Valentine’s Day in River Heights isn’t full of love and friendship this year. Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew’s friendship is in ruins in “Valentine’s Day Secret” by Carolyn Keene. Nancy, George and Bess all take a visit to Farmer Fran’s Barnyard Buddies to make their own special stuffed animals. The place is crowded on the weekend and because it’s Valentine’s Day, Farmer Fran is putting prize tickets in some of the pockets of the stuffed animals. Whoever finds a ticket in the pocket of their stuffed animal gets a special prize. Excited, the girls run back to their stuffed animals to see if they got one.

None of the girls are in luck but Bess does find a surprise in the pocket of her Barnyard Buddy. At first Bess is excited and thinks that she has won one of the special prizes but soon finds out that it’s a Valentine. Bess opens it to read it and see who it is from and gets very upset at what is in her hand. It is a Valentine but instead of a sweet poem, it’s mean and nasty. There is no name left on it saying who wrote it but Bess is sure that her best friend and cousin, George wrote the note and left it there for her.

Nancy can’t believe what she is witnessing. The three girls have been best friends forever and were supposed to stay best friends forever. Bess and George are no longer on speaking terms and The Clue Crew is now The Clue Two. George swears that she didn’t leave that nasty Valentine there for Bess and has no clue where it came from. Nancy knows that George didn’t do it and can’t see why Bess would think that she did. George would never do something that mean to any of them

Now Nancy and The Clue Two must find a way to prove that George is innocent. The two need to head back to Farmer Fran’s Barnyard Buddies to start their investigation and look for clues that could lead them to the person who did leave that nasty letter for Bess. Especially since Bess has decided to throw a special Valentine’s Day party at her house and Nancy and George are not invited. But if the two of them can solve the case in time, they can tell Bess, go to the party and once again be The Clue Crew.