Saturday 10 March 2012

1 Year, 100 Books Challenge: The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

This book is part of my 1 Year, 100 Books Challenge, for more information visit this page

Sorry for taking so long between reviews, but I've got college and seriously I don't want to fail it. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood is the sequel to the popular The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares. Make sure that you read my review of it because I do not want to repeat myself, here's the link. I will be doing my review for this differently to my usual reviews, in the same style as I did for The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants, and 3 Willows. Although it wasn't as strong as the first book, I still enjoyed reading about the Septembers further adventures.


Book Number: 11
Series: The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants, book 2
Date of Completion: 16/1/2012
Rating: 4 stars

Why I Read It: I read the first one and I liked it.


Summary: After the brilliant journeys the previous summer the Sisterhood girls decide they should spend the Pants magic only on summers. Tibby is at a new film school and is short of friends. Lena at home and is still pining over Kostos, the wonderboy from last summer. After discovering some letters from her grandmother that her father hid from her, Bridget decides to visit and ask more about her deceased mother.  Carmen's mum is getting back in the dating game, and Carmen isn't sure how to react to that. Another great summer of the travelling pants.


The Characters and their Plots:
Tibby - I absolutely adored Tibby's story in the first book, but I missed Bailey, she brought the magic to it. Regardless Tibby's story is interesting and worthwhile. She learns a thing or two about friendship and fitting in and to consider others feelings more. Tibby is still the girl that she was in the previous book: sarcastic, witty and bored but you can definitely see that she has been changed by Bailey.

Bridget - You can tell Bridget is not the same after Eric, if you couldn't tell in the last book, you can certainly tell now. She ain't all sparky and confident, the worlds not her oyster anymore. She takes on a new persona, new name, new hair, and new personality. Her plot is great, she finds a lot about herself while being someone else, and learns a lot more about her deceased mother. I love it how the Pants stop fitting Bridget as she is not being herself. 

Lena - Lena is still pining over Kostos, and frankly quite annoying. Of course leaving a newly-discovered love behind overseas, is heck hard and obviously your feelings aren't going to disappear cleanly as soon as you hop on the plane. Still, Lena's pining seems a bit much, oh well, this is very relate-able there are many people are still pining for lost loves of varying degrees. EDIT: For any of you who read this before the edit, I'm sorry I made this huge rant about Lena losing her virginity, which I found out while reading the 4th book, never happened, sorry, I was heck confused though, stupid vague writing (I could barely tell when Bridget lost hers and I totally misread this part) anyway, enough about that, it doesn't end out too well anyways.

Carmen - I can understand the confusion and annoyance that Carmen felt, like if my mum started acting like a girly teen with a crush I would be very annoyed (that would be freaky, I hope that never happens!). Again Carmen's story is relate-able to a lot of people and her emotions are easy to understand and she's the same girl we know and love. 

Other Characters in Tibby's Story - Nawwww Brian is so sweet, I love how they met because he was a loser, but now he is fast on his way to becoming Tibby's boyfriend. It's good to see a bit more of Tibby's family as well. I miss Bailey though, she was great.

Others in Bridget's Story - I don't have to much to say about these, they were all fine, I liked her grandma and Billy.

Others in Lena's Story - I like Effie **SPOILERS AHEAD:** and it's sad that Bapi died **END SPOILERS**. But my gssh, Kostos, how could you do this, if you love Lena as much as you say you do, **SPOILERS AHEAD:** then don't date other people while still together, especially don't *bleeping* screw her after your second date. Don't tell your stupid sap stories and say you love Lena, after you got some other girl pregnant. Just don't, luckily he learnt his lesson kinda and isn't screwing girls straight away anymore **END SPOILERS** then don't be such a friggin' jerk to her. Oh well, I still have hope - Lena and Paul.

Others in Carmen's Story - David and Porter were both good additions to the story and it's great to be able to explore Christina's character more and see her relationship with Carmen more. It's funny in a good way, how Krista is trying to be like Carmen now, and it's fantastic that Carmen and Paul are good friends now.

The Writing:
Is basically the same as in the previous book, I do love the photo at the end, where it turns out to be the four of their mothers in jeans, it was just a really magical moment. 

Recommendation: If you have read the Sisterhood of Travelling Pants and you enjoyed it, you should already want to read this, so go ahead.

Quote: “There are two kinds of people in this world. The kind who divide the world into two kinds of people and those who don't.”