is what usually happens in these books, quite a few ancillary characters don’t make it through, but don’t worry yourself too much about the regular crowd. The next book finds them on summer vacation!
http://hottoastyrag.weebly.com/svu-20...
January 24, 2016
It was alright. Basically, Elizabeth the genius, wrote a murder plot (of actress, Julia Reynolds) based on her hunches (theories) and thorough research. Anyhow, this article which was only meant to be an assignment landed in the hands of her professor's ex-colleague (who is now an editor or something?).
This story shows the relationship and the involvement of the entertainment world (Hollywood and higher-ups), the media and the police force in a series of murder.
Anyway, Elizabeth and Jessica is on the run - away from the ruthless murderer (who is forced to make his first killing, Julia Reynold) to silence them from revealing the truth.
During their run, the twins are helped by movie star and also Julia Reynold's fiance, Matt Barron. (Who develops (a little) feelings for Jessica).
Overall: The book was okay, it just reminds me of the book where the twins were running away from a "murderer" in Paris. I think this book lacks a twist (and suspense)...
Totally un-expected moment of the book (spoilers): Elizabeth being un-Elizabeth when she points out to the ten-year old kid, the culprit who "actually" puked on him.
This story shows the relationship and the involvement of the entertainment world (Hollywood and higher-ups), the media and the police force in a series of murder.
Anyway, Elizabeth and Jessica is on the run - away from the ruthless murderer (who is forced to make his first killing, Julia Reynold) to silence them from revealing the truth.
During their run, the twins are helped by movie star and also Julia Reynold's fiance, Matt Barron. (Who develops (a little) feelings for Jessica).
Overall: The book was okay, it just reminds me of the book where the twins were running away from a "murderer" in Paris. I think this book lacks a twist (and suspense)...
Totally un-expected moment of the book (spoilers): Elizabeth being un-Elizabeth when she points out to the ten-year old kid, the culprit who "actually" puked on him.
January 25, 2016
It was alright. Basically, Elizabeth the genius, wrote a murder plot (of actress, Julia Reynolds) based on her hunches (theories) and thorough research. Anyhow, this article which was only meant to be an assignment landed in the hands of her professor's ex-colleague (who is now an editor or something?).
This story shows the relationship and the involvement of the entertainment world (Hollywood and higher-ups), the media and the police force in a series of murders.
Anyway, Elizabeth and Jessica is on the run - away from the ruthless murderer (who is forced to make his first killing, Julia Reynold) who wants to silence them before they can reveal the truth.
During their run, the twins are helped by movie star and also Julia Reynold's fiance, Matt Barron. (Who develops feelings for Jessica).
Overall: The book was okay, it just reminds me of the book where the twins were running away from a "murderer" in Paris. I think this book lacks a twist (and suspense)... Totally unexpected moment of the book (spoilers): Elizabeth being unElizabeth when she points out to the ten-year old kid, the culprit who "actually" puked on him.
This story shows the relationship and the involvement of the entertainment world (Hollywood and higher-ups), the media and the police force in a series of murders.
Anyway, Elizabeth and Jessica is on the run - away from the ruthless murderer (who is forced to make his first killing, Julia Reynold) who wants to silence them before they can reveal the truth.
During their run, the twins are helped by movie star and also Julia Reynold's fiance, Matt Barron. (Who develops feelings for Jessica).
Overall: The book was okay, it just reminds me of the book where the twins were running away from a "murderer" in Paris. I think this book lacks a twist (and suspense)... Totally unexpected moment of the book (spoilers): Elizabeth being unElizabeth when she points out to the ten-year old kid, the culprit who "actually" puked on him.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 29, 2014
SWEET VALLEY UNIVERSITY
Written by Francine Pascal
General Review for series as I cannot remember each novel.
I read Sweet Valley University when I was in junior high school to high school. While there is sexual content it is very mild (not explicit) compared to teen books today. If you like the Sweet Valley High you will love this series as it continues with the twins' story as they attend University and are away from their parents. I am not sure how they would relate to teens today as this was before cell phones were common and social media. They are fun teen romances with "real-life" situation. I did not complete the series as I started to save for school so I wasn't able to collect them any further (they are out of print). I still have the books I bought and may try to read one again (I did reread the series a few times).
Written by Francine Pascal
General Review for series as I cannot remember each novel.
I read Sweet Valley University when I was in junior high school to high school. While there is sexual content it is very mild (not explicit) compared to teen books today. If you like the Sweet Valley High you will love this series as it continues with the twins' story as they attend University and are away from their parents. I am not sure how they would relate to teens today as this was before cell phones were common and social media. They are fun teen romances with "real-life" situation. I did not complete the series as I started to save for school so I wasn't able to collect them any further (they are out of print). I still have the books I bought and may try to read one again (I did reread the series a few times).
January 3, 2011
I grew up reading all the Sweet Valley Twins books but this is the first one that felt like it was more of a "grown-up" read and had much better writing. The plot was intense and very creative
June 22, 2013
I have read so many of these books I can't remember all of them.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews