The Second Summer of the Sisterhood (Mass Market Paperback)

The story itself picks up 10 months after the last one began - summer break yet again with the girls beginning their yearly tradition of breaking into the gym where their mothers had exercise class together and thus brought the four main characters together -

Lena - gorgeous but shy and serious, deals with lessons in love and heartbreak via Kostos (her Greek grandparents family friends son) in this novel...my only problem is that she doesn't really seem to change her attitude much from the last book until the very end, and even then she seems unaware that she is growing up.

Carmen - Rehashes the storyline of the last book in this one with a few plot points changed - basically plays a bratty daughter yet again. Carmen is probably my least fave character in terms of development both plot and characterwise - she never seems to learn anything (which perhaps is a character trait).

Tibby - Seems to have a much smaller role in this book, particularly towards the end, doens't really grow much but revisits the previous summer in an interesting way.

Bee - My fave character and in my opinion has the strongest and most interesting storyline - where she impulsively takes off to Alabama to visit her long lost grandmother and to discover more about her bi-polar mother who killed herself many years ago. Its interesting because Bee appears to be the only one who changed OVER the course of the year, and thus you get to watch her become something from those changes instead of just re-visiting last summers experiences and lessons.

All in all I enjoyed Brashares writing, I love the quotes she uses, and she makes you feel for each of the characters. The only thing I have to criticize her on is the lack of major growth the girls should have experienced during the school year, as the mistakes they made in this book were far too similar to the previous years. Personally the summer before grade 10 and the summer before grade 11 (or grade 11 and grade 12) were completely different times for me, and I think the girls really should've learnt something more then quadratic functions over the year. Another small criticism is that the girls are almost too functioned on their said plot points...Brashares could've created a more 3-dimensional world but granted a book can only show you so much. Finally I think she makes the girls a bit over-emotional at times to the point where it becomes unbelievable. However if you are into the ever popular continuity-necessary teen novel that dominates the market today, then pick this (and the first) book up for some fun summer reads.