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3.0
Katherine Applegate, Making Waves, vol. 4: Thrill (17th Street Productions, 1993)
I have described Katherine Applegate's Making Waves series (previously published as the Ocean City series) as “teen crack”, and the addiction continues in this fourth volume. Of ten (or possibly eleven), which makes me wonder—how in the world is she going to keep this pace up? We've already had two main characters come within a hair of getting married, a baby pop up, some near-miss fatalities, and, of course, relationship drama a-plenty. The details may change here—kinda—but the formula remains the same, and as usual, if you've fallen into the Applegate habit, once you've cracked the cover on this you'll burn through it in a few hours.
Chelsea and Connor's wedding was sabotaged by Connor's ex showing up with the kid she claims is his, but that doesn't necessarily mean either Chelsea or Connor has given up on the idea of actually getting hitched. Chelsea's conflicted, though, because she hasn't informed her family. Good thing she never sent that letter she wrote telling them about the wedding, right? Ah, but this is Applegate-land, where Murphy's Law reigns supreme. Meanwhile, Connor's ex's family wants the kid back, and her aunt happens to live in New York City...which will allow Kate to visit Columbia's campus as part of her deciding whether she wants to go to college in the fall or take Justin up on his offer to make her his first mate on his round-the-world cruise. Which leads, of course, to more tension between the two.
Reading an Applegate novel is a lot like watching a Nick Carter movie (the detective, not the singer). It's trashy, it's formulaic, it's not all that well put together, but by the time you've gotten through one or two, you've come to care about what happens to these characters (and, to be fair, Applegate's bunch, for all their faults, are a bit more intelligent than the average characters who populate series fiction). Unfortunately, ten years after the last re-release (if they've been put out under another name since, I haven't figured it out yet), the biggest problem you'll find now is getting hold of the silly things. ***
I have described Katherine Applegate's Making Waves series (previously published as the Ocean City series) as “teen crack”, and the addiction continues in this fourth volume. Of ten (or possibly eleven), which makes me wonder—how in the world is she going to keep this pace up? We've already had two main characters come within a hair of getting married, a baby pop up, some near-miss fatalities, and, of course, relationship drama a-plenty. The details may change here—kinda—but the formula remains the same, and as usual, if you've fallen into the Applegate habit, once you've cracked the cover on this you'll burn through it in a few hours.
Chelsea and Connor's wedding was sabotaged by Connor's ex showing up with the kid she claims is his, but that doesn't necessarily mean either Chelsea or Connor has given up on the idea of actually getting hitched. Chelsea's conflicted, though, because she hasn't informed her family. Good thing she never sent that letter she wrote telling them about the wedding, right? Ah, but this is Applegate-land, where Murphy's Law reigns supreme. Meanwhile, Connor's ex's family wants the kid back, and her aunt happens to live in New York City...which will allow Kate to visit Columbia's campus as part of her deciding whether she wants to go to college in the fall or take Justin up on his offer to make her his first mate on his round-the-world cruise. Which leads, of course, to more tension between the two.
Reading an Applegate novel is a lot like watching a Nick Carter movie (the detective, not the singer). It's trashy, it's formulaic, it's not all that well put together, but by the time you've gotten through one or two, you've come to care about what happens to these characters (and, to be fair, Applegate's bunch, for all their faults, are a bit more intelligent than the average characters who populate series fiction). Unfortunately, ten years after the last re-release (if they've been put out under another name since, I haven't figured it out yet), the biggest problem you'll find now is getting hold of the silly things. ***
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