Is it just me or is it weird that we're just suddenly getting to a marriage story between Mrs. Schafer and Mr. Spier? I mean, we've set it up since the fourth book, but it also feels like it took a MASSIVE backseat in the series. So much so that we've had more stuff with Mrs. Schafer and Trip than we did Mr. Spier. Like this all feels very "Oh right, that plot point". Like at the very least Mimi's death and Stacey's parents divorcing had a lot more buildup than this. But yes indeed, we're finally being able to take another massive pin out of the pinboard as Mary Anne and Dawn are about to become sisters-in-law. It's also technically the first BSC book to be released in the 1990s. So that's a neat piece of trivia. How does the wedding go down? Let's walk down the aisle with Mary Anne and the Great Romance.
Mary Anne and Dawn start the story at Dawn's house (not sure there's a ghost there but you never know) while their parents are out on a date. So yeah, this has escalated lately. As we know, Mrs. Schafer has been going out with several people for a while, including the infamously awful Trip-Man, but as of late the relationship between Mr. Spier and Mrs. Schafer has escalated to much more regular dates. Again, this is a book series about teen girls and not their parents, but I'd be lying if I said seeing this build somewhat in the books themselves wouldn't have interested me. The girls watch like an hour of a Hayley Mills movie marathon then look around, including the secret passage. Dawn gets a call from Jeff giving us time for the good old preamble about the characters. This might be the most egregious preamble at this point, going a whole chapter. You kind of don't think to realize how much these need to be expanded with all of the updates to the status quo and all.
We follow up with the club meeting which means more exposition for that. I know I harp on this every book, but the sooner this becomes more of a cliff notes thing the better (if it does at all I'm not aware). I'm reading the eBook edition, which clocks around 110 pages. The story itself starts on page 4 and ends on page 103. And it takes 12 of those pages to move on to the plot, finally starting on page 21 and the third chapter of the book. Anyway, my frustrations with this 36 year old book for children aside, let's get back to the story. Dawn arrives late and the girls get a call to watch the Arnold twins, Marilyn and Carolyn. Mary Anne decides to take up the job. When she arrives, only Marilyn's there as Carolyn has been able to make friends to hang out with. All Marilyn has is Gozzie Kunka, a student from "a faraway place", who is the daughter of a dignitary and who has been to Paris, has had exotic food, and was involved in a phony plane hijacking. Wait what? I assume she's also friends with George Glass. Carolyn shows up, saying that she plans to form her own girls club with her friends Haley Braddock and Vanessa Pike, while keeping Marilyn out of it. So when they're identical they're miserable, when they're individual they're miserable to each other. Sounds about right.
That night, Mary Anne and Dawn talk with Mr. Schafer about Dawn's mom's birthday coming up. He wants to give her a quaint surprise party at a restaurant which the girls are fine for. The girls talk about presents for Mrs. Schafer, with Dawn turning down most of Mary Anne's suggestions, though not in a mean spirited manner, more a "I know my own mom better so my defenses are up" manner. Jessi watches for the Braddocks and Carolyn. They head to the Pike residence where the kids are playing this variant of hide and seek called Sardines where there's one hider and a bunch of seekers and the person who finds the hider also hides. Sounds neat. After a bit of playing, Jessi asks Haley about Gozzie Kunka, but Haley has no idea who that is, meaning that, to no surprise, there is no Gozzie Kunka. Marilyn made her up because she has no friends and Carolyn's friendship circle is really starting to bother her.
Mary Anne sits for the Arnold twins again and they're pretty much at each other's throats at this point. Marilyn mad at Carolyn and her friend group, Carolyn mad that Marilyn is so talented. Also they're concerned that their mom is more interested in Carolyn's pursuits and their dad for Marilyn's, so we can indeed chalk a lot of this up to bad parenting. They even do the classic sitcom trope of putting a tape line in the middle of their room. We move on from this issue for now and go to the birthday dinner, which culminates in Mr. Spier giving Mrs. Schafer an engagement ring, confirming that indeed, in case you worried this book was just "the trouble with Twins II" that we are indeed getting a wedding in this story. But Dawn and Mary Anne are now excited that they'll soon be stepsisters, even though they do worry what life together is going to actually be like. They tell the club about it, including Logan, who are all jazzed for this. Mary Anne also slips a note to Kristy saying that Kristy was her first best friend because an underlying thread of this book is Mary Anne being concerned about Kristy given that Dawn is also Mary Anne's best friend, which was indeed something I've brought up before so it's nice to get this mentioned.
Speaking of Kristy, it's time for the chapter involving her family, AKA what's Karen up to? I figured this was what Little Sister was for, but I guess we still need them in the main book. Also, despite seemingly quashing a lot of this in Karen's Little Sister, she's still jealous whenever Kristy spends time with Emily Michelle. Also, this is our "baby-sitting subplot that's parallel to the main plot" stuff where Karen's got a problem with siblings. She then makes a mess and blames it on Emily. Ah, there's the agent of chaos energy we've lacked for a while now. Also Charlie gets a new car and takes everyone for a drive except David Michael who wasn't there at the time. Given the plot of the next book, it feels really weird to do so many "Aren't siblings the dirt worst?" all in this book when we, you know, could be focusing more on the upcoming marriage? Speaking of which, Dawn and Mary Anne set up the wedding with their parents, which is ultimately going to be a simple wedding with really just the BSC invited at most. However, Mary Anne is more caught off guard by the news from Dawn that they'll be moving to Dawn's house after the wedding. Hope you like secret passages and maybe-ghosts, Mary Anne!
So, naturally, Mary Anne is pissed to not be made aware of this news, especially given Dawn was. Mainly she's in a panic for having to move, and more concerningly possibly losing Tigger given Mrs. Schafer doesn't like cats, but she's assured that won't happen. The Schafers leave while Mr. Spier tries to provide damage control over the whole situation. The plan was for both parents to break it to their kids, but Mr. Spier knew it would be harder for Mary Anne given the massive life changing shift of moving from her childhood home. And despite Dawn's thing being a slip up, Mary Anne is none to happy with her. She sits for the twins who are still butting heads. Though Mary Anne realizes a lot of this has to do with both sharing a bedroom, so that gets settled and everyone's happy. Stacey sits for them and it's all good now. Even the whole concerns over the parental favoriting seems to be quashed. That was... surprisingly easy even for this book series. Also Mary Anne is made aware that Gozzie Kunka doesn't actually exist. I really want this to be a Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo situation and Gozzie actually exists.
The wedding approaches and everyone's in better spirits, especially Mary Anne who has settled a bit better on the whole situation. At lunch, they talk about the wedding planning while Kristy and Dawn have a riveting argument over the jiggle physics of Jell-O and tofu. Dawn and Mary Anne decide to call their stepparent by their first name to make it a little less awkward. However, to make it awkward is Jeff who just calls Mr. Spier "sir" and seems to not gel with him as well as the girls are. Also Dawn's father has a girlfriend, so you know, take one pin out of the board, put another one in. The day of the wedding arrives and Mr. Spier gives Mary Anne a necklace that belonged to her mother, which okay that's a cute bit. The wedding goes on without a hitch. And we end the book with the new Mrs. Spier throwing the bouquet, like on the cover of the book, and a "To be continued in book #31".
I liked this one, but I can't say I loved it. What I did love was the entire wedding stuff. The proposal, the drama over Mary Anne having to have her life changed by moving to Dawn's house, Mary Anne and Dawn's relationship being both strong yet still adversarial at times, the wedding even if it was rushed and just this general feel of worldbuilding and change that I love from the series. It does feel very fast-forward in a way. That this could have been something the series had built more towards behind the scenes, and there is this sense of it being very "Oh right, we set this thing up and never followed up on it." Could be worse. Could be establishing Shannon Kilbourne as a secondary BSC member and never using her again since. This book series is good with continuity, but not good at keeping up on everything. I also like the feel of this story having more focus around the wedding than even Kristy's Big Day did. That the balance of baby-sitting and the wedding is better handled here. A definite improvement.
What I didn't care too much for was the Arnold Twins stuff. I get why it's here, this series needs baby-sitting storylines in each book. But part of me feels like this kind of subplot is in the wrong book. The issue surrounding siblings and living together which will be more prevalent in the next book. And it also resolves so easily that it felt like a non-issue in the end. A bunch of chapters of this conflict only for the easiest solution in the world to be "well, they want to be different, just give them their own rooms instead". What it does win me over with a little is the Gozzie Kunka stuff. Like it's so silly that it wraps around to being the best part of this entire subplot. I know we're not getting a payoff to it, but if Gozzie Kunka does exist, that would elevate this book series from GOAT status to the GOAT'S GOAT status.
I thought I'd have more to say on this one, but I don't. Which given this is a deliberate two-parter makes sense. Honestly, THIS should have been a Super Special book instead of Winter Vacation. I get why, the specials are filler in nature and I'd imagine it would just be easier if the reader were just collecting this series that they'd want all of the major events in the series and not stuck to a special edition. But I just really wanted more wedding stuff. Sometimes I question if I truly do have femininity to me and then I get stuff like wedding plots in these books and all I want out of it is as deep a dive into all of that as possible and I go like "Yep. I got that girly girl in me". God I should have realized that earlier and read these growing up! But anyhoo, Solid recommend. Does everything just right and is step up from her last book so Mary Anne remains on good ground with her books. Mary Anne and the Great Romance gets a B+.
Next time, Mary Anne and Dawn are now stepsisters. Yay! Except that might suck, actually? Get ready for buyer's remorse!
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