Warning: Contains Spoilers!!! 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. Do NOT continue to read unless you want to know which girl acted like a total bitch in this book. Because you know at least one of them did.
Tag Line: They're hired. And they could be fired. (Why do these all have such lame tag lines?)From the Back of the Book: Suddenly it's all work - and no fun! With a little help from photos of her family's Boston mansion, Jane has gotten the girls of 407 the perfect summer job. It's getting a big, old house cleaned up, repaired and decorated before the owner's return. At first the job is interesting and fun. But as one thing after another goes wrong, from flooded bathrooms to collapsing stairs, Andy and Toby realize this might be too much to handle! But can they convince Jane that they need help before it's too late? Is there any way the girls of 407 can get the job done - and remain friends?
For the record: the job was never interesting or fun. These blurb writers don't even read these things, do they?
This book was published in 1988. It's
another one I've never read though the cover looks familiar to me.
The ghostie for this one is Carol Ellis. She also wrote Princess
Who which was a pretty good
book. If I remember right, it had actual continuity and character
integrity (meaning they all acted like themselves). I go into this
with high hopes.
Toby
almost got a cover! My eye actually went to her first for once. It
only took a million books to happen! Yay, Toby! I think this cover
artist did a pretty good job with their outfits. They're all wearing things I'd
expect their characters to wear......except for Jane's shoes. I
seriously doubt princess Jane owns a pair of high-top sneakers. Even
if she did, I doubt she'd wear them outside of a gym. She's much too
proper for that ish. {delicate sniff}
Canby
Hall Catch-Up: You guys know the basics. We have three protagonists
(Jane
– high society princess, Andy
– urban ballerina and Toby
– small town ranch girl). Jane is dating Cary-the-rock-god
from the nearby boys' school Oakley Prep. Andy is dating a boy named
Matt
who is sometimes said to be from the public school in town and
sometimes said to be from Oakley Prep. Well, I should say she's
dating Matt when she's not dating Steve
who works in her family's rib shack. It mostly depends on her
geographic location at the time. Toby is dating the ultra-proper
Neal
from Boston (who happens to be Jane's ex),
and crushing on local rancher Randy
who has magical aging powers that allow him to be a different age in
every book. In the last book, finals were looming at Canby. On top
of that, Jane found out she had to write an essay for a literary
contest. Reports of the ghost of Julia
Canby being seen on campus proved to be very distracting for
everyone. Jane became obsessed with reading Julia's diary and Andy
became obsessed with trying to manage Jane's time for her. In the
end, the “ghost” was revealed to be Gigi
and her friend Agnes
but we never really found out why they did it. Oh, and Jane won the
contest because of course she did.
Those Who Shall Not Be Unnamed: Former
407 residents Dana-the-life-ruiner, Shelley-the-drama-llama
and Faith-the-sanctimonious
and former housemother-extraordinaire-Alison.
Hey, just because they've all moved on doesn't mean we can't worship
them at least once every book.
Missing, Presumed Dead: Guys, I think
we have to accept that Laura Lee is gone and never coming
back. #momentofsilence Also notably missing are Gigi,
Agnes, Yolanda and
Michael-the-school-shrink. These absences make sense to the storyline, however, since school is out for the summer.
Risen
From the Tulip Bed: Randy is back among the living and he doesn't
seem to be eating more brains than usual, so I think he's good.
We
begin with Toby walking across campus. It's a beautiful day but no
one is outside. School is over for the term and everyone – well,
almost everyone - is busy packing to go home. For reasons that are
never explained, the girls from 407 along with the 409 girls (Maggie
and Dee)
and Penny
are being allowed to stay an extra month after everyone else goes
home. I have no idea why the school is allowing this. The cafeteria
will be closed and the staff gone (except
Merry-the-second-best-housemother
and, I assume, PA-the-head-bitch-in-charge
since she lives on campus). The 407 girls are planning to get jobs
for the month. Dee and Maggie are also working to help pay for some
of their fall tuition.
You
know, we're one page in and I have to call #bullshit already. Andy
HAS a job. She works in her parent's restaurant. Futhermore her
parents are extremely “Andy-sick” for their oldest daughter and
barely survived the separation of the school year so there's no way
they'd give her permission to stay an extra month.
We get
our standard room description (which is NOT the room featured on the
cover, by the way) and our paragraph about how the roommates are very
different but still great friends. You know....Jane steals painting
from her family's art gallery to support her cocaine habit, Andy
works the pole at the Boobie Hatch in Greenleaf to put food on the
table for the twins and Toby smuggles blood diamonds from Africa in
tea bags (which is, omg, why she has one taped to the ceiling!!) but
they all come together to drink tea, gossip and knit sweaters for
Alaskan puppies with dandruff.
The
roommates pour over the Help Wanted ads in the Greenleaf paper but
come away disappointed. They're looking for temporary work since
they'll be gone in a month and there were only two temporary jobs listed. One
is for a dog walker which Toby decides to apply for. The other is
for a “junior captain” at the Greenleaf Inn. Andy tells us it's
like a busboy/hostess and she's fairly certain she can handle it with
her restaurant background.
The
next morning, Andy is up bright and early. The open interviews at
the restaurant begin at 9:00 and she wants to be the first one there.
We stay in her head through her morning exercises (riveting!) and
then hop into Jane's head. She decides to go to the diner in town to have
breakfast, hoping she'll see Cary. He teases her about being awake
so early and then asks how the job search is going. She tells him it
isn't going well and we then take a three sentence hop into Cary's
head while he thinks that Jane is smart and capable of doing anything
she sets her mind to but doesn't give off the appearance of someone
who is serious about menial labor. {delicate sniff}
First:
#teamCary. He thinks so positively about that spoiled brat he loves.
Second: Ellis, YOU DON'T HOP INTO A RANDOM CHARACTER'S HEAD FOR
THREE SENTENCES IN THE MIDDLE OF A CHAPTER.
Cary
recommends that Jane go to the employment agency in town because they
might be able to point her in the right direction and she's extremely
excited about the idea. She rushes home to change into more proper
clothes.
Now
we're back in Toby's head as she walks up to the dog client's home.
She tells us her duties will be walking the five dogs in the morning
and evening, grooming them twice a week and scooping poop out of the
backyard. When the door opens, Toby is shocked to see that all five
dogs are massive. There are two German Shepherds, a Doberman and two
large mixed-breeds. They're not very well mannered and their owner,
a little old lady, worries that Toby is too “slim” to walk them.
Toby says she's been around animals all her life and knows how to
handle them and the old lady agrees to give her a chance.
We hop
into Andy's head as she awaits her interview. She's padded her
resume quite a bit mentioning how she's ordered supplies and managed
her father's restaurant. When she's called back, the interviewer
questions her about these inflated claims and she admits that she
ordered supplies once when her mom had a sore throat and she helped
her brother run things for two days when her parents had the flu.
The dude is not impressed and Andy is offended. She whines a bit,
telling the guy she's more than qualified but he rebuffs her. He
tells her the Inn is too amazing to take a chance on an inexperienced
kid and sends her on her way.
Now
we're with Jane at the employment agency and she's having much the
same luck. The employment counselor asks her about her job skills
and Jane replies that she writes well and she's good at decorating.
She's informed that writing and decorating jobs for 15-year-olds
aren't exactly thick on the ground in Greenleaf. Just like Andy,
Jane is offended and appalled. Clearly this woman hasn't been given
the brief that the 407 girls are to be worshipped and given special
favors. Jane leaves the agency in a big huff.
We're
back with Toby. Dog walking isn't going well at all. The dogs
aren't leash trained and practically drag her to the park. When they
get there, Toby ties their leashes to a bench and sits down. She's
mumbling to herself about their lack of manners when Randy rocks up.
They talk for a moment. She tells him she's supposed to let the dogs
run loose for awhile but she's not confident that they'll come back
if she does. He offers to stay and help her and she lets the dogs
go. Everything goes well for a bit. She and Randy enjoy playing
fetch with the dogs. Eventually it's time to go home and Toby calls
for the dogs. Four of them come right back and allow her to leash
them up. Charlie,
one of the german shepherds, uses this opportunity to make a break
for it and he jumps the hedge of the dog park.
Toby
follows him on foot with the other dogs and Randy follows by truck
but Charlie is tricky and easily loses them both. Dejected, Toby
heads back to the owner's house. When she gets there, Charlie is
sitting on the porch looking smug as hell. The owner is furious and
Toby is fired.
The
girls all go out for pizza and then head back to the dorms to go to
bed. Jane can't sleep, though. The almost-empty dorm is way too
quiet for her after an entire year of noise and chaos. She decides
to go through the want ads again. This time something catches her
eye.
“Family traveling in
Europe needs reliable firm to prepare Greenleaf house for homecoming
– 3 ½ wks. Clean-up inside & out, some painting, repair work
and decorating. For details, write John Higgins, P.O. Box 721,
Greenleaf.”
Jane
decides then and there that the firm of “Barrett, Cord and
Houston” are going to apply for the job. She tells her
roommates about it over breakfast at the diner and is amazed when
they don't jump up and down at the idea. Toby points out sensibly
that taking care of a whole house is a big job and they're not really
qualified for it. Jane gives them a huge pep talk, and when that
doesn't work she calls them chicken. They reluctantly agree to at
least check it out. Cary wanders over and Jane fills him in. He's
skeptical because he isn't an idiot but supportive because he's
awesome. He thinks they should rename their “firm”,
though, because it sounds like a law office. He suggests 407,
Inc.
That
evening, Jane drafts a letter to John Higgins from 407, Inc. She
includes a couple of pictures from her Boston home, saying that she
was instrumental in their decoration. Which....#bullshit. She
probably picked out a pillow or something and now she considers
herself an interior designer.
Two
mornings later, Higgins calls the “firm”. He sets up an
interview for later that day. Toby and Andy wait in the diner while
Jane goes to Higgins' office. While they're waiting, Randy comes in.
He invites them all to come out to the ranch that afternoon for a
ride. Toby is thrilled. Andy is cautious. She isn't much of a
rider. They never actually seem to go on this ride so I have no idea what the point of these paragraphs was.
Jane
finally returns with the news they've been hired. (#bullshit)
They've been given a $1500 advance and will be paid the remaining
$1500 when the job is done. They have to use some of the money to
buy the supplies they need though. They have to paint a living room, shampoo the carpets, fix some stairs up to an outside deck and
then decorate and furnish a sun porch. I don't think they're going
to have a fortune left over, but they're all pretty excited about it.
They decide to go check it out right away. Randy and Cary tag
along.
When
they get to the house, they discover it's enormous. The room they're
supposed to paint is massive and covered with dark, forest green
paint. Randy points out that it's going to take several cans of
paint to even do the entire room and they'll probably have to do
several coats to cover the dark color. There are a ton of rugs in
the house and the sunporch they're supposed to decorate and furnish
is much bigger that they expected. It's going to be a huge amount of
work. Everyone is surprised that Jane took the job after seeing the
house and that's when she admits she took the job without seeing the
house. Both guys think the girls are over their heads and in this
case they aren't being sexist. Just sensible. Jane is determined to
see it through and won't listen to any dissent.
They
start with the yard the next morning. It hasn't been touched since
the previous summer and there are tons of limbs and things down.
They spend the entire morning hauling brush to a pile at the end of
the driveway. PA drives by and sees what they're doing. She stops
to tell them that they'll be fined if they leave it there. They're
going to have to pay someone to haul it off. Jane suggests they move
the pile to a spot not visible from the street and deal with it
later. By the time they do that, they're hot, sweaty and tired.
They
take a lunch break at the diner where they run into Dee, Maggie and
Penny. Jane keeps insisting that everything is going fine and the
job is perfect for them.
The
next morning things get off to a really bad start. Toby is severely
sunburned and Andy can barely move her arms. Jane's back is stiff
and sore and she's not moving too fast either. It's pouring down
rain so they can't finish the yard work. The decide to shampoo the
upstairs rugs and clear out the sunporch. Randy helps them rent the
shampooer and then lugs it upstairs for them before he heads back to
his ranch. Toby decides to tackle the rugs while Andy and Jane go to
move the boxes out of the sunporch. To their horror, the boxes are
filled with bricks.
The
carpet shampooer goes psycho on Toby and ends up covering her from
head to toe in blue soap before dying a noisy death. She gets
cleaned up and then Penny surprises them by arriving with a picnic.
She joins them for lunch on the covered deck and then offers to stay
and help out a bit. Jane bristles. This is her job and she doesn't
Penny around mucking things up. She tells Penny she can't help and
Andy is furious. They need all the help they can get. The two argue
for a bit but Toby is on Andy's side and Jane is outvoted. She
relents and grants Penny permission to help them out.
A
week passes and they've barely made progress. Jane is starting to
worry. She's frustrated that she can't find quality decorating
materials in Greenleaf and she writes her mother asking for a
catalog from the design house they used to do their own sunporch.
She seriously has no concept of money. I bet it's entirely gone by
the time they're finished. But the owners will probably be so happy
with their work that they'll give them a huge bonus. (#prediction)
She takes the morning off to mail the letter and then order the
supplies they'll need to paint the living room. When she returns to
the house she discovers another catastrophe. Penny, Toby and Andy
were headed up to the deck to sweep or something and Andy's foot went
right through one of the stairs.
Andy
is trapped, unable to pull her foot free because of the wood cutting
into her leg. Jane gives her a scarf to work between her skin and
the wood and Andy is eventually able to free herself. Andy is
scraped and badly bruised but otherwise okay.
Another
week passes. They manage to finish the yard but they're all pretty
panicked about getting the rest down in time. On painting day,
they're irritable and snapping at each other. Andy's leg hurts, Toby
is coming down with a bad cold and Jane is having to admit to herself
that she bit off WAY more than she could chew.
#YouTHINK?
Luckily
for them, Cary, Maggie and Dee all have the exact same day off work
(#carryingcoincidenceaTADtoofar) and they come to help along with
Penny. Many hands make light work and they get the first coat on
before lunch. They estimate it will take at least two more before
the green is adequately covered. They're making so much progress
that Andy decides she's going to take the next day off. Matt is
coming to visit for one day only and she doesn't want to make him sit
and watch her work all day. Naturally she doesn't tell Jane or Toby
about this decision.
Meanwhile,
Toby is getting sicker and sicker. She can't even talk at this point
and she feels awful.
Jane
sits with Cary under a tree in the yard to have lunch. He tries to
be encouraging but realistic and she gets pissed as usual because he isn't bowing down in awe of her.
(#emancipateCary) He tells her that she's stressing herself out too
much and invites her to come with him to Boston the next day. He's
visiting his family and going to listen to a symphony. She yells
that he's the worst, most unsupportive boyfriend in the world because
a supportive boyfriend would know that she can't take the day off
when her reputation is on the line. She also accuses him of
purposely trying to sabotage her and make her job harder.
#getoveryourself
#thisdoesn'tbodewellforAndy
Cary
decides to go home at that point. Can't say I blame him. I wish
he'd save himself and run far, far away.
Andy
never does tell her roommates that she's taking the day off. The
next morning she gets up early to meet Matt's train. When she gets
back from the showers, Jane's awake. She tells Jane that Matt is
arriving soon. Jane comments that she hopes he won't be too bored
and then says he can always pitch in and work with them. Andy tells
her that she's taking the day off and.............
The
ensuing screaming match wakes up Toby (and probably Dee, Maggie and
Penny). Andy won't be cowed and she leaves, determined to enjoy the
day with Matt. Jane resigns herself to a crew of Toby and Penny.
Unfortunately Toby is much, much worse and running a fever. Merry is summoned and she takes Toby to go see a doctor. Toby is diagnosed
with strep throat and given some antibiotics. Unfortunately she's
going to have to spend a couple days in bed.
Jane's
bad day gets worse. When she gets to the house she discovers a pipe
has burst in the upstairs bathroom causing extensive damage to that
room and the room below. She gets the water turned off and then
heads for Higgins' office to tell him he needs to hire a plumber and
someone to repair the floor/ceiling. Higgins is unhappy with her.
He stopped by the house the previous evening and discovered how
little work has been accomplished. She reassures him that they house
will be handled and then she leaves.
Meanwhile,
Andy is feeling heaps guilty about leaving off for the day. She
fills Matt in on the situation and he graciously offers to go with
her to the house so they can put some work in. By the time they
arrive, Jane is back and Penny has shown up. Penny is really being a
good friend here because the work is hard, the hours are long and
she's not getting paid at all.
#TeamPenny
Things
are looking bleak. The job is over in a week and there's no way that
they'll be able to complete it on time. But this is Canby Hall and
everything MUST turn out perfectly for the residents of 407 so a Deus
ex Machina appears right on schedule. In a stunning.....and let's
face it unrealistic and unbelievable....stroke of good luck, Jane
hears from Merry that the school handyman and his sons are looking
for odd jobs in order to make extra money over the summer. Jane can
hire them and still clear a little money. All is well!!!!!!!!!!!
The
house gets finished and Jane and Cary make up. He apologizes for not
being sensitive to her sudden work ethic and she apologizes for
acting like herself. With a massive amount of help from Cary, Randy,
Penny, Dee and Maggie, 407 Inc has pulled off the impossible.
Was
there ever any doubt?
The
last book disappointed me with it's lack of cheesy ending line. This
book delivered.
“Taking a last look
at the house as they reached a curve in the drive, the three
roommates realied ther were rich – not in money but in friendship.”
The
Least Annoying Person in Greenleaf Award: This goes to Penny. She
sacrificed her entire month of leisure to do hard labor for little
recognition and no pay. She is a much better person than the rest of
them.
The
Bitch of Baker House Award: I'm giving this to Jane for her blow-up
at Cary and at Andy. The way she treats Cary is deplorable and I
can't believe the writers think this is okay.
Coming
up Next: An unexpected romance blooms when Andy and Jane visit Toby
at her ranch in Texas. Does this mean Toby is finally getting a
cover??? Also, neither Andy nor Jane are single and romance should
definitely NOT be blooming. #fuckfidelity
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