Hand-Me-Down Heart

Still on my walk down memory lane. A colleague of mine introduced me to the store where she buys her cards (I needed some Easter cards and she said that her shop is cheaper than the one I normally go to). She was right, plus they had a much wider selection of cards.

We wandered to a different section of the shop, so that she could show me the Chinese cookbook, which she had recently purchased. Then, I saw it! Rows of Sweet Dreams, Sweet Valley High and books by Paula Danziger. Any girl who attended a Nigerian secondary school will undoubtedly be very familiar with the SD and SVH books. We sneaked reads of these books between classes, at break time and while we were supposed to be doing homework or studying. I remember the long queues for these books. The owners would assign positions to everyone who was dying to read the book with the serious and self-important air of a brain surgeon. And we would all remember who was supposed to be reading the book just before us, so that we could hurry them along. Paula Danziger was one of my favourite writers back then too, though I don't remember that her books had quite the cachet of the Sweet Dreams or Sweet Valley High series.

For old times sake, I bought two Sweet Dreams for my sister and I. I started Hand-Me-Down Heart this morning and finished it within an hour and a half. I won't bore you with the story, but I can assure you that the girl gets her guy at the end. The "does he like me, does he not like me?" drama is ended with a sweet and very romantic kiss at the end of the book. Everyone is happy - their respective familes are in total approval, her best friend also finds a boyfriend and blah, blah, blah and damn-blah! Now, I remember why I was such a fast reader back then. The stories were so uncomplicated. And with the series (SD, SWH, Mills & Boons and Harlequin) the story was a well-worn template in which the characters' names, locations and jobs changed, but everything else remained the same. Ahem..... so now I'm off to start on A Chance to Love.