I just finished "Rich Girls Don't Have to Worry" a short while ago. I enjoyed it. It's from Veronica's perspective, and she seems to genuinely be a decent person. When Betty points out some faults, Veronica has been unaware of them and promises to do better. There were some parts that bothered me, though. The plot revolves around Veronica taking Betty to a resort that neither of them have ever been to during the summer, and they decide to switch identities. The switch (which is for their own amusement and curiosity) would fall apart if a guest that happened to meet Veronica previously happened to see them, but this is never brought up. Betty is unwilling to lie in response to the question of if her father is Hiram Lodge, so she speaks of him in a business sense instead. That's really screwed up. Betty is willing to let people believe she's a rich socialite, but she won't say Mr. Lodge is her father? (Although, she does start her response with "Yes", so it seems she inadvertantly lied.) What's the problem? Is it that Betty would be verbally telling a lie? Is there a word for people that are perfectly okay with leading people on but can't bring themselves to physically lie? There was also a catch-and-release message regarding fishing that irked me. I don't care for fishing in the slightest, but this just really sounded like heavy-handed moralizing on Mike Pellowski's part. Finally, the spelling and punctuation got a little sloppy towards the end. Overall, I'm not sure what each girl learned from the switch. Betty learned rich girls aren't worry-free, I guess. Veronica learned, um, that some rich people take advantage of other rich people for their connections, I guess. Anyway, it's a good story.

I finished reading "My Father, The Enemy" last night (well, this morning at around 1:30 AM). Here are my thoughts:

8. My Father, The Enemy - This is a nice story. It's from Veronica's perspective, and Mike tries to do more with her character than the mean, superficial treatment that we often get. As in "Rich Girls Don't Have to Worry", Veronica seems to be a genuinely nice person, and she definitely makes strides in discovering her true potential when she fights for Evergreen Forest, even with the occasional superficial concerns (her manicure being ruined, checking herself out on a TV monitor and therefore missing a question asked of her on live TV, etc.). Mr. Lodge almost approaches TV movie levels of meanness, but it's a lot tamer than how he's portrayed in LWA:TML. Bernadette Brownlee makes a cameo appearance after her starring role in "Class Clown". Judy Johnson (of "One Last Date With Archie" and "The Big Breakup") is here as well. One interesting thing is this novel is 100% Archie/Veronica. There is ZERO Archie/Betty content, not even a passing reference. Betty isn't upset at all that Archie and Veronica are spending so much time together. It's as if Betty is just a friend. Anyway, this is one of my favorite of the Riverdale High novels. Unfortunately, the only ones that I have left to read are "It's First Love, Jughead Jones" and "Is That Arabella?".

As for how the comic adaptation compares, it's been a while since I've read it. I'll have to re-read it.