Mary Anne And The Great Romance (1997) - Plot & Excerpts
Mary Anne's dad and Dawn's mom announce they are getting married.Mary Anne and Dawn immediately begin planning an elaborate ceremony, but Richard and Sharon disappoint them by wanting to keep it simple. Mary Anne’s excitement gives way to impotent rage when she is the last to find out that she and her father will be moving into the Schafer farmhouse; she doesn’t want to leave Bradford Court, and she’s worried that Sharon won’t be nice to her cat. Things end on an up note with some reassurances all around; a nice, twenty-person wedding; and Mary Anne and Dawn excited about sharing a room, doing their homework together, doubling their wardrobes, and generally endless-sleepovering. In a foreshadowing-laden subplot, Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold bicker bitterly but become better friends when they move into separate rooms.This book doesn’t have a very tight arc on its own, and notably it’s the first and only one to end with, “To be continued...”Lingering Questions: An overly detailed explanation of “eeny-meeny-miny-moe” follows a pointed explanation of how Haley has been translating various game suggestions to Matt, raising the question, “how do you sign ‘eeny-meeny-miny-moe’?” I feel like finger-spelling is prohibitively time-consuming. And why, a few pages later, does Haley finger-spell “monkey-breath”? There’s no question she knows the signs for both “monkey” and “breath,” and it would also be funnier that way.Unnecessary Orderliness: Mary Anne has to ask Kristy if Logan can attend a meeting, and she’s all huffy and says well okay but it’s not “club policy.” I thought associates were welcome to attend meetings but generally chose not to? I guess they shouldn’t get first crack at the jobs if they don’t pay dues, but you’d think they could attend meetings for social purposes and not take extra jobs; it’s not as though they’ll derail club business.Jeff Schafer Watch: Jeff flies in for the wedding, leading to some nice awkward moments where he stiffly responds “Yes, sir” to Richard‘s questions because he barely knows this guy who‘s now his almost-stepdad. All three Pike triplets come with Dawn, Sharon, Richard, and Mary Anne to meet Jeff at the airport; they are also Jeff‘s dates guests for the wedding. During the wedding, they “appear slightly mischievous” and later giggle at a stained-glass window featuring a scantily-dressed angel.Timing: No specific temporal markers. During the school year. Revised Timeline: Spring of ninth grade.
The BSC is about to get something special...Dawn's mom and Mary Anne's once strict dad are getting hitched. There's just one caveat: Mary Anne has to move in with Dawn, whose mom does not like cats, even Kitty pet Tigger, Mary Anne's cat. The complications get worse when one (or two) of the BSC clan have to settle yet another dispute with Carolyn and Marilyn, twin sisters who are newly independent and now want seperation rights. (Wonder who'sthe good twin or the evil twin? Details details...) This one actually ends in a cliffhanger ending, the dumbest cliffhanger of all time! So I recommend two stars for my report. Hope 31 is marginally better!
What do You think about Mary Anne And The Great Romance (1997)?
The titles to these kept annoying me because I was not in any way into romance when I was a kid, but I was relieved to find that this was not about another boy-crazy adventure. It was about Mary Anne and Dawn's parents getting married to each other, which will make them stepsisters.This was pretty cool to me because by book 30 (plus a few Super Specials) we'd really gotten to know these girls and watched their club become sort of like its own sisterhood, so actually seeing two of the girls get to become actual family was cool. It was sort of like a young teen fantasy, actually, become real live sisters with one of your best friends. Of course, they immediately start bickering because Mary Anne's kind of easy to stress out and stuff, and a lot of what they argue about sounds like it was made up just so there could be some friction for the story.I was also relieved that Dawn's mom and Mary Anne's dad did not have a gigantic wedding plot because that was already done in a previous book and I didn't care to watch a repeat. Anyway, being that Mary Anne is going to have to move into Dawn's house (and isn't really happy about the idea of sharing a room), it's funny that the other main plot of the book involves the twins who were finally allowed to pursue their own interests instead of being a "matched set" being encouraged to ask for their own rooms. They've been squabbling a lot and having social and family issues and somehow the moving into separate rooms cuts down on this nonsense. But at least Mary Anne doesn't have to give up her cat which is the center of the universe. Oh and it ends on a cliffhanger about, gee, whether Mary Anne or Dawn will catch the bouquet at the wedding.
—Swankivy
