Third Read: August 22-27, 2016
Second Read: May 2009
Original Read: March 2004

My re-read of the series continues... this time on audio book. All so I can *finally* read the final book in the series, Sisterhood Everlasting.

I found that I was annoyed by most of the girls (with the exception of Bridget) all through this second book in the series.

Carmen - Carmen behaved like an abominable brat for 90% of the book. Her reaction to her mother daring to date and basically have a life made me want to smack her. I understand it had just been her and her mother since her parents divorced, but come on. Carmen was almost 17 years old and would be leaving for college in a year anyway. But Christina had the audacity to date and find some happiness and that sent Carmen into a tailspin and behaving like a selfish child having a tantrum. She was thoroughly unlikable for most of the book.

Tibby - I've always liked Tibby but her choices in this book had me so disappointed. She spent her time and efforts trying to gain the favor of two "cool kids" whose favorite past time was mocking others. And in the process she was thoughtless and cruel to Brian - and her mother - hurting them both. Shame on you, Tibby.

Lena - Lena's pining over Kostos was annoying since it was she that broke things off. And then she's devastated to learn that he went out with a girl? Uh, you broke up with him. Was he supposed to magically understand why and then pine after you till the end of time? The events with Kostos at the end of the book did have me completely sympathetic toward their plight but all the angst leading up to that point smacked of melodrama. (And the thing with Paul? I had totally forgot about that since my last read!)

Bridget - Bridget was the only one who seemed to be making smarter decisions this time around and growing in the process. I loved reading about her summer with Greta.

Not my favorite book in the series but I'm still looking forward to continuing my reread of the series.

tThe pants are back! Here they are to give these wonderful friends the summer they have all been waiting for. I hope this book is as good as the first one! As same as in the first book of the sisterhood the author Ann Brashares uses the technique of putting for stories in 1 because each friend is living a different life, this author uses a great word choice “ whirlwind, hiatus, clunking, but’ she doesn’t use much word repetition, and I also love how she characterizes the new characters and the imagery that she can give you of the scene. I am going to start with the summer of Bridget she is my favorite character. Bridget finds out that her grandma from mom’s side has been writing all this past years and her father didn’t tell her. She is going to visit her grandma but not directly, she is going name herself Gilda for no one to realize that she is Bridget, she used to go to Alabama all the time when she was little that is why she hides her real name. She is going to work in her grandmother’s house and investigate about her mother; she is going to help Greta fix the attic. Everything comes out just they way she wanted it but her grandma realizes that she is her granddaughter and lets her stay at her house. Bridget finds herself again this summer; she starts playing soccer again and also finds friends from when she was little. Lena is another member from the sisterhood, This summer she is very depressed she misses her ex-boyfriend Kostos who she met the past summer in Greece when she went to visit her grandmother. She thinks Kostos has a girlfriend and that he has forgotten her. One day she hears the door bell, it was Kostos she didn’t now why he was there. He told her that he was there for university and that made Lena more depressed because it meant that he didn’t even cared for her, because he had come all the way from Greece and he didn’t even called her. One night Lena went to visit Kostos; she needed to talk to him, she explained all her feelings and then Kostos said that she didn’t have a girlfriend and that he still loved her. He made her very happy with those words; the bad thing is that Kostos needs to go back to Greece because of a family problem. At the end of the summer Lena goes to Greece becuase her grandfather died and she finds out that Kostos is getting married. Tibby is also a member of the sisterhood, she loves to make movies. This summer she went to a summer school of film making and she is suppose to do a movie. She makes a movie about the most embarrassing moments of her mom and after they present it she regrets it. She feels bad with her mom. But then she made a movie of the great moments she passed with her friend Bailey who died last summer, she made a great movie. Carmen didn’t have a great summer she fitted with her mom a lot because her mom was dating and obsessed with David and Carmen didn’t liked it. She thought her mom didn’t care about her any more, she also tried to help Lena forget about Kostos but she couldn’t.

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood conitnue. I am so excited reading what happen after the first book. A lot of moral messages from Miss Brashares. I think the messages can relatable for all the young girls out there.

4 stars

First things first: I want the shoes that the model on the cover of this edition is wearing. Because they're wonderful and I need them.

Onto the book itself - I kind of wanted to strangle all of the characters. First of all? WASH THOSE FUCKING JEANS. I'm sorry, but you cannot pass a pair of jeans between four teenage girls over the course of two summers and NOT get blood on them at some point. Also, it's summer. In Washington D.C. It's humid as shit. And Bridget plays soccer in them. WASH THE JEANS. THEY'RE NASTY.

But I digress.

While I appreciate that the lessons that the girls learnt the previous summer wouldn't necessarily have stuck because, like, THEY'RE TEENAGERS, it would have been nice for them to not make the exact same mistakes that they made the previous year. I found myself just waving my hands in frustration at the first book, and yet no one listened to me.

At this point, all I want from the series is for Tibby to get her fucking act together and realise that she should be making out with Brian because he's super sweet and adorable. But I'm guessing we get about 700 more pages of Kostas, aka the dude a 15 year old girl should never have been dating in the first place. Sigh.

(Don't get me wrong, I actually didn't mind this one. But I'm fairly certain it's going to prove to be 100% forgettable in the long run. And I'm not sure if it's because it's more than a little dated now, and YA is a lot more hard hitting, or if it's just because I'm not a teenage girl and therefore relate far more to the adults in the story than the teenagers. So yeah, this one fell somewhere in the middle of the road for me.)

I'm doing my best to try to clear some of my shelves as I am downsizing, so I figured I might as well pick up some of the more "popular" books as I go. Why not? Throw in some of the books more people have read and get a feel for where I'm at. Bonus marks if it's from my youth so I can try to travel back in time and enjoy the nostalgia!

I figured going further in this series wasn't a bad thing. I was glued to the first book and absolutely loved it (with full intentions of watching the movie too because why not go full Briar's youth and nostalgia trip for it?). I picked this book up and was kind of sad that it didn't live up to the first book. The first three quarters of the book was rather dull for me, but the ending pulled me back in. I will work on finishing up this series since I happen to have the last two books in print form on my shelves, but it's not one I'll be jumping to right away.

This series is great because you're going to relate to somewhere. As a young woman, I can totally see the parts of me in these characters. I can also see how they've grown and where they need to grow. It's a unique read that really brings me back to when I was young and read books with young girls like me. It was an insane and amazing feeling back then so I can respect what these books do and who they are for. I'm not the audience, obviously, but it was still nice to take a trip back in time and see what I was missing.

For now, the rating is low. The other books might pick up (and I sure hope they do) but since this book didn't pull me in that well and I wanted to put it down too many times to count... It's low. It's still an amazing book and I truly recommend this series to young readers. You'll fall in love with these characters and find people you relate to. Honestly, it's a great series. An emotional series with some heart break, but also lots of love too.

Two out of five stars.

These books are so wonderful. This one took me by surprise, I didn't expect so much mother-daughter love and so many really heartbreaking moments. I love this series.

As I continue my reread of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, I'm struck by how many of opinions about the characters change and how many stay the same. When I first read this series as a teenager my two favorite characters were Tibby & Carmen. As an adult I still love Tibby

But God!!!!!

I can't stand Carmen. Carmen is a terrible person and I'm wondering what drew me to her as a teenager. Carmen is the type of person who grows up to become a mass murder. Her inability to control her rage is troubling and no one seems to be worried about her irrational rage. It was just quite surprising how much my opinion changed.

More places my opinion changed.

I think Bridget is becoming one of my favorite characters.

My opinion hasn't changed however about Lena. She's still BORING.

And who cares about Kostos?

I sure don't.

Overall I'm enjoying my reread. Its fun to see how adulthood has changed how I see these books. They're still great books and I think they mostly hold up except when someone mentions running out of cell phone minutes.

I love these books more and more as the pages go by. This one was filled with so much growth for Carmen oh my gosh!!!! and the tribute to Bailey I actually CANNOT. I love these girls so much and cannot wait to dive into the next book.

(Also, I feel like Lena would heavily relate to Sidelines by Phoebe Bridgers).

2.5 stars.

I feel like it took me a whole month to finish this book more because I couldn't deal with anyone but Bee than because I was reading it in Swedish and trying to write down all the words I didn't know.

Seriously though, I expected much more from Tibby and Lena only to be so horribly disappointed by both of their arcs. Carmen's story line was even interesting compared to these two but... we all know Carmen is a drama queen so it was obviously a bit over the top. Bee's story line is what saved this book to be completely honest. She was a great character and showed a lot of development throughout the book and left me positively surprised. I'm sad that Lena's whole story line revolves around Kostos - it's like I wasn't even reading about her.

Overall, could've been much much better.

Re-read in 2019

I am so glad that I decided to read this one again because I realized that I blended the storylines of books 2 and 3 into quite a tangled spiderweb.

It's now summer again and the four friends are still confronting family, friends, and love interests issues. IMHO, the winner in this one was definitely Bridget's storyline as she travels to check out her maternal grandmother, Greta and get more answers about her mother, Marly. Of course, Bee tries to mask who she is, but her curiosity leads her to one more step in coming to terms with her mother's death.

Runner up would probably be Tibby. Attending a film camp and coming to terms with her mother issues and also being given a potential love interest made for a good storyline.

Lena and Carmen are given fairly similar storylines as book one. Lena ended her relationship with Kostos but spends most of the story pining away for him and then a couple of wrenches are thrown around. Figuratively, of course. Carmen was hung up on her Dad moving forward with a new family and now it's time to act like an infant when her mother gets a boyfriend. I think I had more sympathy for her with the father who was living away and just flung it on her during summer vacation. Also, other than being fixated on her parents, could this girl be given a meaty storyline?

A 3 star rating is still a good rating, but having re-read it, I realize that there wasn't enough growth as I would have expected. Also not washing those pants makes me realize that people must have been very patient with odors.


Goodreads review published 06/10/19

November 2021: the series is holding up but like we secretly wash the jeans at the end of the summer right?

May 2016: I'm glad this series is still holding up to what I remember it to be.

3.5 stars. Not quite as good as the first, in my opinion, but a great continuance of the story of the traveling pants, and lessons about love and loss.