Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood (Sisterhood of Traveling Pants)

Although this wasn't my fave Sisterhood book, it deserves kudos for not only reflecting the maturity of the characters at this point in their lives, but also the realities of growing up and growing apart. This is the fourth and supposedly final chapter of the Sisterhood tomes, and is likely to provide a conclusive feeling for the readers of the series.

To recap, the Travelling Pants series details the summers four best friends spend, sometimes apart, sometimes together. They are of course, as per the legend, bonded together by a pair of 'magical' pants that give them the strength of the love they feel as friends even when they aren't together.

In all fairness I read the third book quite some time ago so reading the new fourth one was a bit of a cognitive leap - I could barely remember a lot of what happened in the past! Anyway in this one the girls are bridging the gap between their first and second year of university. They've actually shared the pants year-round this time because they have spent the year at different colleges etc. That should be your first clue something is up - the girls are very very much so a lot more individual characters this time around, which was both refreshing and problematic. Of the latter, it was good because I was sick and tired of how cheesy and overemphasized their relationship was - although some sappy moments still exist towards the end, they are certainly toned down. But in the absence of their friendship it almost defeated the purpose of the book, and the pants of course.

This time around the girls spend most of their summer apart. Tibby is still in New York working and taking a summer class and wondering whether she has made the right choices when it comes to her relationship with Brian. Bee (my fave as always) is in Turkey getting back to basics on an archeological dig site and wondering whether the best alternative to missing her boyfriend is not missing a single thing her hot professor does. Flamboyent Carmen has surprisingly shrunk into her shell over the last year, and fallen under the wing of a supposedly protective, glorious friend, who turns out to be anything but as their summer continues. Lena is at art school and enraptured with a guy, shockingly this time, not the love of her life, Kostos.

As I mentioned earlier, the book definitely took on a more mature tone than the others - most of it dealt with sex and relationships and very little of it focused on friendship and personal self-growth - although most of the storylines evolve to give the girls those girl power moments of epiphany. Although I enjoyed the storylines a lot more this time it almost felt like the characters were under-used and less developed because there was far less crossover opportunities given their summer was spent so far apart emotionally and physically.

Brashares does a good job wrapping up the series in a realistic way though - Upon finishing it, I realized why she decided to do a fourth (I completely assumed the third would be the last) as each book is kind of meant to represent each of the four girls.

All in all a fitting conclusion to the series that represented, quite honestly, the realities of growing up and moving away when it comes to those true blue friends you thought you'd never forget, and those true blue jeans you thought you'd never lose.

OMG!!! I loved every single one of the books preceding this book and this one hit the mark! It is so wonderful, and though it is so sad that it ends the series the finish is remarkable. Brashare's masterpiece is complete!!!

I thought the prime qualities of the first three books of this series were charm and innocence. For the fourth installment, one of our heroines poses nude for a male art student and another falls for a married man with children. Whatever other qualities the book may have, charming and innocent it is not.

In comparison to her other books, this one disapointed. The characters that always played off of eachother so well in the previous books hardly spent any time together in this book and the connection just was not there as it was in the others.

I was really upset about this one. Brashares has lost her touch.

Ann Brashares did a brillant job on the last installment in the sisterhood of the traveling pants series. In this book, the four girls are torn apart by school and other important things. But in the end the pants reunites them together. Bridget goes to Turkey on a archeological dig, there she misses her friends and her boyfriend Eric, and feels ashamed when she sort of falls in love with a married man. Tibby is working on a script for her video class, but things with Brian get a little to intimate for her and she leaves him, but only begs back for him when Effie, Lena's sister, goes out with him. Carmen goes to work at a theatre as a tech-y. There she realizes that one of the friends she made at her college, isn't a real friend, being happy over Carmen's depression. Carmen's finds herself to be a great actor as she gets the main female role in the production. Lena meets another guy at art school and gets over Kostos. But when Effie steals and loses the traveling pants, all four girls and united in Greece, and Lena realizes that she hasn't treated her sister fairly lately.In the end the four girls decide that they abused the pants' powers and realize that it has done all its magic for them. This was a great, fast read. I would recommend this to anyoine who has read the rest of the book sin the series.