It felt like all the character development we saw in the last book was nonexistent in this one.

I /hated/ Bridget's storyline. Can we STOP pairing her with older men!? Her plot with Eric was bad enough (who is now her boyfriend in this book), but she cheats on him. Openly flirts with her 30 year old professor at an archeology dig, KNOWING that he is married with two small children. She is what, 18 in this book? Absolutely disgusting. They even kiss - and discuss how they would have liked to go further. This is irredeemable behavior, and yes, it takes two to tango, but Bridget should have absolutely known better and it just makes her a horrible person in my eyes. Can we stop putting her in absolute inappropriate and predatory relationships!? Worse off, she doesn't face any consequences - internal or external.

I never believed Tibby and Brian were a good fit together, and would have quite been happy if they both decided they just weren't right for each other and went their seperate ways - or Tibby decided she just wasn't ready for a relationship. Cause frankly, she just isn't. I wasn't a fan of her dilemma.

I was annoyed with Lena as well, because I am quite frankly sick of Kostos. He is not all that, girl. I liked Leo, and was irked at how it never developed in the end. He felt like a shoe-horn for until Kostos showed up, which was a disappointment.

Carmen's story was the only one I liked, and while I hated Julia I wish her plot was more focused on how it was ok to make new friends, and not 'everyone is horrible and fake besides the Septembers.' Also, Win was so amazing last book, where did he go

Re-read 2019

I am so glad that I decided to re-read this series because I realize that the two movies made are part of the reason that I was so confused as to each individual girl's timeline. Book 4 sees the girls now having completed a successful year at college where they are now more used to being away from one another. In fact, the pants have been circulating more often than usual and not restricted to summer. Tibby and Brian are ready to take their relationship to the next level, but will they be ready for the consequences? Bridget is off to Turkey, but she's worried about Eric, her family, and a cute university professor. Carmen actually has a storyline that just concentrates on her own personal growth, and Lena finally( she's real serious about it, I swear!) believes she's ready to move on from Kostos.

There was plenty of angst in this one and I have to say the highlight was the maddening storyline between Tibby and Lena's sister, Effie. I selfishly wish it could have been much earlier in the book series to add a bit of history and spice to books.

Overall verdict: Has it aged well? I am always going to have special place in my heart for these four gals and their summer adventures and one special pair of blue jeans. I love how these four young women are just there for each other. That's what female friendship should be all about.


Goodreads review 14/11/19

The reason I rated this one star is because of the girls' relationships in this book. I didn't like how their relationships took over the book and were serious. What I loved about the series was how it was about staying true to yourself and your friends and how the girls were such good friends to each other, so this book bothered me because it didn't have that same idea. As a whole, I'd rate the series 4 stars, but this book kind of ruined some of it for me.

TRAAAAAAAAASH.

TRASHTRASHTRASHTRASH.

Talk about disappointing endings.

I mean this book was just hanging on to the drama of the past three while pretending to move on and honestly I think we all would have been better off without this book.

Come to think of it, the series probably could have stopped at one.

The first book was the best book.

Je suis contente d'avoir un dernier tome à découvrir mais ce 4ème tome aurait tout à fait pu être une conclusion finale satisfaisante.
Les problèmes et préoccupations de nos 4 protagonistes ont évolués et sont tout à fait adéquats à leurs âges. Aussi leurs histoires sont toujours aussi intéressantes et variées.
Une écriture très fluide et prenante; on ne voit pas les pages défiler.
Que du bon!

Magic:)

Reviewed by Taylor Rector for TeensReadToo.com

FOREVER IN BLUE is truly a bittersweet book! It has a truly amazing story but I'm sad that this is the final book in the SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS series. I never wanted this series to end! It is a remarkable ending to such a great series, though!

Lena: She is afraid that when she finally forgets about Kostos he will reappear. At her college she is taking a summer painting class and maybe she will meet someone new there.

Carmen: Shy Carmen, who thinks that she is invisible to the rest of the college students, finally makes a friend. She and her new friend have a summer that no one would suspect.

Bridget: She goes on an archaeological dig in Turkey and meets someone that she can't have. But what about Erik, who is still in love with her???

Tibby: Tibby and Brian have a few rough spots in their relationship. Will they be able to handle it? Or will it mean the end of their relationship?

As I'm sure you can tell there is never a dull moment while reading this book. There is always something going on with everyone. There is a major twist in the end of the book that I never saw coming. You will have to be the judge on whether it's a good twist or not, but I thought that it was well put and really tied in to the story.

Just as a warning, though, if you have not read the first three books in this amazing series (THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS, THE SECOND SUMMER OF THE SISTERHOOD, GIRLS IN PANTS) do not read this book until you have read the others. I wouldn't want you to ruin a perfectly good, well-written book!

Well, it was another enjoyable read from Ann Brashared. I really enjoyed The Sisterhood's adventure in their four summers. Though some stories were a little bit unrealistic and exaggerated, it was fun and entertaining as a whole story.

3.5 stars, although I am sure I loved it more when I read it years ago (and reread it more than once). I really liked the overarching realization that occurs regarding the Pants by the end of the book, I have to say. Also, Carmen’s story was my favorite in this one, though I also liked Bee’s a lot too.

Loved this series! One more to go I think...

The only true paradise is paradise lost. - Marcel Proust

One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead. - Oscar Wilde

...and down they forgot as up they grew - e.e. cummings

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song.
A medley of extemporanea:
And love is a thing that can never go wrong:
And I am Marie of Roumania.
-Dorothy Parker

Pain is inevitable: suffering is optional. - Greta Randolph

Make friends with your sweat this summer. She had a kind of boot-camp mentality Bridget decided. She was excited about privation.
Well, Bridget could get excited about privation too.

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not. - Epicurus

In the depth of winter. I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. - Albert Camus

Most people when they sensed a crisis got despotically curious, needing to stake out the far boundary of trouble.

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward. -Vernon Law

A wife like you had in a real family. Kids like you had in a real family. Kids who jumped around and needed things.

An opera in Italian was playing over the speaker to the left of Effie's head.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad. - Aldous Huxley

Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that you live, if you do. - Elizabeth Bowen

Love was an idea. Nothing more or less.
If you lost the idea, if you somehow forgot about it, the person you loved became a stranger. Love lives in the memory. It can be forgotten.
But she knew the darkest parts of growing up had become linked to him that night. Those dark parts had attached to him & somehow overwhelmed the fragile idea of love.

Where there is nothing, there is the possibility of everything. When you live nowhere, you live everywhere.
You have to be like a turtle; you have to figure out how to bring your home along with you.

Carmen felt the familiar reactions, outmoded and dislodged though they were. She felt the old pull of gratitude. She felt needy & uncertain. She still clung to the notion of a friend, even a crappy one.

Life's a voyage that's homeward bound. - Herman Melville

crazy is what crazy do - The Black Eyed Peas

Poor empty pants
With nobody inside them. - Dr. Seuss

At first cock-crow the ghosts must go
Back to their quiet graves below. - Theodosia Garrison

Ruins stood for what was lost, and yet they were beautiful - peaceful, historic, intellectual. Not tragic or regrettable. Why not celebrate what you had had rather than spend your time mourning its passing? There could be joy in things that ended.

How powerful it was to give up your desires. It was like bargaining for a rug. Your only leverage was being able to walk away.

So often the world was made of jumps & starts, but tonight it was round & continuous.

She looked out the window and saw the proud full moon hanging over the Caldera, seeming to enjoy its own perfect reflection below.

It seemed to Carmen they were putting off having to touch their feet to the earth again. The earth turned and time passed and then they would have to think about what it meant. But the hour did come, as all hours do.

Those are the places we grew up and the times we spent together, but they aren't us. If we think they are, then we're lost, because times end and places are lost. We aren't any place or any time.
That's the thing. We are everywhere.

"It is not enough for you to succeed; your friends must also fail" = toxicity = BOO!

Most to least favorite arcs in the fourth book:

1. Bridget - I'm really happy that this came full circle to tie back to Bridget's insecurities about family, instead of just romance. Everything felt like it fit together and I was happy with the ending - as opposed to some other arcs (both for Bridget and other characters) where it feels like things just end to end. I really liked the way her full story came to a close and resolved her main conflicts.

2. Carmen - I think Carmen's arc could have been shorter or more complex - I thought the backstabbing friend was a really basic trope for their first year in college and I wish she had been given more. I liked that she was able to break free from her comfort zone, but this felt like something that could've been a subject way earlier in the series, not towards the end.

3. Lena - I loved the theme about recognizing that not everything is forever, but I thought the ending totally undermined it. I really wish Lena had been written better over the course of the series and been allowed to be her own person, instead of constantly being used for will-they-won't-they anticipation.

4. Tibby - I know where Tibby was coming from, since I had a pregnancy scare early on, but I really hated the way this book was dumb about sex ed. Her emotions are spot-on, but people who read this should know about Plan B, and how this is a common thing, and etc. It completely ignores that in favor of wallowing.

Of course, in the end they don't need the pants to be friends and thus concludes all the Sisterhood books that I've previously read. (I'll be finishing the series with the two I haven't)

why are we growing up??