Broken Promises, Shattered Dreams

Sweet Valley University #19

by Francine Pascal (Creator), Laurie John

Where do we go from here?

Billie Winkler and Steven Wakefield are having a baby! But Steven's joy quickly turns to misery when Billie tells him that marriage is not the only option. Will this mean the end of Billie and Steven?

Now that she owns her own clothing business, Jessica Wakefield's life is perfect. But then her flirty partner, Val Tripler, and scheming ex-husband, Mike AcAllery, disappear with all the company's borrowed money. How will Jessica find her way out of this one?

Lila Fowler's sick of her freeloading friends! She opens a nonprofit doughnut shop to help the neighbourhood, and her friends help themselves to all the free food. Can Lila keep her store without losing her friends?

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Teen, Chick Lit, Romance

232 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

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

[LC]

I didn’t know you could break a mirror with a rock solid donut 😂

[Hira]

I remember reading this in the early years of my teenage and I loved the drama 😄 might just pick up the series because why da heck not? 🤷‍♀️

[Rachel]

What absolute chaos this book is.

[E.H. Nolan]

In the long array of teenage woes, there is one that hasn’t yet graced the pages of Sweet Valley University: unplanned pregnancy. I won’t tell you who gets pregnant, just in case you’re reading ahead and are not yet caught up in the series. But I will tell you that I absolutely loved how the book handled the news and the process of decision making. It’s so perfectly ’90s, and in my view, it can’t get any better.

Nowadays—in fiction, at least, and in circles where people are trying to act tolerant—the response to an unplanned pregnancy is an over joyous “Congratulations!”, an immediate belief that there is only one option available, and the father-to-be feigns excitement but postpones marriage for at least a year. In Broken Promises, Shattered Dreams, the mother-to-be isn’t immediately happy. Her friends are shocked, not ecstatic. The father-to-be suggests a wedding in two weeks. But, in the midst of the harried wedding planning, baby preparations, and mixture of family dynamics, the youngsters decide to discuss all their options. Maybe having a baby and changing all their plans isn’t the right decision. Getting married and having a child are very serious life changes, and the teens are frightened, worried, and angry that they’ve been trapped before their time. Both imagine scenarios of parenthood that show they’re thinking of the bigger picture—not just picking out a name and buying cute clothes. In the girl’s fantasy, her daughter grows up to be a rebellious teenager who dresses in ripped clothes, gets several tattoos, has a boyfriend named Cobra, and carries a gun. Not an unrealistic prediction from 1996.
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This is one of my favorite volumes of the series, and that’s a huge compliment! I loved each character’s reaction to the unplanned pregnancy, and the extremely fast-paced side plots moved the story along almost too quickly. As they usually do, the Sweet Valley gang shows maturity as they deal with serious issues. If I ever have a daughter, I’ll give her this book to read, regardless of whether or not she finds herself in such a difficult situation.

http://hottoastyrag.weebly.com/svu-19...

[Rachel Brand]

My school had a car boot sale before the summer holidays and this was one of the books which didn't sell. The librarian has no want for Sweet Valley books (and I don't blame her for it) so I took this and two others home with me to dwell in some nostalgia. I ended up taking this book with me to a summer school at the University of St. Andrews, just in case I needed some light reading. I ended up running out of books to read one evening when I didn't want to join in with all of the "Let's make everyone best friends and feel like part of a team" events, and this simply emphasised how unrealistic the student life depicted in SVU truly is! Despite this, I did quite enjoy reading about Lila's Doughnut shop (of course, all students own shops!) and Winston's crazy behaviour. I never read the early SVU books when I was a preteen so I was thoroughly confused by the lack of Sam, Neil and Chloe in these books. I was also pissed off by Billie's behaviour about her pregnancy. She was all, It's my pregnancy so I can abort it if I want! I completely agreed with Steven when he reminded her that it was HIS baby too. She was like an advert for the Women's Liberation Movement or something. Anyway, a fun read and my first swap on RiSi. 5/10

[Novelesque Life]

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).

[Sheila Read]

I remember the cover but just not the story