With unraveled embroidery and fraying hems, the Traveling Pants are back for one last, glorious summer.
Lena: Immerses herself in her painting and an intoxicating summer fling, fearing that the moment she forgets about Kostos will be the moment she sees him again.
Carmen: Falls under the spell of a sophisticated college friend for whom a theatrical role means everything and the heritage of the Pants means nothing.
Bridget: Joins a dig for an ancient city on the coast of Turkey and discovers that her archaeology professor is available in every way except one.
Tibby: Leaves behind someone she loves, wrongly believing he will stay where she has left him.
Join Ann Brashares's beloved sisterhood once again in a dazzling, fearless novel. It's a summer that will forever change the lives of Lena, Carmen, Bee, and Tibby, here and now, past and future, together and apart.
I think out of all of the books in this series this one was my favorite (but not by much) because I did feel like they were growing up and there was a lot more going on in this book. I did get immersed in this book and read it fairly quickly. The small snippets of each girl made me want to continuously flip the pages of the book, but like the other books, I still did not feel like there was enough.
This book takes place the summer after the girls have completed their first year of college. They've been away from each other for an entire year, never really able to all meet up at the same time. I was excited to read this one because through the other books I have watched them grow and mature and I wanted to see how they handled college life. It's also closer to my age, even though my experience the summer after my first year of college was a lot different (I think I pulled weeds from my Grandma's garden and listened to Pretty Little Liars on audio, so, yeah, a lot different).
Anyway, let's go through the girls, shall we?
Lena is taking painting courses during the summer at her campus. The thing with Lena is that I like her, at times. I like her as a person because I am an artist myself (even though I don't draw people) and I like seeing how much she loves art. In the last book, she was one of my favorites, but in the last book, she was focused on her art, not Kostos. Kostos Kostos Kostos. Gosh, I know other readers love him, but I really can't stand him. Lena is a fantastic character when she is not obsessing over Kostos. In this book, she obsesses over him yet again, even though she develops a relationship with another artist. <highlight to view spoiler> One of the reasons why I don't like Kostos is that he just can't leave the girl in peace. She starts to get over him in book 2, then he comes back and starts something up again. Then he breaks her heart. It takes until this book to get over him and THEN HE COMES BACK AGAIN! And yes, he might have redeemable qualities, but from what I've seen of him, it feels like he needs Lena as a "back-up". He's caused Lena so much pain and she really does not need him to keep coming back to break her heart. I'm sorry. I do not ship this.<end of spoiler>
While at school Carmen has a hard time finding friends and becomes invisible, then Julia invites her to help with the theatre set which later gives her an opportunity at a theatre event. I feel like Carmen has gone through a lot of change since the start of the series. It's odd that most of that change is not seen in this book, but it is interesting to see how Carmen interacts away from her family. I've struggled with her character in the past because she was a bit of a brat in previous books, but she is certainly not a brat in this book. Her story had some quieter moments and unlike the others, no romantic moments (which is definitely not a bad thing since I was not really a fan of most of the romantic moments in this book), but I did like that this summer gave her strength to be someone without her friends or her family always by her side and recognize who will be there for her.
Bridget travels to Turkey for an archeological dig. With Bridget, I feel like her story continued to show her bravery and spontaneity Seeing her passion of just discovering objects in the dirt (or the dirt itself) was really amazing to see. It really fit her character. What I did not like about Bridget's story was her interactions with her professor. There is attraction there, but he is ten years older, has a wife and children, and Bridget is still dating Eric. It was very uncomfortable and I never like cheating in books, even if it turned into a lesson.
Tibby stays on campus and I guess takes classes (even though you never see her in class or do any work?). The main focus of her story is that she is with Brian, but after they get too close and Tibby has a scare, she distances herself from him. Again. Just like the last book. I didn't really care about Brian one way or another when starting this book because I honestly didn't know enough about him, but the way Tibby keeps distancing herself from being in a relationship with him doesn't really give me hope for their relationship. I did have problems with Brian in this book. <highlight to view spoiler> According to Tibby, Brian kept pestering her about sex but Tibby did not feel ready. One night they were drunk, kissing, and Brian asked her if she was ready and she said: "I don't know". Then they had sex. This bothers me because Tibby never said yes and later there is a pregnancy scare and I think she had some anxiety over the fact that her decision, her choice, was taken away from her. But she never talks about that with Brian, in fact when they supposedly get back together, I don't think they even talk about the pregnancy scare. <end of spoiler>
IN CONCLUSION
Overall, while reading this book I very much wanted to keep reading and know what happened to the characters. I do think they have matured since the first book and this book does feature some more adult subjects. After reading, I did think back and realize that I had more issues with parts of the story than I thought and, just like the last books, not too much actually happens to each girl, but I like how these books have shown their friendship grow and change over time and I did find the way the book ended somewhat satisfactory.
There is another book, Sisterhood Everlasting, which takes place ten years later, but...I think I'll skip it. After reading some reviews, it seems like some of the characters act uncharacteristically, they regress in maturity, and end up with some of the people I mentioned above that I found problematic. I think I'll just come up with my own future for the four girls.
I hereby give this book
3 Stars
Meaning: I liked it.
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