I used to read Sweet Valley High when I was in college. Back then loved every edition. I looked it up; I started reading the series late since it began in 1983, and I was in college in the early 1990s.
Saying Good Bye (Sweet Valley High book 23) is when Elizabeth Wakefield's longtime steady boyfriend Todd's father gets transferred to Burlington, Vermont, at the other end of the country as Elizabeth and Todd live in Sweet Valley, California. Elizabeth acts like a fool the whole time, as if it is the worst thing not having Todd there every day. She spends every day writing letters to Todd, and they have frequent phone conversations; the rest of the time, when she isn't writing or phoning to Todd, Elizabeth is pining over him.
Jessica, Elizabeth's well-meaning twin, wants Elizabeth to get out of the house with friends and date other boys. So, when Todd makes a surprise call, and Elizabeth isn't home, Jessica tells Todd that her twin sits at home and has given up going out with her friends and sits at home sad.
Todd doesn't want Elizabeth to feel that way; he wants her to be happy because he loves her and wants her to live an everyday teenage life of going out with friends. To achieve this plan, he stops writing and is always conveniently unavailable to talk to her on the phone when she calls.
Jessica told Todd this because she is waiting in the wings with another of her schemes. The scheme is to get Elizabeth together with Nicholas Morrow, who has always loved Elizabeth.
Nicholas pursues Elizabeth, and it doesn't take long before she agrees to go out with him "as friends" and then starts to think maybe when they go out, she may consider dating him.
Then Lila Fowler, one of the wealthiest girls in Sweet Valley, has a pool party on the vast Fowler estate, and Elizabeth goes with Nicholas Morrow as her date. They share a romantic dance under the stars.
Little did Elizabeth know that Todd came home for a brief visit. He found Elizabeth in a romantic dance with her head on Nicholas' shoulder. Elizabeth noticed Todd and went running to him. Todd was upset and ran off and left Elizabeth at the party.
Read this book to see if Elizabeth and Todd get back together or do she and Nicholas become Sweet Valley's newest couple. Or did Elizabeth hurt both Todd and Elizabeth badly?
I liked this book better when I read it back in college. I kept thinking that Elizabeth and Todd had their whole life ahead of them. Very few people find true love as a sixteen-year-old junior in high school. I, still at my age, have never seen that kind of love, and I am over thirty years older than her!
I loved Jessica's plan to set Steven up with a lady from the dating service where she worked. That was the best part of the book. The ladies Jessica chose couldn't have turned out more outrageous!
This book would probably have been a five-star back when I was a 19-year-old college student, but as an adult in her 50s, I thought it was 2 1/2 but rounded it up to 3 for nostalgia reasons as it reminded me of my younger years.