Preview as Listed on the Back Cover:
{Mix six teenage girls and one '60s fashion icon (retired, of course) in an old Victorian-era boarding home. Add boys and dating, a little high-school angst, and throw in a Kate Spade bag or two...and you've got the Carter House Girls, Melody Carlson's new chick lit series for young adults!}
Winter is coming, and Mrs. Carter treats the girls to a weekend trip to General Harding's luxurious Vermont ski lodge. Naturally, she has no idea that Taylor has invited some guys to follow them - boys who have a different type of adventure in mind.
As usual, Mrs. Carter does not pay close attention to the girls' activities. When a dinner outing and small accident keep he away overnight, DJ, Eliza, Taylor, Kriti, Rhiannon, and Casey are quickly in over their heads. As a party gets completely out of hand, only God's help can get the Carter House girls out of this gigantic mess.
The Story (Spoiler Alert!):
Book four starts with Eliza being bitter about DJ winning homecoming queen. Eliza's that girl who insults you while being falsely sweet - a give and take style of rudeness. Anyways, this mean streak carries over in the fashion show, where although DJ is the only girl to make one run on the catwalk, she follows after Eliza. DJ, still injured but now walking with a cane and walking boot, crosses Eliza midway down the run when Eliza kicks DJ's cane from under her. DJ does a volleyball roll off the stage and crashes into several audience members. Taylor is furious about Eliza's actions, confronts her on stage, then slaps her. The two get into it until the girls manage to pull them apart. Mrs. Carter, emcee of the fashion show, is appalled, but recovers with her usual grace. Taylor brings DJ back to the runway and escorts her to complete her run.
After the fashion show, Eliza -probably with her parents' persuasion- apologizes to the Carter House for her rude display. Amends sort of made, General Harding -a good friend of Mrs. Carter's- announces that he'd like to invite the girls up to his ski resort in Vermont for the weekend in the near future.
October nears an end as the idea to throw a Halloween party at the Carter House is proposed then acted on. The girls are each to invite eight friends to the non-alcoholic costume party where Rhiannon and Casey will be using their creativity to give the Halloween party a typical ghostly graveyard theme. During this party, DJ notices that Connor has brought Haley along, the two now officially a couple since DJ and Connor's break up. Some time later, Connor approaches DJ, saying that he still likes her and that he misses her, but he doesn't want to hurt Haley. DJ doesn't want to hear it and blows him off, giving him no solution to the situation he's brought up.
The next day at the pool after school, DJ notices the girls from the swim team huddled around a crying Haley. DJ is irritated by their dirty looks, but she ignores it since she didn't do anything to deserve it. After her physical swim therapy, Connor calls DJ and mentions that he broke up with Haley earlier in the day. The two go out to eat and decide to remain just friends since they don't want anything like that vague near-sex scene to happen again.
Of course, girls are catty and ridiculous, so before DJ makes an attempt to talk to Haley about the break-up, Haley's friends on the swim team rag on DJ in the swim locker room as a "boyfriend stealer", "hypocrite", and "poison", as Bethany -the tough girl on the team- brands her. DJ decides that although she's being honest about her and Connor's platonic relationship, she's not going to bother trying to explain anything to them since they obviously don't want to listen.
As she leaves the locker room, the swim coach approaches DJ with an offer to join the swim team. DJ weighs the idea carefully, since she enjoys swimming, but doesn't want to incur the wrath of Haley's psychotic swim team friends. The coach points out that even as a recovering exercise, she's faster than some of the girls on the team, and it would keep her in shape for soccer in the season to come. Since she's been practicing so often anyways, he figures he could just bring her onto the team without much of a problem. So DJ decides to go for it and hopes to straighten things out with Haley.
Obviously, Haley's friends are not thrilled with this idea. Although DJ genuinely tries to play nice and listen to their instruction -since she hasn't swum competitively for years- Bethany and the other girls constantly put her down. In fact, as a "sign of solidarity for Haley", they all decide to boycott DJ at afternoon practices and wake up for early morning practices. This is a stupid idea, since it leaves DJ pretty much alone with the coach -aside from some of the swim guys who are a way bigger help than the girls were anyways- to improve her times.
Then Conner and DJ go out to eat only to run into Haley, Bethany, and Amy who don't listen to anything the two have to say to explain their friendship and hurl more insults. Yawn. (Sorry, I'll hold my opinions a little more closely to me until the personal reflection section.) More drama goes down at a school football game with more immature battering by Bethany "Bruiser".
Later that week is DJ's first swim meet where she pretty much blasts the competition out of the water (haha, pun). The only person DJ is second to is Haley. After the meet, a couple of girls are fed up with the drama and congratulate DJ, mentioning that waking up early for practice is ridiculous and they'll be back for afternoon practices.
Some more drama with Bethany and almost a beat down later, DJ leaves the meet with Taylor and Casey to go shopping for their upcoming ski trip at the general's cabin. After spending some time in the malls, DJ takes a break while Casey and Taylor hit up a couple more stores. While alone, DJ gets an anonymous hateful text message, which she suspects is from Bethany. After telling the girls, Taylor advises DJ to ignore them and they'll stop.
But they don't. Thirty-seven anonymous texts later, DJ is unsure what to do. As she and Connor talk it over, Connor mentions that Haley has an obsessive personality - OCD over controlling even the tiniest details in her life, even diagnosing her as an anorexic.
Later that evening, Taylor tells DJ that the general will be driving the girls up to his cabin in his fancy motor home on Friday after school. DJ says she can't go since she's got a swim meet after, but organizes a ride with Connor, since he and several other guys have been invited up to Harry's cabin in the same area.
DJ's been doing so well in swim that she's been set up in another relay team in the girls who have started talking to her again. At the meet, the relay team beats Haley's and their high school wins the entire meet - a first for their season. Immediately after, DJ takes off with Connor to ride up to Vermont.
However, just halfway through their ride up their, Connor's pickup breaks down, and the two hitchhike to the nearest town. Connor meets up with the local mechanic who says he can have the truck fixed up by nine that morning. DJ and Connor end up renting a room for the night from the woman who runs the bar in town. One bed and an overly awkward conversation later, DJ and Connor share the bed, but they prohibit any funny business.
The next morning the truck is up and running and the two complete their drive up to the general's cabin. The two meet up with the some of the other Carter girls and Harry's friends as they go boarding on the mountains. DJ confesses to Taylor that she and Connor had slept in the same bed last night, but Taylor being Taylor, she makes this out to be what it isn't. DJ teaches Rhiannon how to snowboard and when the two take a break at the lodge, they find Casey. Casey tells them she knows who's sending the texts - not Bethany Bruiser but Haley herself.
After dinner, the girls sneak out to meet the guys at the lodge for a party. Connor makes light of the fact that Taylor has told pretty much everyone about his and DJ's exaggerated night sleeping together. Irritated at the partying group, DJ, Connor, Rhiannon, and Bradford leave for the night. In the morning, it's obvious that the drinkers are suffering the consequences and are sleeping in to sleep off their hangovers. The foursome go out snowboarding and the wonder of God's creation in the mountains leads the group to sing worship songs and pray.
When the foursome returns to the cabin due to some bad weather, they engage in a rather enjoyable game day with Mrs. Carter and the general. Then Eliza pops up, saying as a thank-you, she's brought the general a $200 gift certificate to one of the restaurants at the lodge. Mrs. Carter and the general head out, and Eliza and Taylor start planning for a party. In an attempt to increase the party time before the general and Mrs. Carter get back, the two have sabotaged the general's motor home, causing it to break down for the night before a mechanic can come fix it, though no harm is done to the couple.
The party gets out of hand -much like the Halloween party did- and the fearsome foursome decide to split it up. DJ threatens to call the cops, making the partiers run like heck to Harry's cabin where the party will continue. After much clean up and restoration, Taylor heads back to the party, and Eliza comes out of her party crazed stupor, apologizing for it getting out of hand.
With the weekend passed, the general drives the girls back into town where cell phone service is restored as the Carter girls return to home sweet home. DJ gets a frantic call from Connor, explaining that Haley tried to kill herself by downing aspirin and she's in critical condition at the hospital. After getting dropped off at the hospital, DJ and Connor further discuss Haley's condition. DJ breaks into sobs, feeling as though this was all her fault. Connor further depresses her by mentioning that word got out about how he and DJ "slept together".
DJ runs into the bathroom, feeling sick herself, when she encounters Haley's mother. The two discuss Haley's condition, brought on by Haley's need for control and her significant ability to hide her feelings. Connor's told Haley's mom about everything, setting it all straight about his and DJ's platonic relationship, and she doesn't blame DJ, but herself.
Two days later, Haley comes to, and DJ finally gets to talking. They discuss Haley's OCD, her relationship with Connor, her suicide cry for attention, and everything else to wipe the slate clean. Haley seems to be doing better and the two decide to become friends again once Haley is out of the hospital.
Personal Reflections and Opinions:
Geez, what a book. As you could tell, I hated all the drama that went down between Haley's friends and DJ. I've been here, on all sides of it, so I think that's why it bothered me so much. If everyone frickin' communicated like mature adults, it wouldn't have ended with Haley trying to kill herself. As for those girls that finally thought this whole thing was stupid and befriended DJ, I can say I related to them the most.
Casey and Taylor have been getting a tad too close for comfort. Casey was making such progress with the help of DJ and Rhiannon, but Taylor seems to be dragging her into the party scene. And the sex scene. Ugh. Luckily, Casey seems to reconsider everything towards the end of the book.
Kriti has a boyfriend. Yeah, and I don't know who he is. I'm angry at this development. So. Angry. Oh, and since she and Eliza have been crazy buddy buddy, Eliza's dragged her into the drinking scene. Though Kriti didn't much appreciate the massive hangover, so I think she's going to stay clean for the time being.
Connor and DJ being friends is a move I didn't expect and I'm glad it happened. Too much pressure for the both of them. Obviously since it hadn't worked out before, they weren't ready to jump right back into it again, especially after the whole Haley insanity. That would have just been stupid.
Haley was being ridiculous, but I guess you can kind of blame it on her obsessive nature. When Connor called DJ to tell her Haley tried to kill herself, I froze up and got teary eyed. I was DJ in that moment and all I could think about was I should've tried harder to talk to her. As someone who's had friends consider suicide and considered it herself, this situation hit home for me. But then we find out it was really for attention and I was less attached to it. Regardless, Haley realized her mistake, that was she did was dumb, and I was just glad she was alive.
Phew. A lot goes on in these books. I own the next one, but no others past that, so it might be slow going to review six through eight.
Anyways, live life, love God, and don't let anything get you down.
Much love and God Bless,
EPD
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