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Sweet Valley High #49

Playing for Keeps

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Split personality...

Jessica Wakefield is head over heels in love with handsome A.J. Morgan. She knows he likes her, but Jessica's convinced he'd really fall in love with her if she were studious and reserved, like her twin, Elizabeth. So Jessica sets out to change her personality completely.

But her plans are threatened when she hears about a fashion contest she just knows she could win. How can she compete and still be the shy, sweet girl that A.J. thinks she is? When the contest turns into a battle to keep A.J. as well as a competition for a designer wardrobe, Jessica has to make some difficult decisions. Will the old Jessica reappear—and risk losing A.J.—or is the quiet, serious new Jessica here to stay?

165 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1988

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405 people want to read

About the author

Francine Pascal

1,140 books1,851 followers
Francine 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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5 stars
143 (17%)
4 stars
188 (23%)
3 stars
369 (45%)
2 stars
82 (10%)
1 star
21 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
Profile Image for Tara.
454 reviews
January 9, 2024
Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.

In this one, Jessica attempts to behave in her most Elizabeth-like fashion in order to impress the new boy in town, who’s all smart and studious and shit. You know, boring. Naturally, not only does this not work, but it leads to hilarious results such as the following:

Here she is, at the beach, trying to sound all deep:

Her mind raced as she desperately tried to think of what her twin would talk about. She drew a deep breath. “Isn’t it amazing how those same waves came all the way from Japan? Or is it China? Or—I mean, it makes you realize how close but—but how far away, I mean…” She let her words trail off, unsure of exactly what she was trying to say. In agony she gave him a hopeful smile.

So close, Jess!

And then, later, at the Dairi Burger:

“You’re looking pretty serious.” A.J.’s voice broke gently into her reverie. He was smiling at her in a way that made her heart race. She blushed. “Oh, I was just thinking about—about nuclear war.”

Jessica Wakefield!!! 🤣

And last but not least, here’s the bird she invented when she was trying to convince A.J. she’s a dedicated nature lover who’s all about bird watching:

“The green-crested pod-eater.”

Sounds like a creature from Labyrinth, right?

Anyway, she eventually gets back to who she really is thanks to a bitchy rival provoking the shit out of her at a fashion show, but IMO the best stuff in this one was when Jessica was trying her hardest to sound all studious and serious and deep. I mean, she even took to writing poetry! Loved it.
Profile Image for Susan.
2,040 reviews61 followers
January 22, 2020
This one was a painful, slow read for an SVH- Jessica pretends to be "serious" because she thinks AJ won't like her if she were to just behave like herself. So she makes a lot of cringeworthy and vague statements about things like world hunger and the Peace Corps and homework and writes some horrifyingly bad poetry and acts like she enjoys hiking. AJ gets bored. So does everyone reading the book, because it just drags on and on and on. Until Jess has a chance to win a wardrobe from Lisette's if she can "win a fashion show" (apparently, that's a thing?), so after hemming and hawing about entering the fashion show contest thing (because AJ may not think that was serious enough? Because AJ, with all his depth because he has red hair and brown eyes, must be very serious? I don't know. It's bad), she winds up getting into a catfight with a random private school slut who flung herself at AJ after he saved her from drowning (or something like that- again- very, very bad story line in this one), Lila and Amy hot-mic her giving a verbal beatdown to the chick who dares try to move in on Jess Wakefield's man (and free wardrobe prize). I didn't like this SVH at all. Was a big disappoinment after the awesomeness of Special Christams. One sad star. Hoping 50 is better.
Profile Image for Connie.
1,606 reviews25 followers
January 4, 2018
Title: Playing for Keeps
Series Sweet Valley High #49

We've been through 49 books of Jessica acting like a looper, why should we be shocked that she's doing it again? It took Liz nearly dying to act like Jessica, however, all it takes for Jess to calm down and act like her sister is a boy? And the boy thinks she's boring as hell, so he almost gets it on with a girl who has boobs slightly bigger than the average nothing at sweet valley high. But because you're girlfriend is acting kind of boring, it doesn't really count, right?

If I didn't have a goal to finish this series this year, I probably would've given up by now to be honest!
Profile Image for gem.
758 reviews20 followers
December 26, 2018
Good god, Jessica is a total nightmare normally but at least she’s got some backbone and stands up for herself.
Not so in this instalment, she’s basically the opposite of Sandy from grease - she makes herself all meek and mild and even Liz thinks she’s being boring.
I like Jess when she’s being a psychopath and manipulating people it’s much funnier!
Profile Image for K.L..
Author 2 books16 followers
December 15, 2021
This time Jess has an accidental personality change - new boy AJ has her so flustered that she's behaving more like her boring twin Elizabeth - and AJ seems to like it! What's worse, is that Liz decides to start acting like JESS and is flirting with AJ much to his (and everyone elses) distress
Very amusing to see a demure Jess!!!
Profile Image for em.
154 reviews15 followers
August 28, 2023
Wow, thank you so much Francine Pascal for this piece of work. Truly the cringiest book I've read this year, and I mean that as a compliment. This was so bad but in a good way. Would've been better if Jessica and Pamela got together instead though, AJ is boring. I hope that in future books, Elizabeth picked a better hobby than playing the damn recorder.
Profile Image for The Book Squirrel.
1,636 reviews15 followers
May 10, 2019
I read a few of these when I was in high school. At the time, I thought they were ok, although some of Jessica's antics were a bit scandalous to a young teen! From what I remember looking back on them, I would put them in the trash as an adult and certainly not recommend them to teen girls.
Profile Image for Kortney Hill.
391 reviews37 followers
July 9, 2022
Pretty good, the Jessica focused books are never my favorite.
Profile Image for Heidi.
331 reviews7 followers
January 20, 2025
This sucked until the end with the fashion show.
Profile Image for Jaclyn.
2,590 reviews5 followers
September 27, 2025
So much fun! A different type of Jessica Wakefield scheme, and the moment when was so satisfying to read.
Profile Image for Tiffany Spencer.
2,001 reviews19 followers
November 25, 2022
Playing for Keeps
Here we go AGAIN! Jessica has her sights on the new boy AJ Morgan from Georgia. AJ has fallen for Jessica too thinking she’s not the normal, aggressive, SVH girl. Much like in Playing with Fire when she was head over heels in love with Bruce she starts to act very similarly. She agrees with everything he says. She goes wherever he wants to go (hiking) and some out-of-character places that she’d NEVER go (the library) and starts writing (bad) poetry.

She even tones down her clothes and starts dressing like Elizabeth. She thinks this is the girl he’s fallen for but he starts to get bored with her because she’s always so serious. She actually makes him go to a Saving the Whales meeting and when there alone starts talking about the ozone layer and suggest maybe they shouldn’t eat for a week to be in tune with the people who don’t have enough to eat.

While they’re on the beach one day, AJ hears someone drowning and rushes in to save them. It turns out to be a knockout by the name of Pamela, who doesn’t make it a secret she wants AJ -and not just to discuss world issues with-.

Because he’s a guy -and they tend to think they want one thing and when they get it they want the opposite- hes turned on by Pamela, but he holds back because even though Jessica is boring him out of his mind he’s still dating her- and I kinda like him for that-.

Everyone around her is giving her hints like chill. Your gonna lose him, (especially Liz) but she makes her promise not to tell him who she really is. She knows she’s in too deep to change back or she’ll look crazy. This *is* kind of true!

Pamela is that kind of bitchy, trick, that’s not beneath making a play for another girl’s man so she invites him to her mansion and tells him she has his towel. He tries to tell her to keep it, but she says her parents want to meet him. Only when he gets there they’re out of town. (And I’m really surprised she didn’t open the door in some skimpy lingerie). AJ is tempted but doesn’t do what most guys would have probably done and gets the hell out of there. She asks him to take her to a dance at her school and he promises her he’ll think about it.

There’s a contest coming up at Lisette’s -one of Jessica’s favorite stores in the mall-. And Elizabeth, Lila, Cara, and Amy convince her to enter because the prize is a custom-made wardrobe. So, she does, but guess who else is also entering? Pamela.


Lila and Amy think that the best way to bring Jessica back is to bring up her fire by constantly talking about Pamela before the contest to make her SNAP and they convince Liz to do it too.

At the fashion show, Pamela sabotages piece after piece that Jessica is modeling. She gets down the last piece-a of see-through swimsuit- and the old Jessica is BACK! She tells Pamela off and tells she looks good in everything and thanks for allowing her to prove it. And she gets her man. She won’t tell us what was said but it’s clear he’s not going anywhere!

My Thoughts:
This is actually one of the ones I owned so I remember it well. Especially “I can look good in anything. Thanks for helping me prove it!”

Stepford Jessica made me roll my eyes. Like we haven’t seen this before with Bruce Patman. But for some reason, I liked this one. I don’t know maybe it was AJ because he remained loyal to Jessica. Even though he was thick because he couldn’t see what Pamela’s game was.

But then you know what I’ve learned men sometimes are. Someone I’m close to fell for the VERY same trap from a woman and walked into it head first. AJ didn’t allow himself to get to caught up and that impressed me for a high school guy. Any other one would have had her sundress off and on the floor. Pamela reminds me a lot of Amy. They could be friends.


Or maybe I liked this book because any book with fashions and Jessica has proven to be a good one in the series. Unlike her attempts with schemes the ones that display her passion for clothes and descriptions of her clothes go over well with me!

It was satisfying to see Pamela get hers in the end and to see that not all men (boys) can be swayed by big boobs and a nice figure. This may possibly be one of the ones I found the most favorable.


Rating: 8
And the moral of the story you don't need to be fake and perpetrate to get a man (or woman). Just be the real you!
Profile Image for kylajaclyn.
705 reviews55 followers
January 19, 2016
Welcome to "If Sweet Valley were a Tale of Two Liz-es" or #49, Playing for Keeps.
Remember back in book #7, Dear Sister, when Elizabeth came out of her coma only to act like Jessica??? Well, as it turns out, Jessica doesn't need a coma to act like Elizabeth. However, it's not near as entertaining to see Jess act like Liz, if only because Liz doesn't really need a taste of her own medicine the way Jess does... she may be a pushover at times, but she is not a sociopath.
However, Liz is nauseating in this one, once again agreeing to keep a promise and refusing to break it. In this case, she promises Jess she will not tell A.J. that Jess is acting like a complete loon. Of course you didn't expect Jess's personality transformation to be over something important, such as actually saving whales, did you? Of course not. She wants A.J. Morgan, but she doesn't think he wants tramps like her that come on too strong, so she decides that being Liz would be better. (I'm assuming this conclusion was reached as well from the previous book, Slam Book Fever, which my library does not have so I have not read).
It seems that good old A.J. (actually, he really annoyed me more than most SVH guys) does like this shy, quiet Jessica at first. But then we learn he's starting to think she's boring as sin. Enter Pamela Janson, a "voluptuous" (I'm guessing more than size 6??) girl from another school. (This is because voluptuous people do not attend SVH. And, of course, Pamela ends up being a bitch because she is not a perfect size 6).
A.J. is a fucktard, because after he rescues Pamela from "drowning" he actually goes over to her house to get his towel back and falls for her ploy of meeting her parents (who turn out not to be there at all). He has to resist the boner in his pants at the sight of Pamela. I don't blame him. I mean, he's still an ass, but I'd get sick of looking at the perfect size 6's of SVH as well.
The nifty plot device to get Jess back to being a sociopathic whore (Liz actually says she misses her manipulative ways) is a fashion show from Lisette's, where the winner will get a custom designed wardrobe from Nadine, whoever that is. Of course, Pamela the whore tries to destroy Jess which gives the writers the perfect opportunity to show how Jess can look good even in sabotaged clothing (she finally has to drop her Liz act). She ends up showing up Pamela (doy!) and winning A.J. Isn't A.J. the one that becomes "gay" with Steven in SV Confidential???
God I can't believe I read this stuff almost exclusively as a teen.
Profile Image for Tania.
1,463 reviews39 followers
February 20, 2017
My sisters and I loved the Sweet Valley High books when we were younger. This wasn't one of my favorites, but it is nice to revisit twins Elizabeth and Jessica and all their friends. Here we see Jessica toning down her natural personality in an effort to win a guy. Of course we all know this is a terrible mistake - as adults - but as a teenager it seems like a logical idea. While Jessica's friends try to talk her out of this crazy plan, another girl looks to swoop in to grab up Jess's dream guy.
Profile Image for PurplyCookie.
942 reviews205 followers
January 3, 2012
Jessica's at it again--falling head over heels over the newest boy in school. We were treated to a preview of the disaster that this relationship would turn out based on "Slam Book Fever (Sweet Valley High, #48)".

Somehow Jessica has this notion that A.J. Morgan's so great a guy that he cannot appreciate her for what she truly is. Well, let's face it: Jessica's the original Mean Girl. So she decided to be an even more boring version of Elizabeth. That worked out at first until she started boring the pants off the guy! Enter a more Jessica-like girl, Pamela, who was then out to snag A.J. for herself. Add to the mix the ultimate temptation to a self-styled fashionista: a fashion show from Lisette's, where the winner will get a custom designed wardrobe from designer Nadine.

Guess Jessica's inner diva shone through at the end. Since of course, Pamela tries to destroy Jess (by giving Pascal the perfect opportunity to show how Jess can look good even in sabotaged clothing)--thus causing Jess to finally has to drop her Liz act. And thank goodness, one Liz and Enid in SVH is bad enough.


More of Purplycookie’s Reviews @: http://www.goodreads.com/purplycookie


Book Details:

Title: Playing for Keeps (Sweet Valley High, #49)
Author: Francine Pascal
Reviewed By: Purplycookie
Profile Image for Marian.
877 reviews25 followers
June 1, 2009
So, this is where Jess and AJ pretty much officially get together. Except Jess is pretending to be this insane version of Liz [a preview, actually, of what Liz will become by the end of the series, minus the cheating. Go figure:] because she thinks AJ likes serious girls. And normally he does. But Jessica's version of serious involves discussing nuclear war, and writing bad poetry involving death [hey, sixteen year old girls are required by law to go through that phase:] and then having no opinion on anything. Ever. She's annoying to read about and she knows she's annoying, but she refuses to revert to real!Jessica.

Until Pamela shows up and tries to win AJ over by acting like a richer, bitchier version of Jessica. There's a fashion show and Lila Fowler acting like a real friend for once, so definitely required SVH reading.
Profile Image for Lydia Rose.
179 reviews
April 19, 2018
This book was okay, but it wasn't my favorite.

Jessica Wakefield has fallen in love with A.J. Morgan, but the girl she thinks he wants isn't the girl she is. In fact, in order to get A.J., she pretends to be more like her sister: quiet, shy, serious. It confuses all her friends, but she doesn't care. This is 'love'.

Unfortunately, A.J. doesn't exactly want the normal, serious girl that she's become; he wants a little more excitement in his life. Poor Jess isn't quite sure how to get him to like her again. Can she keep A.J. and still be her real self?

I'll let you read it to find out.
Profile Image for Hillary.
1,472 reviews24 followers
Read
February 26, 2015
Ya, alright, Jess pretending to be Liz - where have we seen that before. Oh, and Jess doing something zany to get the guy - this new material is killer SVH. It's a good thing the guy is so bland, boring, and utterly devoid of personality he doesn't recognize/mind the, umm, devious machinations of Wakefield #2.
Profile Image for Alex.
6,683 reviews1 follower
May 25, 2025
Re-read May 2025. Jessica is hilarious in this one.


Original review 3/20/17:

I'm finally feeling better, so my SVH read-a-thon will soon be coming to an end! I've had entirely too much fun re-reading these books.
Profile Image for Jodie.
2,295 reviews
October 24, 2010
never a dull moment in the Valley. It was great fun, the stories were entertaining and I loved the characters.
Profile Image for Sarah.
253 reviews2 followers
May 24, 2014
How to change yourself to get a man. Kate William must be writing for every woman's magazine on the market.
44 reviews
October 11, 2016
This book loses a point for its cover art. Jess isn't supposed to have a certain stereotypical '80s hairstyle.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews

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