The End of the Sisterhood

Okay.  So absolutely read these books in order.  For sure.  Sisterhood Everlasting is the fifth and last book in the Traveling Pants series and it is a tear-jerker, for sure. 
Loved.  Loved.  Loved this series. 

The Pants

I just finished the fourth book in the Traveling Pants series and it was such a joy to see that the first four books completely avoided the blah, blah boring falling apart and getting back together of the fabulous four friends.  I had so worried that one or all of their friendships would suffer a break up and make up kinda deal, the kind found in so many friendship books.  But Brashares stayed true to the pants and true to an original and wonderful storyline.  In Forever in Blue the girls are spending their summer apart, as usual, and celebrating the summer after their freshman years in college.  I had always thought there were only four books to the series, but now I see that there is a fifth.  The fifth book was published a few years after the fourth and takes place after the girls are all grown up, so I don't know if it will have the same kind of magic that the first four had for me, but I am hoping and believing so.  Great, great fourth book in the series. 

Third Time's a Charm

Another great addition to the series.  Unlike some series, so far anyway, these haven't lost their freshness.  The girls stay true to who they are, even as they grow and change.  Great characters.  Girls in Pants highlights the summer before college for these lovely ladies.  Tibby to NYU, Lenny to RISD, Bea to Brown and Carmen to Williams. 

Still Loving the Sisterhood

It makes me wonder why I never read these before now.  Really enjoyed The Second Summer of the Sisterhood.  The girls are now in the summer before their senior year in high school.  I love that the stories don't drag and move from one sister to the next so quickly, but the reader doesn't feel lost. 

Sisterhood

I've never had a sister.   But I've had some awesome friends.  The thing is, we didn't go to high school together or grow up together, that kinda thing, so I haven't had the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants kind of experience, but I was still able to completely enjoy this first book in the series and it made me immediately start the second.  What I have found refreshing about them is that they don't fall into the whole deal of fighting and then making up and fighting and then making up, among the friends.  This Sisterhood is strong, indeed.  And it seems to me that when you have those really deep, sisterhood friends, that's really the way it is.  In my experience, anyway.  I love the multiple POVs.  I also love that the girls are actually 17 when they graduate from high school.  It seems like everyone these days is 18 or even 19 and that doesn't bother me and it is no big deal, but I don't know, I just like that.   They all have that younger, innocence about them and it just seems more realistic.  These girls live in Bethesda but the book takes place in Baja California, Oia, Greece and South Carolina.  The thing that keeps them together is a pair of thrift store pants which they pass around, no matter where in the world they are.