There is a method behind the madness

We had so much fun with a Christmas-themed re-readathon last year that we're doing it again this year!

The second part of this year's re-readathon will be the first five-part post-#100 miniseries, so combined as the "Scandal/Deception" arc.

Here's the schedule:

Week of 11/25/24: SVH #107: Jessica's Secret Love
Week of 12/02/24: SVH #108: Left at the Altar!
Week of 12/09/24: SVH #109: Double-Crossed
Week of 12/16/24: SVH #100: Death Threat
Week of 12/23/24: SVH #111: A Deadly Christmas

High stakes...

Sue Gibbons, Jessica Wakefield's biggest rival, has been kidnapped! Just weeks after gorgeous Jeremy Randall left her at the altar for Jessica, things have gone from bad to worse for the Wakefields' houseguest. Now Sue's captor is threatening to kill her if the Wakefields don't pay up.

Jeremy, Jessica's fiancé, insists he'll find the kidnapper, and Jessica and Elizabeth are determined to help. But when Jessica discovers Jeremy in the wrong place at the wrong time, she smells a rat. Will Jessica have to betray the man of her dreams in order to save Sue's fortune - and her life?

As I noted on Goodreads, this book is mind-blowingly awful and pretty much has to be read in one sitting, or you'd never pick it up again. The ridiculous starts right from the first page, and continues until the last.

( The kind of filler that makes you almost immediately sick upon consuming )

The most frustrating thing about this book is that everyone has to be a complete idiot to make the plot even near the realm of plausibility. Jeremy is so certain that he can charm anyone into doing anything he likes that he's momentarily stunned that Mr Wakefield contacts a detective upon learning of Sue's disappearance. Like - really, dude? You thought you were that good? The fact that everyone acts very stupidly and allows him to make a clean getaway helps his cause, but surely someone (besides Sue and Jessica) know that he was behind it all? He was the only one who came and went from the Wakefield residence the entire time, so of course the leaks came from him! I wanted to throttle pretty much everyone.

The funniest bit was definitely learning that Bruce Patman won the costume contest at the Halloween party in the last book, and he came dressed as his own car, LMAO. I certainly hope that included the iconic 1BRUCE1 license plate!!

That, and the fact that Elizabeth's kidnapping from #13 Kidnapped! features in fairly heavy rotation during this stressful time, earns this book the single star I'm giving it.

Thank goodness we're near the end of this mess, even if we do have to go through a Thriller-length finale book to get there.