Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood

Reader reviewed by Julia M.

Forever in Blue Review

Four best friends are spending one last summer together after high school, but the perfect summer they planned turner out to be filled with drama, and anything but relaxing. Written by Anne Brashares, this book has a genre of realistic fiction and the point of view is in third person. The book starts off with the four girls packing for their separate trips, and they are solemn about the thought that it is their last summer together and they arent even going to see each other. The plot then moves to Bridget in Turkey and how she is falling for another man and hes married. Tibby and Lena also struggle with relationships while Carmen is off at a performing arts class, trying to discover herself. The climax is when Kostos, Lenas ex-boyfriend, reappears from Greece to America, unexpectedly, just as Lena starts to get over him. In the end all the problems are resolved but youd have to read the book to find out the details.
Maybe because it was the fourth book in the series or possibly because the author had trouble starting the story, but I thought the slow beginning of this book was inexcusable. In the start of the book the story crept along at a painfully slow crawl, and at times I wanted to put the book down, but Im glad I persisted with the story. It turned out that this book got greater and more suspenseful by the page. Once I finished with the book I dept wanting to read more, but all good stories must eventually end. This book had a total of 375 pages, and I thought it was a negative aspect because the size is intimidating. Also because of the amazing characterization I felt like I knew all of the characters extremely well by the time I completed the book.
Overall this book was filled with adventure, suspense and humor. I believe this book is meant for female readers who enjoy teen realistic fiction. Also I suggest that readers read the rest of the series because they are just as good as Forever in Blue, or maybe even better. Thank you to Ann Brashares for writing such a great book.

Reader reviewed by Jen

The fourth installment of the Sisterhood series, this book had some expectaions to live up to... I liked it, however I did not love it as much as the previous novels. It picks up in the summer after Lena, Carmen, Bridget, and Tibby's first year in college. I felt as though the author ran out of things to write about and just put anything in, but it was nonetheless entertaining. Perhaps others will enjoy more than I did and I encourage you to give it a chance, you never know, you might think it's the best one yet!

Reader reviewed by Jocelyn

Forever In Blue is the fourth and, I believe, final installment in Ann Brashares' popular Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I myself have loved each of the previous books in the series, and I'm sure many of you have, too.

This fourth book was slightly disappointing. Sure, it was great; I doubt Ann Brashares is capable of writing a bad book! However, I didn't think the ending tied up enough loose ends, considering there will probably not be any more books in the series. It left some loose ends, which is fine if you're planning on a sequel...but not so much for the last book. But perhaps that's just a matter of personal taste. And it's not like everything was left dangling, but not everything was tied up, either. I also missed the presence of a couple of familiar characters--for the most part, the girls' families and significant others weren't as present in this book as I would have liked. I especially missed Bridget's boyfriend, Eric. I was also disappointed that Carmen's relationship with Win didn't work out (this is revealed early on), and I felt that some of the new characters weren't as realistic as the old (Carmen has a friend, Julia, who didn't seem as real as she should have, for example).

However, it was exciting to find out what comes next for the girls of the Sisterhood. It's the summer after their first year of college. Now being apart is not just a summer thing; it's an all-the-time thing. Lena is spending her summer working on her artwork, and she meets a guy--but she can't forget about Kostos (I missed Kostos in this book...even though he made mistakes, he was a favorite of mine). Carmen goes with her actress friend, Julia, to a theater festival in Vermont. Bridget goes on an archaeological dig in Turkey. The destination itself wasn't what I would have expected for her, but something readers will connect to past books does happen--she falls for an older guy. This time, however, she has a boyriend (Eric) at home. I really didn't like this part of the book. It didn't seem completely like the Bridget I feel I've come to know in the past three books. Tibby stays in New York, and is having some problems with Brian, her boyfriend. This felt a lot more realistic than Bridget's problems. I missed seeing as much of Tibby's family and Brian as in the previous book, though...

Fans of the series will be glad to read this book, but it's not for those new to the Sisterhood. It's an enjoyable read, even if it didn't quite meet my high expectations! It was still well-written and full of great characters (even if a few were missing), and certainly worth reading.