We start on the bouquet throw, with Mary Anne catching it. This of course angers Dawn because it was her mother throwing it, so she should be the one who caught it. So, not even a scant few pages and Dawn's already peeved. But she puts on a good face and calls Mary Anne sis, which makes her happy, so no issues for the time being. This is early in the book, so we get the preamble that just keeps on getting longer. The next day, after Mary Anne tells Dawn about the whole phantom phone call thing from book #2 (all this time and nobody brought that up to Dawn?) They begin moving stuff from Mary Anne's old home, which makes Mary Anne constantly upset. Be it old furniture being donated, Tigger being disoriented, and the general sense of now no longer living by Claudia, Mary Anne is in a constant mood. Jeff heads back to California, but even he notes that he doesn't feel very good vibes coming from Mary Anne. But Dawn is just sure it's the stress of everything happening so suddenly. It's not like Mary Anne is going to stay a pain in the ass... right?
We get the meeting which is interrupted by a sick Mallory. Turns out she has the chicken pox for a second time, likely due to the Newtons having it. Due to this, she's out of commission for a while, meaning that her jobs need to be filled. And the only two available for the jobs just so happen to by Mary Anne and Dawn. Of course, both argue over who should take the job, with it ultimately going to Mary Anne, so Dawn adds that to the list of things that Mary Anne has already taken from her. That night, after Mary Anne sits for the Perkinses, everything's peachy and both get along quite well, so Dawn hopes that this means that all of their beefs are squashed. Be a quick book if that were the case, wouldn't it? Claudia gets the first baby-sitting segment of the book watching the Pikes while also having to deal with Mallory's malady. Say that three times fast. Also the triplets have pneumonia and Nicky has an injured arm so essentially the Pike household is a straight up biohazard. And to tie with the whole sick kids plot, the kids play doctor and patient.
Back to the main plot as it's been some time now since the marriage and the move. We learn that Richard is neat and organized, compared to Sharon, who is usually a mess and sleeps in much later. Richard and Mary Anne also surprise the Dawn and her mother with spring cleaning, which they've never really done. And it annoys Dawn to the point that she un-organizes some of Richard's stuff to mess with him, because I guess why be passive aggressive when you can just mess with someone's OCD? Also Tigger throws up on the rug because even the cat has anxiety. Mary Anne goes to a dance with Logan while Dawn stays at home. She calls Jeff who gives us a bit more about their dad's new girlfriend Carol and her lack of an interest in getting married. But also Dawn starting to feel weird about Mary Anne. How they seem to be so against one another at times, which Jeff can understand as he feels the same way around Carol. Mary Anne returns home, they talk about the dance and things again end on a good enough note, which confuses Dawn some more.
Stacey is up next to deal with the Pikes. Things go fine with more playing doctor until Vanessa crashes her bike and sprains her ankle, now putting another Pike kid on the ailing list. What the hell, did they piss off a witch recently? Morbidda Destiny putting in the work in this book. The next club meeting and we're back to tension with Mary Anne and Dawn. Mary Anne's old house may have sold, and she wants to visit Kristy over the weekend, not to mention she lets Dawn have the sitting job for Jenny Prezzioso AKA the bratty kid she doesn't like sitting for, so Dawn begins to again suspect that something is not going right between them. That maybe they weren't meant to be sisters after all. And it escalates that night when both are in their room trying to study. Dawn studies with music, Mary Anne doesn't and it leads to both of them fighting, the parents trying to fix it, and Mary Anne taking the guest room. So in other words, big ol' happy family right here, huh?
Jessi and Kristy are up next and it's back to the Pike household with all of the kids now ill or injured starting to recover somewhat. Also the parents are injured with Mrs. Pike injured playing tennis and Mr. Pike burning his hand making food. No seriously, what evil curse did this family unleash? They help clean up the house and make breakfast for everyone, so that's nice. Dawn talks with Kristy over everything, and she understands the situation given she also has to deal with a stepfamily and also says that Dawn and Mary Anne will inevitably get over this rough patch. So Dawn thinks that maybe the plan to all of this ties into the Arnold twins conflict last book being around the two having separate rooms. And the way she comes about to this idea is to... scare Mary Anne into making that decision. I've heard of worse ideas. And that's by pretending to be a ghost (at Dawn's House), make noises, ring doorbells and move stuff around. Again, I've heard worse ideas. It does somehow work and it also gets Mary Anne to take the other room, so props to Dawn, Mary Anne is just that easy a mark I guess.
Some more time passes, Mallory's on the mend as are the rest of the Pikes. The Schafer-Spier family is getting along much better, and Mary Anne's old house has been sold to an Austrian family. I doubt it's the case but if it were Gozzie Kunka that would be amazing. So in the end, everything's going along just fine enough for now. Been a bit since we had an old fashioned mega happy ending.
This book is just okay. In terms of character building it's probably Dawn's best book to date. More so than Dawn on the Coast. Mainly in that this book feels like it's almost always focused on her concerns with dealing with Mary Anne as a stepsister. From the changes going on in the household to the two of them at odds with each other, to ultimately it being resolved with them just getting separate bedrooms. Again it feels weird to do that plot point with the Arnold twins last book to pay it off here instead of that being the side plot of this book instead. Though granted, the Pike family's woes were some of the more fun baby-sitting side plot stuff we've gotten in some time. To the point of over-excessive? Maybe. But it's just fun to go into each chapter wondering what the hell else befalls them. Once we get to the injured parents it does start to feel like there's this weird, ominous cloud of bad luck befalling the Pike family. Which actually isn't going to go away any time soon. In fact, it'll be worse in a few books from now. So another pin for the board right there.
This book was also frustrating, but I think that's by design. Like in the same way Claudia and the New Girl was frustrating. Though here it did kind of get annoying going through the whole book with them at each other's throats, then fine with one another, then even worse, lather, rinse, repeat. And I'm mixed on the resolution. Like, the bedroom fix works, and even the whole haunting stuff is at least fun. But it does scream of resolving the issue way too quick on account of the book wrapping up. I also would have preferred a more straightforward approach with Mary Anne and Dawn being able to be open with each other's issues and move forward that way, but this series loves it's sitcom-esque looniness, so I can't quite blame Ann M. Martin for wanting to go that route. You don't really get much of the other girls outside of the Pike stuff, but that's by design given the book's plot. Surprisingly no Karen stuff here, but you'd just have her believe Mrs. Porter put a curse on the Pike family and the Morbidda Destiny stuff is already super redundant.
So overall, as a conclusion to this two-part story, it does what it needs to do. It's got some fun moments and a believable conflict. Perhaps not resolved in the more logical way, but again, kids books. Gotta allow for some silly stuff in this series. Like I said, it's probably the best Dawn-centric story we've had so far. So perhaps I was a bit too hasty to say Ann M. Martin doesn't fully get Dawn. Clearly, 31 books deep I am still unfamiliar with her game. So this book is an easy recommend. Not amazing, but serves as a serviceable wrap-up for the Schafer-Spier wedding storyline. But I am kind of ready to move on to another plot point at least. Dawn's Wicked Stepsister gets a A-.
Next up, Kristy's got a new kid to sit for. An autistic kid. A 90s book about an autistic kid. Look, I trust Ann M. Martin, but I'm walking into this one VERY cautiously.
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