Trouble at Home

Sweet Valley High #65

by Francine Pascal (Creator)

There's trouble in the usually happy Wakefield household and Jessica, Elizabeth, and their brother, Steven, are caught in the middle.

Mrs. Wakefield is so busy at work that she's hardly ever home. When she is at home. When she is at home, all she and Mr. Wakefield seem to do is fight. Tensions increase when Mr. Wakefield decides to run for mayor of Sweet Valley and Mrs. Wakefield doesn't like the people backing him. They have a huge argument that just might end their marriage. Elizabeth, Jessica, and Steven can't do anything to help. Could this be the end of the perfect Wakefield family?

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Teen

137 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1990

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book via Kindle Unlimited.

Okay so as far as SVH books go, this one wasn't the worst. I'm not saying it was great, because let's be honest, are any of them? This book carries on where the previous one finished; Ned and Alice Wakefield's perfect marriage isn't so perfect after all as bickering and arguing between them escalates and the Wakefield home is no longer one of sickening optimism. Like we fully get a threat of divorce towards the end:

"Are you threatening me, Ned?" "All I'm saying is that I can't stand this anymore. If you leave now, you're leaving me. You're leaving our marriage."

Frankly, the drama of it all. We have Liz being annoying and trying her best to resolve problems that don't belong to her and Jessica being Jessica and not seeing further than her own nose. I am half way through this series, I can't give it up!!

[kylajaclyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Welcome to "Less Than Fucking Perfect" or SVH #65, "Trouble at Home."

Well, I am not surprised there is trouble at home (finally). Because Elizabeth is a meddler and supposed-saint who is always cheating on Todd when she's away from Sweet Valley; Jessica is a sociopathic/bipolar/borderline personality case; Steven is dating a stuck-up high-schooler the same age as his sisters and seeing the ghost of his former love everywhere; Ned and Alice don't pay any attention to their kids anyway, so no changes from that in this book.

Actually, I was surprised to hear there was ever trouble in the Wakefield home. This really puts a depressing spin on my childhood. What am I going to do knowing that Jessica and Elizabeth actually WEREN'T perfect?! They should be worried... after all, everyone with a broken home ends up dead or the basic equivalent of that.

So the story goes that Ned is being emo and vomiting his emotions out for all to see. He is complaining how much the law sucks lately and that nothing is happening. That's hilarious. He should be up to his chest in work with the amount of times his daughters get stalked by some crazy who is usually lured to them by Jessica. Nonetheless, he bitches and moans. Must be a slow week for crazies at the Wakefield house. Lo and behold, Maria Santelli's father all of a sudden (this book is very bipolar) finds himself embroiled in political scandal and needs Ned to bail him out so that he can still run for mayor... all this despite the fact that being a defense lawyer "isn't really my kind of work," says Ned. Pish posh! Law is law is law (or is it?) in Sweet Valley, so Ned takes on his case, causing tensions to strain further at the Wakefield house.

Though Ned constantly works long hours, he is not happy that his wife, Alice, has finally gotten a career breakthrough in her field (interior design). She misses at least six family dinners (goddddd the book was boring) with Ned bursting blood vessel after blood vessel in anger at his wife coming home ten minutes late. Things really fall apart when the judge for the Santelli trial dismisses the case due to lack of evidence on both sides. He drops out of the running for mayor and the men who were backing him traipse on over to Ned's house and ask him to run. Jessica eavesdrops on this conversation and later lets slip in front of Alice before he's had a chance to talk things over with everyone.

The book ends with everyone in Lake Tahoe after said incident about to ride horses but left hanging when Mrs. Wakefield has a work emergency and must run back to Sweet Valley. Ned says that if she walks out on them now, she is is walking out on their marriage. Way to be a drama queen, Ned. Liz laments that her family is falling apart and she'll somehow ingest cocaine and die like Regina did.

The subplot involves Jess, natch. She wants to think of something that Lila hasn't heard of in order to impressively one up her so-called best friend, and so when she sees an ad for a "party line" on the television, she gives it a ring and ignores the $1 a minute charges. She starts talking to this guy named Charlie and falls in love with his voice and how he tells her she "sounds blonde." I guess in the 80s that was a compliment. Jessica thinks, "Just wait until he sees how blonde I can be!" I'm not joking. I couldn't stop laughing. Charlie says he's written a poem for her but unfortunately we never get to see it. So of course Jessica is just in love with a voice but after some prodding from her friends she decides to bug Charlie about meeting her. He always comes up with convenient excuses about how he can't. I'm not able to read the next two books at the present time, but I guarantee you that Charlie is either a. a serial killer or b. completely ugly (to Jessica). I'm going with the latter because this isn't a special edition.

Until next time. :-)
You can find me by the ocean, working on my tan. Like, is anything more important?

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

If the last book didn't show us why the male Wakefields sucked clearly enough, this one cements their suckage firmly. Ned Wakefield, having some kind of midlife crisis about never making a difference in the world, agrees to represent his friend Peter Santelli, who is being investigated for bribery. He does this despite having no real training or experience in criminal defense law, and also either because he feels some sort of friendship/loyalty towards Maria's dad, but MOSTLY because he needs to feel important, since for the fist time ever, Alice Wakefield is actually being recognized on a professional level with her interior design firm when she's awarded a commercial contract for the new wing of the Sweet Valley mall. Rather than being proud of his hard-working wife, we learn that in Sweet Valley, women's jobs are still looked upon more as a familial inconvenience rather than as personal and professional accomplishments. And the twins and Steven, while they seem to kind of support their mom, also don't dissuade her of any of the guilt trips their dad and society seem to be hoisting onto her shoulders. The book is mostly about the Wakefield parents fighting over which one works too much and which one neglects their family too much, and considering their kids are 19 and 16, this seems kind of an absolutely stupid argument to be having in the first place (so, again- from my perspectiive, the fighting is more about his wife not fawning enough over Ned's bruised ego and sad sack feelings about his chosen profession, and not being willing to give up her own ambitions, than anything else). The subplot is about how Jessica meets a dude on a 1900 number teen chat line that apparently costs a buck an hour, which in today's money would be closer to 5 bucks an hour, but that plot line doesn't actually get resolved in this book-- I suspect the impending massive phone bill will happen in the next book, with the foreshadow-y title "Who's To Blame?", and from this book, I'd say the answer would be Ned for being a chauvinist, Steve for being a douchebag, and Jessica for being a self-serving superficial brat. Onto the next one- also just procured 4 of the 5 of the "Super Star" books, since they were released around the same time, am going to start with those as well. Onward.

[Jennifer]

I don't think i ever read this book as a child, as it wasnt as familiar to me. I didnt enjoy this as much as the previous sweet valley high book I read (Who's Who), but it did end on a cliff hanger so I am intrigued and want to pick up the next one

[MJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mom & Dad are fighting. Elizabeth blames herself and Jessica gets caught up with a fu@k boy on a party line ☎️
SVH GOLD!

[Rikita · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was OK. but i like sweet valley high books. they're not the best but they aren't awful either. i reccomend them.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hehehehe, Jessica calls a Party Line. That subplot alone makes this book worth reading. (That, and I'm sick and SVH is all I want to read right now. Sad but true.)

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't even know how you can rate this. I loved these books as a kid and decided to pick one at random to read yesterday. The writing is terrible, the plot is thin, and the characters aren't quite as interesting as I remember, BUT... I also loved re-reading this. Call it nostalgia or whatever you want, but it was a good way to kill 2 hours on a Sunday night when I wanted to read and didn't want to think very hard about anything.

Also: reading these as an adult is hilarious. There are so many things in this book that made me think, "WTF?" For example, in this one, the whole family is SO excited to go to a fundraising dinner for the mayoral candidate, which, for some reason, they all care a TON about (yo, Wakefields... maybe care more about who is being elected to your council). The twins aren't even old enough to vote, but that's no matter. They're both ridiculously invested in the SV mayoral race. Big bro Steven is also really into civics, so he decides to come home from college on a Monday night to attend this dinner. Sounds totally realistic. But that's not even the best part. He calls home to say that he just wants everyone to know he's waiting for his bus and then he'll get a taxi. Then it's noted, for absolutely no apparent reason, that the reason Steven can't drive himself home (since we're on the edge of our seats to find out) is because he was previously in a hang-gliding accident and can't drive right now. This detail never comes back up in the story. No one cares how he gets to and from school the rest of the time. Such a random detail.

Then there's Ned, being pissed off at Alice for everything she does, and Alice, being a jerk and always too distracted to call her family when she knows she's going to be 7 hours late getting home from work (mild exaggeration, but that's what everyone is so pissed about) because she's only got the biggest break of her entire career and Ned is so whiney like "what about ME, Alice." The Wakefields are way more entitled than I remember them being when I was 8 and reading these for the first time.

Tensions come to a head when the family is on a vacation in Tahoe and Alice can't get away from work (which we knew was going to happen because Elizabeth, against her better judgment, gave her mother's work the number for the main lodge where they were staying, so people just find her everywhere to say she has a phone call). Ned flips out and says that if Alice leaves to go deal with work, she's walking out on him and their family and their marriage. DRAMA!

Alice is just basically like "don't you threaten me. I WILL TURN THIS HORSE AROUND." And so she does. She literally gallops off, possibly leaving her family.

My favorite sub-plot (if you can call it that) is that Jessica has become obsessed with calling into a 1-900 number party line for teenagers every night. At $1/minute, which she basically ignores, she sometimes spends a half hour on the phone talking to her new invisible phone boyfriend, Charlie. But what gives? Charlie doesn't seem to actually want to meet her. Before we can find out if it's because he's a middle-aged man living with his father and 7 cats or if it's because he's horribly disfigured from a surfing accident in middle school, the book ends. Like everything else, there is no resolution. Just that cliff-hanger at the end telling you to pick up the next book.

Also, for absolutely no reason, when Ned can't save Mr. Santelli (as they all call the mayoral candidate about whom they're so invested) in an absurdly timed trial where he may or may not have accepted bribes but nothing is ever proven even though he's charged the day someone suspects it and a full-blown trial starts about 18 hours after that.... Bruce Patman's dad, old moneybags Patman, shows up with some other guy and is like "Ned, we've given this a lot of thought and you should be mayor of Sweet Valley!" Why? What qualifies him? The world may never know. But he spends most of the rest of the book brooding about it and getting pissed off at Alice for not being there for him to talk to because she is a working lady. All the mamas who profit dollas, throw your hands up at me.

Most of the time, I kept thinking about how different the book would be if they had AOL chat rooms, not to mention cell phones. With text messaging. Or social media. They DID have car phones, though, so I guess that's pretty cutting edge for 1990.

So if I rated this on writing style and technical details.... yeah, that's a low rating. If I rated this on the humor value, nostalgia, and amusement I got from spending a couple of hours reading it one night? Pretty high.

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trouble At Home
Alice is trying to get the contract to design a new wing in Valley Mall and is at home less and less. Peter Santelli is also running for mayor. But not long into the campaign he gets accused of accepting bribes. Jess tries to get the dirt from Maria, but of course, she says he’s innocent. Not surprisingly Lila, Amy, and Jess start to shun her because of this.

Jess gets jealous because of the new, video, camera Lila got and tries to one-up her by telling her about the teen line she saw advertised on TV.

Later at home, Ned tells them that money was deposited into Peter’s bank account, but he thinks he’s innocent. Ned is asked to take Peter’s case. He’s hesitant at first because he’s kind of growing out of love with law, and he has doubts that he’s the best person for the job. Alice doesn’t help by bringing up he might need to take a break from law. (This pushes him to take the case).

Jess (because the attention isn’t on her and she’s tired of listening to her parents argue) goes to her room. On the teen line, she meets some kids. Particularly a guy named Charlie, that she hits it off with right away.


Later on at dinner, Alice announces she got the contract and she’ll be heading the project. Instead of being a loving, husband, and supporting his wife’s accomplishments Ned just bitches at her because she didn’t consult him.

There’s an event Mr. Wakefield is mad at Alice they won’t be able to attend. They argue. Jess runs to her escape (Charlie and the teen line) and she falls a little harder for him when he feeds her some game. She feels like the shit because he’s all into her and not one of the other girl’s Sara.

Things aren’t going good with Ned and the trial because there’s no evidence to prove that Peter was framed and it looks like his chances are down the drain for being mayor (and he might possibly be arrested).

Charlie chats Jess up some more. This time he tries to figure out how she looks. She gets the bomb drop of a guy on the line that the phone service is a dollar a minute.

Now that Alice is busy with the mall project and Ned with the trial, this leaves all the adult responsibilities to fall in Liz’s lap (like the grocery shopping).

Alice stands Ned up on a planned date and gives Liz the job of messenger. (Then she dips). Steve comes home and tells them he’ll be using the trial for a ethics project.

Liz catches on to what Jess is doing and lets her have it over running up money on the phone line. (She shouldn’t have wasted her breath). Even Amy is skeptical until she lets her listen in on the teen line. She’s impressed, but still. Until Jess can verify his hotness she makes Amy swear she won’t tell Lila.

Liz plans to prepare this big dinner for her family only it’s ruined. Alice is late. Ned is pissy because he lost the case (it got suspended). Then he starts blaming himself. Alice comes home and doesn’t hide her good mood (and when she tries its too late). Ned storms out of the room leaving Liz and Alice.

Jess thinks Alice should be living it up, but Alice tries to play down her success because her husband is being an ass (Is this what I “missed out on” by not getting married?) Liz tells her that she should try to include him by talking to him more (Alice doesn’t do this and probably sees it as rubbing it in his face making it worse). Ned is now miserable because people won’t shut up about the case.

Alice comes home late again (I think some of this is on purpose) and Ned is going off because she didn’t call. She apologizes and asks about his day, and he bitches on and on about the trial. Then Peter calls and tells him he’s dropping out of the race. (Looks like Ned’s about to get the change he was just complaining about a second earlier).

Jess clearly isn’t bothered by the tension in her parent's marriage, because it’s keep their mind off her and she can run their phone bill sky high. Jess tries to impress Lila by bringing up Charlie, but her mind is on a girl named Lane (and getting dirt on her). Jess calls Charlie again -and is throwed when his dad answers- she suggests they meet. He puts her off and gives her a bs excuse (NOT A GOOD SIGN!).

Alice convinces Ned to go to a lawyer, frat, and dinner (they have those?). They all go, but all the lawyers want to talk about is Alice’s contract. Again, Ned is pissed! To add salt to injury, one random lawyer insinuates Ned is a lil punk and should be home sobbing like a lil biotch. (Well he does kind of act like one in this whole story). He *to prove my point* blows up at Alice for her telling him to just let it go.

Mr. Patman and some guy names James Knapp show up and whisper some sweet nothings in Ned’s ear about him campaigning for mayor. Ned is flattered but says he’ll have to talk it over with his family. Of course, Jess ruins this because she overhears them talking and tells Liz. Every year all the Wakefields go to Lake Tahoe for a family vacation. Jessica isn’t really thinking about anything other how upset she is because every time she tries to meet Charlie something comes up. She tells him she’ll ditch the vacation. He tells her not to.

Alice isn’t sure she’ll be able to make the trip because of her project commitment (and all of em seem pretty useless without her). But Elizabeth gets Alice’s employee to convince her into going. Only she gives them a number to call in case an emergency arises.

Ned makes a rule that there will be no work of any kind of the vacation. The vacation is rocky. Jess spills the beans that Ned is running for mayor. They decide to put off talking about until later. Alice ignores the no-work rule and starts doing paperwork during a family game night and for the umpteenth time Ned gets upset and goes to bed.

It all comes to a head when they all plan to go horse-backing right and Julia calls. When she comes back, she announces she has to leave. Ned has had it up to her and tells her to make a choice. It’s them or her design team. Alice leaves. He tells her that if she goes she’s leaving their marriage to (she still goes) DAMN!

My Thoughts:
A little shocking this read was. I never made it this far in the series. What I did when I was into these books is I would read random ones *I went by the loos of the covers that most appealed to me*.

All married couples (and couples) fight, but this series is just so “SWEET VALLEY” that up until this point Alice and Ned never so much as raised their voices to each other. So to see this huge gap of reality kick in felt like I wasn’t even in the same series. I was thinking are they actually going to get a divorce.

Ned tho finally earns his spot in the hall of loser SVH males because in this book he frankly acts like a little biotch. This whole, entire, book is just him being pissy with Alice because he isn’t man enough to get out of his own feelings about his *failure* and acknowledge his wife’s success instead of nitpicking at her for small bs like “Why didn’t you call?” I thought that once you got married (well SHOULD) you’ve pretty much got out of this phase where your insecure and want your partner to check in all the time if you’re a little late.

The only thing that I could relate to about Ned was how he growing tired of being a lawyer (and had grown disconnect with it) and needed a change. THAT I GET!

I do think although Alice *did* try to compensate by holding back her feelings not to step on his, but she was WRONGE to choose her job over her family and her husband (albeit the way he was acting). Those people were not going to die if they couldn’t get the color scheme the perfect shade of sunshine yellow for the tiles of the new wing in the Valley Mall. And then what kind of team is this that if one person leaves the whole operation breaks down? But then again you know what? I really can’t say anything because my job did that. One time I remember the lady that was over our scheduling was absent and there was ABSOLUTELY no direction and no communication to our whole team, So yeah, it happens!

As for Charlie, I just shake my head because sadly I’ve been there. I fell for a *voice* and when I saw the image behind the voice. I know you’re not supposed to talk about people but when I tell you this person would have given ol Flava a run for his money! You just can NOT trust someone that you have not meet yet IN PERSON! People LIE ALL THE TIME! Even if they are attractive nine times out of ten something is definitely gonna fall short about who they say they are!

Rating: 6

[K.L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things are tense at the Wakefield home. Alice has taken on a huge new interior designing job, and has no time for her family, while Ned is disillusioned by his law career, even more when his friend, mayoral candidate Mr Santelli is accused of embezzlement and the case gets dismissed. Ned is convinced to run for mayor, but doesn't tell Alice. It all comes to a head at their annual Lake Tahoe retreat, after Liz (with the best of intentions) gives Alice's work the phone number of the lodge - a BIG no no, and the weekend is disturbed by all the calls from her work. The final straw is when Alice decides to leave the Lake earlier than the others to get back to work. Ned freaks out and issues her an ultimatum...leave now, and you leave this marriage!!!! This will lead into the next two books. Alice was a total asshat in this book , she really didn't seem to care that she'd virtually abandoned her family, but Ned doesn't exactly score brownie points for being sensitive and understanding either. Those poor Wakefield kids😢

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things are tense in the Wakefield household. Jessica is racking up the phone bill charges by calling this party line. Mrs Wakefield is working all the time because her design firm is designing the new mall. Elizabeth is watching her family fall apart and is desperately trying to hold it together. Mr Wakefield is being a jerk and going through a midlife crisis. Ned decides law isn’t satisfying then decides to represent his friend Peter Santelli even though that’s not his area of expertise, then decides he’s going to run for mayor with help from Hank Patman. He’s mad that his wife is more successful then him and the book ends with him ending the marriage. It’s hard to care when I know this will be neatly resolved in a few books and then will be forgotten and never brought up again.

[ThymeOperator · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ned is a terrible husband out of nowhere, and it's completely out of character. Such outdated views on women. Alice isn't perfect, but come on, guys. Having her need to downplay her achievements because he feels lost? No thanks. Women have been dealing with that nonsense for millennia. Maybe if the book were aiming to show that he was an ass...but everyone sides with him. Alice is the enemy. No one supports her while she struggles to be all things to all people and try to follow her dream. The ending feels like Ned just decided overnight to destroy their marriage after zero prior problems. It was hard to believe and very rushed, even by SV standards.

Jessica's telephone romance is an amusing slice of life before the internet. I bet Charlie is a total geek.

[Carla Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trouble at home

So Liz thinks that her parents aren’t seeing each other’s povs because they’re not listening to each other, but mostly it’s Ned being a dick. He tries to make his wife cook a gourmet meal and is furious she doesn’t and is literally jealous that people admire her work. Alice even says she knows he needs “attention right now”.

[Sharron kurland · Rating 2 out of 5]

These books just keep getting worse. They were so light snd fun in the beginning but now they are just going off the rails. Different writers, writing styles, annoying storylines… but I’m going to keep reading out of curiosity and nostalgia reasons. At least for now.

[Dr. Aditi Kapoor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this trilogy. Read it after a long time but was worth it. It's the one in which Alice and Ned have too many differences and even end up separating for a while. Liz feels ignoring Todd is the way to go about it while Jess decides to take advantage visit focus on the her first priority: boys, through hotlines in this case! Steven keeps coming home. Ned is experiencing a midlife crisis while Alice is busy and thriving, not the best of combination. Liz meddles and tries to take more responsibility than is her business which just increases the messy situation each time.

[Carrie (123*) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading this one. It made me reminisce about my teen years. It ends on a cliffhanger so I need to find the next book.

[Jodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I simply adore these and I will never hide from that. I loved that they were relevant to me as a kid. I lived vicariously through the Wakefield twins and they had some awesome adventures.

[KLB · Rating 3 out of 5]

good

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember the cover just not the story.

[Ashley Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The one where we learn where Elizabeth inherited her super douchiness from...