Sisterhood Everlasting (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, #5)

by Ann Brashares

Despite having jobs and men that they love, Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget know something is missing: the closeness that once sustained them. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to be married, but misses her friends. Lena finds solace in her art, teaching in Rhode Island, but still thinks of Kostos and the road she didn't take. Bridget lives with her longtime boyfriend, Eric, in San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bigger part can't seem to shed her old restlessness. When Tibby sends the others plane tickets for a reunion they all breathlessly await, it will change their lives forever, but in ways none of them ever expected. The traveling pants are gone, but the sisterhood lasts forever.

• ISBN10: 0385521227
• ISBN13: 9780385521222
• Publish Date: 5 August 2011 (first published 14 June 2011)
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Out of Print: 8 August 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Random House USA Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[clementine]

Ann Brashares tells a good story. She pulls you in and makes it hard to put the book down. I read this in a day. I stayed up late to finish it. I was totally emotionally invested in it.

This isn't one of those books that's going to stick with me forever. I'm still not cool with what happened. It was pretty cheesy and the ending was too idyllic. But I liked it while I was reading it. It was a good story. There was character development. I fell in love with Bridget, who I don't remember liking that much before.

This probably won't stand the test of time, but it was an enjoyable read.

[Joni Reads]

When I found out this book was coming out I did something I never do: read an excerpt online. I couldn't wait. I am not a patient person and I tend to not read excerpts because then I get angry and impatient that I can't continue reading. But I gave in because this book was a dream come true. Or so I thought.

I loved the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. Devoured it. And I loved 3 Willows. So when I got a copy of The Last Summer of You and Me by Ann Brasheres I thought it would be good. I was wrong. I put it down and walked away after the first few chapters. For some reason I cannot get into Ann Brashere's adult novels. But I gave this book a chance because it was about the Sisterhood and I had missed these characters and had hoped for a book like this for years. Well, I hate to say, the excerpt of the first two chapters was the best part of the book.

What bothered me? Well, the characters were so different. Carmen, who prided herself on being Puerto Rican and curvy in the first four books is now a size 2 and eats one meal a day. Tibby lives in Australia and has lost contact with the other three. Lena is in a relationship with someone she doesn't even care about and has basically cut herself off from her friends and family. Bridget is the only one who hasn't changed much, which relieved me because I loved her spirit in the first books and thankfully, for better or worse, she still has it in this book. But I felt like I didn't know the characters anymore. It didn't feel like a follow up to the other books, it felt like a whole new book with characters I didn't know. I understand people change but the magic of the sisterhood that drew us all in was gone for me.

I wound up skimming the book to find out what happened instead of actually reading it. I will cut this review shirt by saying that I was disappointed. I will continue to read young adult books by this author but that's all.