**This blog contains adult language.**
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!!! This is a recap blog which means I read the book and tell you everything that happens so you don't have to read it yourself. Please do not continue to read if you don't want to know who the “bad guy” is.
From the Back of the Book: She's a rich girl who can have anything she wants. But what Robin Armstrong wants is excitement, so she impulsively goes out with Danny Kovack, a tough greaser who's totally out of place in her world. When Danny breaks up a high-society party, Robin's forced to break up with him. Now someone's killing off her wealthy friends, and Robin's terrified that Danny's out for vengeance. And that she'll be his next victim...
This book was published in 1994 and this is my first time reading it. The cover is pure 90's PH and I love it.
(((Note from future me: The cover is the only thing I love. This is perhaps the worst PH I've ever read. It made me miss Pascal for fuck's sake.)))
We being with Robin who is described as “statuesque” and “a gorgeous-enough-to-be-a-model girl”. All the guys want her but she's dating the co-captain of the hockey team, Skip.
Why is it always hockey???
I swear, I can't get away from this cursed sport.
Skip gave Robin a “pre-engagement ring” for Christmas and it's made her question her feelings for him. She's a little bored with their relationship and feels trapped because Skip seems to think he owns her now that she's wearing his ring.
I have a feeling we're going to be seeing that graphic a lot.
Robin gets catcalled in the hall by one of the “long hairs”. She says it like it's derogatory. A boy named Danny in an overcoat and combat boots comes to rescue and makes the other boy apologize. Danny calls Robin “Countess” and says “A thousand pardons, mademoiselle” to her regarding the uncouth young lad who spoke to her in such a discourteous manner.
Robin in intrigued by Danny because he's #notliketheotherguys and rides a motorcycle. He's basically the opposite of boring Skip. Speaking of Skip, he sees the two of them talking and chases Danny off. He reminds Robin that the ring means she “belongs” to him.
Well, that's 2.
Later in class, Danny passes Robin a note telling her to let him know if the catcaller gives her any more trouble. The teacher sees her reading it and asks her to share it with the class. Robin panics for some reason so Danny stands up and says he was just asking Robin to tutor him because he's having trouble in class. What follows is a direct quote from page 10.
Start Quote.
Mrs Traxler grinned sadistically, thinking she had embarrassed Robin. “Very well then, it's settled. You'll tutor Danny, Robin.”
She lifted her pretty chin, glaring right back at the instructor. “Fine!”
Danny shook his head. “Wow.”
End Quote.
Wow indeed, Danny. Pine is really spitting literature here. I'm transfixed by his expert mastery with the written language.
Robin is okay with the tutoring ruse because she figures it's a way to see more of Danny without upsetting Skip.
Y'all. Pine thinks he's super edgy but he's got all the edge of a billiard ball. He literally thought it was sassy and tough when Robin told someone “Shut your mouth or I'm going to be rude to you!”
😱Oh no! Nothing is scarier than rude!😱
I mean, I swear a teenager wrote this book. At one point Skip says “Hey, got a kiss for your lover man?”
Anyway....when Robin gets home she gets a phone call but the person on the other end doesn't say anything.
Protagonist gets a creepy anonymous call? Check.
We're with Danny now. He's a massive cliché. His dad owns a diner but often closes early to drink. They live in a crappy apartment above the diner where Danny dreams of a better life. Despite what the kids at school think, he takes his education seriously and plans to go to college. He's even saved all the money he's earned from working for his dad in order to pay for his first semester.
Danny currently has a girlfriend named Doreen who is a year older than him. He calls her and they make plans to do something after she gets off work. Danny like Doreen but he wishes he was dating Robin instead because she's “classy”.
Is she? Is she really? She threatened some poor girl with rudeness earlier. 💀
Robin gets another phone call but this time it's from Paige. Robin and Paige used to be best friends but Skip resented the amount of time Robin spent with her so he forced Robin to end the friendship.
And that's 3.
Paige has heard rumors that Robin is dating Danny. Robin tells her she'll explain everything but she's late for Skip's hockey game so she asks Paige to go with her and they can talk on the way. Paige is hesitant because Skip's a douche to her but she eventually agrees to come along. Robin picks her up and immediately starts venting about how unhappy and bored she is with Skip. She's preaching to the choir because Paige hates that guy. She tells Robin that Skip doesn't really love Robin, he loves the idea of how Robin will fit into his ten-year plan. Robin shows her the pre-engagement ring and suddenly Paige says: “It's pretty nice. Maybe you two are going through a rough time.”
Robin says she wants to break up with Skip but she doesn't know how and she's afraid of his reaction.
That's 4.
When the girls meet Skip after the game, he's pissed to see Paige. He really hates it when Robin doesn't give him her full attention.
We have a whole hand's worth now.
When Robin refuses to kiss him, he says: “I'm gonna have to straighten you out, babe. You're gonna get it.”
That's 6. We're on to our second hand now, Skip.
This is getting exhausting.
Somehow Danny, Doreen, Robin, Skip and the hockey team end up at the same diner. Maybe there's only one diner in town open that late? I don't know. It seems a little too contrived but whatevs.
I also want to mention that Pine has a massive head-hopping problem. At the beginning of the book we were staying in one head pretty consistently for a chapter or at least a section before hopping into another head. Starting about here, Pine just hops from head to head with wild abandon for the rest of the book. You know everyone's thoughts all at once which doesn't allow for the creation of tension or suspense and just gets really fucking annoying. There were times I wasn't sure who I was listening to and that's never a good thing.
Robin goes to talk to Danny and Skip gets pissed about it. He tells Danny to “make like a banana and split” and then calls him a “hood”.
Pine, no one talked like this in the 90's.
Skip demands Robin leave with him because she's wearing his ring and is, therefore, his property. She takes it off and throws it at him. Paige rather sagely says: “Wow. Heavy drama.”
This writing is so bad I feel like I'm being pranked. This cannot be a real book.
Skip's friends start encouraging him to fight Robin because she can't be allowed to get away with breaking up with him. Robin tells them to fuck off and then.....everyone claps. I wish I was kidding. The book literally says: “Then something totally unexpected happened. The crowd began to applaud.”
What the actual fuck am I even reading? Pine is ridiculous. You just know he thought this was super cool and edgy.
Doreen is pissed at Danny because he's happy that Robin and Skip broke up. She can tell he has feelings for Robin. Paige is worried that Skip might do something stupid. I think we can pretty much count on it.
We skip ahead a little time. Danny goes to Robin's house for tutoring several times a week. Her parents seem concerned when they see him because they're judgmental, snobby pricks. Plus they liked Skip and liked that Robin was pre-engaged to him. I don't really know why. She's just 17. She hasn't even graduated from high school and this isn't the 50's despite Pine's writing. Robin is way to young to be thinking about marriage right now. She needs to go out into the world and figure out who she is first.
After avoiding Robin for awhile, Skip eventually approaches and says that he wants them to be friends. He's dating a girl named Candy now and he wants everything to be civil between them. Robin agrees but she's still not very happy with him.
We've skipped ahead a few months now. There's a Valentine's dance coming up at Robin's country club and she really wants to invite Danny but she isn't sure how he feels about her. They've been dating and spending a lot of time together but he hasn't tried to make a move on her. She's worried he just doesn't see her that way and vents to Paige about it. Paige is more concerned that Danny will be massively out of place in the country club crowd.
I hate everyone in this book.
Robin decides to grab the bull by the balls and talk to Danny about their relationship. He assures her that he definitely sees her as more than a friend but he's been trying to take things slow with her because he loves her so much and he doesn't want to fuck things up. She says she loves him too and they kiss. She invites him to the dance and he happily accepts.
Y'all, we're 50% through with this book and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED!
We just skip right to the dance. Robin picked out Danny's tux and made him cut his hair so she won't be embarrassed to be seen with him. Her parents are STILL embarrassed to be seen with him and keep trying to talk her into getting back with Skip.
Danny is super nervous because he doesn't want to do anything to make Robin look bad. At first, things go really well. Danny even manages to charm some of the CC ladies. Then Skip approaches with Candy. He offers to go get everyone some punch and, when he comes back, he's very specific about which cup is Danny's.
Odds Skip drugged/spiked Danny's punch: 100%
I don't even have a single shred of doubt. Pine is NOT subtle. He might as well throw a neon sign over the punch cup that reads: DEFINITELY NOT DRUGGED. HEHE.
Sure enough, Danny starts behaving oddly. He's loud and stumbling around and getting increasingly combative. He complains of being hot, dizzy and headachy. It should be ABSOLUTELY OBVIOUS to Robin what happened but she's stupid and thinks Danny's just getting cocky because things were going so well. She gets so embarrassed that she tries to get Danny to leave but he causes a scene, accusing her of looking down on him. He isn't wrong. She's been doing that all along. Skip intervenes and Danny knocks him the fuck out.
That.....right there.....best part of the entire book.
Danny rips off his shirt and jumps up on the dinner table. He starts physically fighting waiters and shouting obscenities at all the rich people. Robin is humiliated. Danny jumps down and begins trashing the venue. Cops are called and they end up tasing him.
On the way home, Robin's parents yell at her for breaking up with Skip and dating a hoodlum. They ground her and she tells them to go to hell.
I feel like we're all in hell.
The next morning Skip shows up to ask Robin to go skiing. She asks him why he isn't going with Candy and he gets all flustered and says that she's busy. Robin tells him that she's grounded but her dad says that she can go. She refuses and both her parents try to bully her into going with Skip. She stands her ground and tells Skip to leave.
Danny uses his one phone call to call Robin from jail. He says that he doesn't remember anything from the night before and asks her what happened. Again, it should be glaringly obvious what happened but Robin is brainless. She calls Danny a loser and hangs up on him. Poor Danny.
We skip to Monday. Everyone at school is talking about what happened at the dance. Candy corners her at one point and threatens her, trying to get Robin to stay away from Skip. Robin says that Skip is the one who won't leave her alone and mentions that Skip asked her to go skiing over the weekend. Candy is upset.
Paige meets her at her locker and we get this fuckery:
“I hope Danny doesn't cause any trouble for you, Robin.”
Robin takes a deep breath. “Neither do I, Paige. Neither do I.”
Neither do I?
That's not right, Pine. Did they give you an editor at all? You mean 'So do I' because Robin also hopes that Danny doesn't cause her any trouble.
At the end of the day, Robin finds a note in her locker. It says: “Be my valentine” and has a drawing of a heart stabbed with a knife. She assumes Danny left it.
Odds Danny left it: 1%
Odds Skip....left it: 50%
Odds Candy left it: 49%
Danny pops up at her locker and begs Robin to tell him what happened at the dance. Skip immediately appears and chases Danny off. He tries to talk to Robin but she's not in the mood.
Robin gets home and gets another anonymous call. The person simply whispers “It's not over” and then hangs up. Again, she assumes it's Danny because she has one brain cell. She hangs up and the phone almost immediately rings again. This time it's Candy. She tells Robin to stay away from Skip or she'll scratch her eyes out.
Original.
The next day in English class, Danny passes a note to Robin. It says he's sorry and he really needs to talk to her. She throws it away. After class, he tells her that he's figured out what happened the night of the dance but she won't listen to him. He gets chased off by Skip again.
Robin heads off to gym class. For some reason she's the only one in the locker room but there's a shower running. She goes to shut if off and finds Candy dead. Her injuries suggest that it's self-inflicted.
Odds Candy was murdered: 99%
Let's be real here, Skip wants to get back with Robin and Danny and Candy were standing in his way. He's eliminating them.
Skip cries at the funeral and tells Robin that he doesn't want to be alone “at a time like this” and says he really needs her support. Robin doesn't fall for the bait and tells him that she really wants to be alone. He asks if he can call her later and she reluctantly agrees.
Back at home, Paige calls and invites Robin to go to a remote lake cabin for the weekend. I find this mildly suspicious. Usually it's the bad guy that issues the invitations to remote areas. However, we know Skip spiked the drink that led to Danny's downfall so I'm not going to fall for the Paige red herring, Pine.
Skip calls up and says he needs to talk. Robin says she doesn't have time because she needs to pack for her weekend getaway. Skip asks if he can come too because he's in a bad place and shouldn't be alone but Robin tells him 'no'.
Paige and Robin head for the cabin. They see a car following them and Robin recognizes it as the one Danny was standing beside at the diner all those months ago. Paige drives like she's a stunt person in a 'Gone in 60 Seconds' movie and eventually loses the car. They make it to the cabin without further incident.
The next day they go skiing. Robin is better at it and constantly leaving Paige behind. At one point someone shows up on ski mobile and tries to run her over. She thinks it's Danny. It's obviously Justin...ahem Skip.
After a brief rest, Paige encourages Robin to go skating on the lake to clear her head. Paige is tired and sore from skiing so she stays behind at the cabin. While Robin is skating, she hears an ominous sound and realizes the the ice isn't as thick as it should be. It starts to crack but she manages to get back to shore.
As she approaches the cabin, she sees Paige struggling with someone inside. She runs to help and a snow mobile races away from the scene. Paige is dead inside the cabin which just firmly points the finger at Skip since he hated her so much and thought she was in the way of his relationship with Robin. Pine isn't good at this.
Danny pops up out of nowhere and Robin accuses him of killing Paige. It makes no sense because she clearly saw someone riding away from the cabin but whatevs. Danny points out that the killer left on the ski mobile and tells her that his punch was drugged at the dance. He thinks the person who drugged him killed both Candy and Paige.
Robin still doesn't trust him so she runs out to get into Paige's car. Danny follows her out and hands her the keys. No, I don't know how he got them. I assume they were laying on a counter or something in the cabin. He tells her to go straight to the police and to send them back to the cabin. This makes her question whether he's the bad guy or not.
The car doesn't start because of course it doesn't.
The man on the ski mobile comes back and starts chasing them toward the lake. They run for awhile but eventually give up because there's no way they can outrun him.
So the big reveal happens and it's Skip. Duh. He does his bad-guy-monologue about drugging Danny and killing Candy because she knew he did it and threatened to tell if he didn't stay with her. He insinuates that he had sex with her before he killed her which is just unnecessary, Pine. He apparently killed Paige, hoping to frame Danny and so Robin would comfort him.
Why would Robin comfort Skip over Paige's death? Skip hated Paige. This makes no sense, Pine.
The weight of the snowmobile causes the ice to crack and Skip and the mobile go through the ice. Danny almost does too but Robin saves him.
We skip ahead some time. The police didn't believe them about Skip at first but they manage to convince them. Danny still has to pay for the damage to the country club which seems very unfair. It takes all the money he's saved for college. Robin and Danny get back together and go to prom.
The end. Thank fuck.
This was one of the worst PH books I've ever read. I'm so confused at the language Pine used in this book. It was set in the 90's but everyone talked like they were in the 50's. The dialogue was cringey, the bad guy was obvious and there was no suspense or tension at all. It wasn't even scary. I seriously don't know how this got published.
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