My Best Friend's Boyfriend

Sweet Valley High #87

by Francine Pascal (Creator), Kate William

Denise Hadley is poised, elegant, and beautiful. Her best friend, Ginny Belasca, isn't any of these things, and she's always comparing herself to Denise. So when Ginny decides to do volunteer work for a teen phone hot line, Denise hopes that it will give Ginny some self-confidence.

It looks as if she's right when Ginny helps a guy named Mike, who says he wants to meet her in person! But now Ginny's terrified that her looks won't meet Mike's expectations. In desperation, she asks Denise to meet Mike in her place. Denise agrees and falls for Mike. Can Denise and Ginny's friendship survive a battle for the boy they both love?

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Teen, Childrens, Ebooks

156 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1992

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

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

We've officially reached the point in this series where I am 99% sure I never read any of these before- I grew out of them sometime in junior high, so these stories are all brand new to me. I don't recall ever having heard of Denise or Ginny before as characters, yet this book is all about their Cyrano-esque drama when plain Ginny (sidebar: the cover of this book seriously confused me, as the charater of Ginny was repeatedly desribed as plain/not pretty/unattractive/unnoticeable and I couldn't figure out until they said something about Denise's red hair that I could figure out who was who) meets a boy via her job at the Teen Help Line (serious ethics issues about this given a line or two of lip service, but...um...problematic) but is too insecure to meet him and convinces Denise to pretend to be her. Denise does, and actually is pretty ito the guy and shenanigans ensue. The second plotline was actually pretty good- about Liz deciding she wanted to write about sexual harrassment (wisely, the book did not include her article for us to read. I cannot imagine the cringe-level), and the principal and Mr. Collins aren't too sure about the idea. Vague, super white, first Amendment Sweet Valley weak activism ensues. Am kind of stoked to have nothing but new-to-me SVH stories from this point.

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

As expected this was boring. The b plot made it mildly interesting mostly because of the teacher's reactions.
We meet Ginny and Denise. Apparently we've met Denise before but she's not that memorable I guess. Denise is pretty, Ginny is not according to her at least. Ginny goes to work with Amy at the Youth Hot Line. She takes a call from a guy named Mike and they hit it off and Mike wants to meet her. Since Ginny thinks she's ugly she asks Denise to go in her place. Denise ends up breaking up with her boyfriend for Mike who it turns out doesn't really like her. He meets the real Ginny and likes her a lot more. Ginny thinks he likes Denise or someone else better because they've breached all kinds of confidentiality issues here but all works out in the end. And we will no doubt ever hear about any of these people again.
The b plot involves Amy sort of breaking confidentiality by telling Jessica that one of her callers is being sexually harassed by a teacher. This leads Liz to write an article about kids being afraid to speak up. Mr. Collins who was falsely accused of sexual harassment in the past loses his mind and runs to tattle on them to the principle who also loses his mind. What do you have to hide gentlemen? What are you so afraid of? Anyway eventually Mr. Collins comes around but not Mr. Cooper. With the school paper refusing to print it they run an underground type paper with the article that has more to do with censorship and Liz being done wrong by teachers than the original concept of sexual harassment by teachers cause heaven forbid Liz is silenced. But they don't get into trouble as per usual cause they never get into trouble for anything around here. Book ends with the set up of Jessica starting another hare brained scheme to make money.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I requested a bunch of SVH books through Interlibrary Loan, but they have either been pending for months or the lending libraries refuse to loan them. Who knew it would be this hard to try and re-read Sweet Valley? (I can never find these at used book stores, either.)

This one did finally come in, though, after about six months of waiting. And... it was just as fun as I remembered. I'm not usually a big fan of the main plots being centered around random characters, but this one was so ridiculously entertaining that I didn't even care. They also made this plot into one of my favorite SVH TV episodes, but with Jessica and Enid playing the parts of Denise and Ginny instead, so it was fun to read the original story after all this time.

The B-plot is surprisingly good, too. Elizabeth wants to write an article about sexual harassment and gets shut down by the principal, so Jessica convinces her to distribute it on her own instead. We get a lot of uneasy foreshadowing about John Pfeiffer, who claims that guys just don't understand what makes girls uncomfortable. It's been a LONG time since I read Don't Go Home With John, but every time he appears in the books I shudder.

Here's to hoping that I can eventually get my hands on more SVH books!

[Felicia Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good series!

[Tiffany Spencer]

My Best Friend’s Boyfriend
At lunch, Amy and Lila join the twins and the talk turns to calls from Project Youth but Amy’s not giving up any dirt. An (outgoing) girl named Denise says she’s been trying to get her friend Ginny to join the hotline but she’s shy. Only Denise knows she’s a really good listener. Amy offers to train her (or someone else can) if she’s interested (to know what to say). Jessica says if Amy doesn’t Liz will. Liz leaves. Denise says she’ll keep working on Ginny. Later, Denise and Ginny are shopping. We find out Denise is in a relationship with a basketball player named Jay Mc Guire. They’ve been together a long time and the “magic” has worn off (so says Denise). But Ginny knows this isn’t true. Ginny feels ordinary in comparison to her beautiful friend. We also learn that Denise can be pushy and tries to talk Ginny into doing (and trying on) things that aren’t her.

Denise starts in on Ginny about self-esteem and dating. Ginny tells her to drop it Instead, she brings up Project Youth and actually does get Ginny to agree to call the lady Amy suggested. Jessica goes to pick Amy up at Project Youth so after her shift they can go shopping. Jessica (while waiting) thinks about how this place must be a treasure trove of juicy stories, but Amy won’t tell any of them. Amy comes out and says she’s stressed out from dealing with other people’s issues. Then she tells her about a girl that called whose teacher whose making sexual advances at her. Amy says she wishes she could kill the man and then clams up and says she doesn’t feel up for shopping. Amy says she’s going to stay there for a while. Jessica bumps into Ginny on the way out.

Ginny completes her training and is introduced to Amy and Barry. Barry is Ginny’s coach during the live calls. The first call is about a girl who wants to go to a party but her grandmom is having a 70th bday party. Ginny makes her see that her grandmother’s party is more important despite her being angry over being made to go by her mother. She feels good after the call. The next caller is a Big Mesa student named Mike. He’s upset because his father died from cancer and now his mom is getting remarried six months later. His new stepfather has two kids. Now they moved here. Basically he can’t handle all the changes. His stepfather thinks he should join the track team and is always comparing him to his kids. He says his mother always sides with his stepfather.

Ginny tells him a similar story but tells him their family worked it out. She advices he talk to his mom. If she didn’t tell him about her relationship, it was probably because she was trying to protect him. She tells him to call back when he talks to her. Meanwhile, Denise is feeling neglected and goes to Jay’s b-ball practice to try to get him to spend some time with her, but he tells her he’s in training, and says he’ll call her. Jessica tells Liz and Todd about what Amy said at the Center. She and Todd compare it to what happened with Mr. Collins and agree that if it is true, it’s horrible but if it isn’t it would be just as bad. Todd points out that most accusations of sexual assaults are valid but there’s nothing they can do about it. Liz wonders if things like this happen at their school. Todd says you never know unless your on the receiving end. Liz says she’s going to write an article to encourage girls and she promises not to get too emotionally invested. Later, Ginny breaks the confidentiality code and tells Denise about her second call. She tells her he *is* supposed to call back Wednesday and Denise teases her about “a new budding friendship”. She plays it down, but deep down she’s looking forward to the call and promises to tell Denise about it.

Liz runs her idea by the staff of the paper. They’re for it but Mr. Collins is hesitant because of his own past experience. Yet he says he’ll have to clear it after the first draft. Mike calls on Wednesday and tells Ginny, he told his mom he was happy she found someone else, but he felt abandoned (which made her cry). Then they did a lot of talking about his dad (something they hadn’t done). They didn’t talk about the other stuff, but in time. The important thing was he just needed to be honest. Mike says she’s been terrific and asks if he can call again. She tells him whenever he needs to talk. He asks if she’s only there on Mondays and Wednesday and she says yes but if he needs to call before then he can. But he says she’s his “one and only”.

When she tells Denise about it, she’s vague (just giving her the minimum). Mike calls again on Monday and Ginny tells him about the family counseling places she’s researched (as well as the one there). Mike tells her they had a family conference. Joe and he made some progress. Joe thought he needed to give him tough love to be respected. His mother was trying to stay out of so she wouldn’t rock the boat. Now they’re planning a family camping trip. He gives her all the credit and confesses when he first called, he was going to run away. She credits him back and says he did the work. He compliments her beautiful voice and tells her that while he was talking to his parents, he was hearing her. Then he tells her he bets she’s pretty. He asks can they meet so he can thank her in person. She tells him it’s against the rules but he presses her. So, she agrees to meet him at Casey’s around 3:00. Ginny tells Denise about it and asks if she’ll go in her place. Denise says she thinks it’s a mistake but agrees to do it. Mr. Cooper calls Liz to his office and compliments her for being an amazing journalist, but he says she’s going to have to drop her plans to write the article about sexual harassment.

Denise plans to tell Mike the truth from the start. She’ll tell him Ginny is shy and then arrange a way for the two of them to meet. But she takes one look at Mike and falls head over heels in love. Over ice cream they walk and talk. Demose slips up when Mike mentions the camp trip which is a month away. She wasks him how was it. They see a homeless lady and Mike says that always makes him sad. Denise agrees and says you use to not see that kind of thing in SV (which gets a look from him). Then she straightens it out and says SV use to be a place that helped people like the lady. Mike goes over and gives her some dollars (earning him points in Denise’s book). Mike asks if she’s like to go somewhere and she answers it doesn’t matter. Mike then says maybe meeting wasn’t a good idea.

He’s notices she seems uncomfortable around him. Denise says she doesn’t but he says she just seems different and apologizes for being pushy. Denise panics for a moment that maybe he’ll figure her out. He asks is the reason she didn’t want to meet him that she had a boyfriend. Then she starts to flush and compare the two. She dodges the question and tells him how good a time she’s having. She tells him she wants to see him again. Despite her telling Ginny it’s a one-time thing she asks him out to the movies Wednesday. Then she has to make it a late show because she forgot she’s supposed to be “Ginny” and she works at the center on Wednesday afternoon.

Denise tells Ginny about the date and says she wants to see him again but she won’t if Ginny doesn’t want her too. Ginny says she’s the one that told her to do it so it’s ok with her (even tho it isn’t). Denise is happy and says it was love at first and tells them she’s going to the movies with him. Ginny tho reminds her about Jay. She says she’s going to the Beach Disco with him but she really doesn’t want to. All Jay talks about is basketball. Ginny reminds her she can’t have two boyfriends and she says she’ll figure it out tonight. At school on Monday, Ginny goes over to sit with Denise and Jay who both look pissed off. Denise makes Jay go get Ginny a chair and makes a comment about him being “a gentleman” (sarcastically). Jay gets up and storms off. Denise says the problem is Jay’s immature because he’s younger, but Ginny tells her she already knew that when she started dating him. Denise says she knows its not fair to him so she thinks she should break up with him. Ginny thinks she should just communicate with him, Denise says she knows what she’s doing.

Jessica sees Jay storm out and files it away in her mind as a possible breakup. Liz tells Jessica and the others at SVH about Mr. Coopers decision. Jessica agrees with Liz and Penny that they should be able to print what they want in THEIR newspaper (with in reason). Jessica says just go ahead with the story anyway. Just have a good explanation after its said and done. Todd agrees, but Liz says she wouldn’t be comfortable with it. But in class, she finds herself resenting Mr. Collins and avoiding his questions on the book their reading. She makes up her mind to go ahead with the article. Ginny hopes Mike doesn’t call. She takes a call from a guy named Roy whose under pressure from his friends to smash mailboxes. She ends up referring him to their peer pressure group. Then Mike calls wanting to know if she’s sure she wants to see him. He says she didn’t sound like herself but she sounds back to her self.

Then they talk about his familiy’s camping trip and having a honest talk with his parents about joining the track team. Joe says he’ll stop trying to pressure him. Ginny tells him the best thing is honesty and then realizes the irony. Mike says he’s going to try to be honest and then admits he didn’t think she’d like him because she was gorgeous. Ginny asks if that’s the only reason he liked her and he says of course not. If she wants to when he sees her she can wear a paper bag over her head. She tells Denise about the call later. Ginny tells her it’s getting awkward trying to remember but says when asked she’s not bothered. Denise suggests she come with to the movies Jay comes in and Denise ducks out. She broke up with him the night before. Jay comes over to her and asks what’s up with Denise and she says she thinks she just might be going through something right now. She asks that he not hate her.

Liz asks Ginny what kind of advide they’d give to a caller with a sexual harassment issue. Ginny says they suggests talking to a counselor and there are some agencies they refer them too. Again Liz ponders if it was really misunderstood or was it really sexual harassment. She talks it over with Penny’s. She’s more concerned about their rights as journalist. Penny asks if she really wants to write it. Liz says yes. Ginny and Mike immediately hit it off. Ginny notices Denise’s and Mike’s conversation isn’t as easy as hers and his. After its over, he suggests they go to the Dairi Burger but instead they suggests they go to the Lucky Duck (a kids restaurant). They both have the same sense of humor and have the same favorite ice cream (maple walnut).


Denise is happy to see how comfortable and wishes other guys could see her like this because they’d fall for her. But for a moment she gets a little jealous but then blames the awkwardness between her and Mike “on love”. They start to talk about the Miss Teen Sweet Valley contest Denise knows how much pressure it is on pretty girls but she can’t give her opinion. Before they leave Denise admits to Mike that when he asked her if she had a boyfriend she did but she realized after meeting him that the relationship wasn’t going anywhere. She says she broke up with him, but Mike tells him she shouldn’t have. She says she has a good feeling about him. He looks at Ginny but Denise invites him to the Box Tree Café. Liz learns that girls are told not to report sexual harassment mainly and compares it to being told not to write about it. The main point of what she writes is when they’re afraid to speak up (or are silenced) their rights are taken. After reading the article, Mr. Collins gives Liz the green light but says if she prints it she should be prepared for some heat from Mr. Cooper.

At the center, Amy has asked Ginny to take over her shift. She decides that popular girls aren’t anything to be intimidated by and that she’ll try being a little more confident. Once there she takes a call from Shelly (more bitching about being tall). She tells Shelly to concentrate on the things that make her attractive. Then after the call she thinks about how she should take her own advice. Then Mike calls Mike admits to her (not knowing it’s Ginny) that he liked “her” better on the phone than when he went out with her. He says he feels like it was his fault for convinving her to go out with him and she broke up with her boyfriend because of him.

Ginny says maybe he should just tell her the truth. Then he starts to talk about another girl whose just as beautiful but it just doesn’t knock you over the head. Ginny is SLOOOOOW and doesn’t pick up on it’s her. Penny says just tell the first girl the truth. Mr. Cooper doesn’t want the parents black lash and gives her a final no on the article. Liz doesn’t want to give it up and wants to have meetings and protests. Mr. Collins tells them to just let it go. Later, Jessica tells Liz to start her own paper. Or Mrs. Wakefield says she can take it up with the school board at a meeting in a couple of weeks. Mr. Wakefield says he’ll lend her some paper. Jessica says she’ll hand it out.

Mike tells “Ginny” he doesn’t think it’ll work out and Denise struggles with whether she should tell him the truth. She decides not too. Liz blows Denise’s cover when she calls her by her name when she and Todd show up at the Café. The story comes out. Mike says he thinks Ginny is attractive and must have known deep down because when he meet her he asked had they meet before. This gives Denise an idea. Liz passes around her paper at school. Mr. Cooper says it’s a fair article and he admires what she did. Penny makes Mr. Cooper bow down and trust them and in return they won’t abuse his trust. Mike calls and says he broke up with the first girl and is asking out the second girl that night. He goes on and on and Ginny has to get off the call. She runs out and bumps into Mike who asks where they should go that night. He says lets start over and they agree to be honest from now on. They agree to go to the Lucky Duck and exchange numbers. Jessica tells Liz Denise and Jay got back together. Jessica hears everyone singing Liz’s praises yet again and announces she’s going to start a business.

My Thoughts
This reminded me of a few things. I did like Ginny meet a guy once over the phone. I wanna say it was a wrong number call but we ended up talking further. I’m not sure what happened with that. Nor do I remember meeting up with him anywhere. I only remember his name and that he had the same (real) last name as me because my last name really isn’t my real last name. Anyways, it was one of those things I guess that kind of drift off into nothing down the line and you think did that happen.

Another thing it reminded me of was I was once also Denise as well as Ginny. I was dating this gy that was like Jay only his “extracuriculr activity” was not basketball and I felt like the magic had died. In the beginning, we use to do so many things together. You could not find one of use without the other. Another guy asked for my number and eventually I feel for the other guy because in my mind he was everything the first guy wasn’t. He was sweet, he was shy, he was a gentleman, he was loving and romantic. But unlike with Denise he felt the same way back and there was no awkwardness other than his insecurity of why (like Mike ironicially) someone so beautiful wanted him. Just like with Denise tho our story didn’t end happily (when we dated). It did get better down the line but it never went back. I was devasted this year when I found out he’d gotten hit on his motorcycle and died. Looking at him at the wake, I realized that I’d never gotten over him.


Long story short, what I took from this was sometimes it’s not always the best thing move on to something you think is better. It might not be. I can’t say I regrated ending it with the first guy. Like Denise back down the line years later we attempted it again and it feailed. So, I was probably correct the first time to let this guy go. But Denise found out the grass isn’t always greener as did I.

Rating: 7

[🕷️Serena🕷️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one it was a lot of fun! You obviously know which girl will get the guy in the end but it was still interesting to see the conflict take place. I also quite liked the side story with Elizabeth’s article, quite a hefty topic for the age demographic but I think it’s an important conversation to have. I could see Elizabeth’s determination to not be silenced an inspiration to young readers. But for not as young readers like me, I just adore the retro teen scene that is all over these books, it’s so fun!

[K.L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shy Ginny meets a guy on the Project Youth Hotline, despite all the rules, she agrees to meet him face to face but bottles it and sends her gorgeous BFF Denise to meet him instead. Cue the usual comedy of errors when Denise falls for him, but he's just not that into her...

[Kortney Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

Okay, lets take the series for what it is. It is so campy in the best way. This one was really good and ridiculous, just what I need for a couple of hours of light reading. If you are doing a reread don't forget this one.

[Jenn N · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is misleading...

[Stephanie Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is misleading.

[Michelle Seckinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m impressed that this book delved into censorship! I love revisiting this series as an adult.

[Lydia Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy this book! Warning *SPOILERS*

Ginny is extremely shy and she thinks she's not pretty, which just makes her shyness with boys worse. So when she gets to know a boy through phone calls and he asks her out, she panics. She thinks he'll be disappointed when she's not drop dead gorgeous and she ends up asking her beautiful, confident best friend, Denise, to go instead and just pretend to be Ginny. Denise says yes, planning to tell the boy, Mike, exactly what happened... But when she gets there, she falls in love. How can she tell him that she's not the girl he actually likes when she really, really likes him? She'll loose him that way!

So she doesn't. She pretends to be Ginny and even makes plans with him to go out again. Ginny feels slightly jealous that Denise already has a boyfriend and now she's stealing Mike, but Ginny also knows that it's her own fault. So she keeps it to herself. Denise brings Ginny along on the next date to meet Mike, but in order for that to happen, Ginny has to pretend to be Denise. It's all a mess! And what's worse is that Mike falls in love with 'Denise' instead of 'Ginny'. It couldn't get more confusing and more difficult! Can Ginny make it better, or will things just get even worse?

Sweet Valley books always have two stories going at the same time, so while the Ginny/Denise/Mike story is happening, Elizabeth Wakefield is writing an article that none of the teachers want her to publish. The principle even tells her no! But she firmly believes that it's the right thing to do, though, and ends up finding away around the authorities so she can publish it anyway. And she does.

I love the Ginny/Denise/Mike part of the book, but I tend to skip the Elizabeth part just because I don't like how she disobeys everyone. But other than that, I really like this book. I'll let you read it to find out how it ends, though. ;)

[jenn]

Man, this one was dumb. I spread this over a couple of evenings we spent at concerts or bars, which I highly recommend. I never much cared for books that didn't center around the twins, because so much of the pleasure of these is hating on the Wakefields, but whatevs. Ginny works at a teen crisis hotline and totally takes advantage of the teen-in-crisis/hotline worker relationship to get herself a boyfriend. Only, this is SVH, and she's not model-beautiful; she's just like, regular-beautiful, so there's some Cyrano crap where her best friend gets to date the boy she likes first.

The b-plot centers around Elizabeth (ugh) wanting to write an article about teacher-on-student sexual harassment FOR NO REASON AT ALL. (Why are you sweating, Mr. Collins?) The principal won't publish it, so Elizabeth starts an underground newspaper to do so, and is lauded by parents, teachers, and parents alike.

'Cause that's how it always goes in the indie community.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, so I read another Sweet Valley High book to kick off 2014. I know, I know, but they're so fun! This is the last I own, so it's back to my scheduled reading (for now).

As for the story, I quite liked it. Very cute, yet showcases a bit of female revolution as well. Don't say that Elizabeth Wakefield doesn't stand up for women's rights, that's for sure. I also liked that this included a story about other characters besides the Wakefield twins. As much as I love them as leading ladies, it's nice for a change of pace. If you love Sweet Valley, you can't go wrong with this one!

[Christine Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this book in a doctor's office yesterday. Although you could see where the plot was going from the beginning I still enjoyed it. I thought the side story about Elizabeth and her fight for freedom of speech could have been done better and was really less interesting than the main story of Ginny's quest to overcome shyness and insecurity to win the boy she loves. Definitely a blast from the past.

[Amanda Turenchalk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave this a 5 back in 1995. I was a lonely kid, and this was a romance for a young adult. It must've been good.

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember the cover just not the story.

[Justice · Rating 5 out of 5]

i am loving the book so far!!its really interesting.

[Kimberly Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my SVH favorites!