Forever in Blue - the Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood - Ann Brashares

This is the book where we're saying goodbye to Lena, Tibby, Camen and Bee, young women who I've spent the last several years reading about and who even though they're not real, surely seem to be. Ann Brashares has done a masterful job of character development in these Sisterhod of the Traveling Pants series, and she does not fall short in this last of the series. I will say, however, that knowing it was the last one, I think I read it differently and probably because of this it's not my favorite of the four. I didn't want to become as invested in the characters because I knew they wouldn't be coming back. It's sort of like when you meet someone that you really connect with, but you know they live far away or move in different circles or whatever so you won't be seeing them again, and so you don't really let yourself get close to them so that you won't miss them later. Have you ever done that? It's actually interesting, because it's sort of like one of the things that's happening in the novel, too.

In this novel, the girls are in college, and there are too many things that happen that aren't really appropriate for a middle school library book ,so I'm not going to get it for our library, but you can get it at Multnomah County if you've read all the rest and want to read the conclusion. Get your box of Kleenex handy, though.