No, I have not checked the children.

51. Babysitter’s Nightmare – Kate Daniels

The calls are coming from the posturing rich jerk. Anyway, Alice is dating a posturing rich “not jerk” who drives too fast and keeps trying to get her to cancel babysitting jobs so they can go on dates. But Alice is not cool with that because she wants to get money for college…that drive and motivation leads her to become the lead suspect when the people she regularly babysits for – and there are legion – get burgled. Alice does a terrible job of providing herself alibis by doing things like moping alone, riding her bike around alone, waiting up too long for her rich “not jerk” boyfriend (I can’t help putting that in quotes, I thought he was an entitled jerk regardless of what he was doing.), and not conferring nicely with her ex-boyfriend who has a police radio, Steve the electronics nerd.

The nicest aspect of this book was the detail put into the characters. Alice is technically boring, but driven to go to college and conscientious enough to really pay attention to the families she babysits for. Liz the bitch has a drinking problem. Steve the electronics nerd acts exactly like he should and has a nice relationship with Alice’s parents. Alice’s dad has a passion for jewelry making and takes it to the flea market. It also has what Joe Bob Briggs would call “crystal cat fu” that would not be possible without those little character quirks.

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Peregrine had a collection of Peeps (not fossilized candy or crystal though), she played a babysitter in paintings, but she never saved any money for college or had a rich jerk boyfriend.