Opinions of a Wolf

Summary:
The Septembers are all 29 years old now and spread out all over the globe.  Bee is expending her energy biking up and down the hills of San Francisco while Eric works as a lawyer.  Carmen has a recurring role on a tv show filming in NYC and is engaged to Jones, an ABC producer.  Lena teaches art at RISD and lives a quiet life in her studio apartment, except for the one day a week she practices Greek with an elderly woman.  Tibby took off to Australia with Brian months ago, and everyone else is in limbo waiting for her to get back.  They all feel a bit disconnected until Tibby sends Bee, Carmen, and Lena tickets to come to Greece for a reunion.  What they find when they arrive is not what anyone expected.

Review:
You guys. You guys. This book shattered me. I am not a crier, and I actually had tears fall while reading this book.  I read it in one day. I could not put it down.  As someone who grew up with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, I found the sudden jump forward in age (we used to be about the same age, and now they are older than me) a bit disconcerting and unexpected, but nowhere near as unexpected as the rest of the book.

I complained to anyone who would listen at the beginning that I hated it. That I hated what Brashares was doing, and omg why would she do this.  But as the story progressed, she swept me along, and suddenly I realized that yes this is tougher by far than the earlier books.  It’s not the light girl power read the first or even the second one was.  But it shouldn’t be.  They’re 29. They’re older. Their problems should be bigger and more adult, and the lessons here hurt more to read because they’re tougher ones to learn.  It’s precisely the direction the books should have taken.  The girls change and, dare I say it, actually grow the fuck up unlike a certain other foursome that have a tv show.

I won’t tell you what made the book so powerful, because that’d spoil it.  But I will tell you, my fellow fans, to push past the first quarter of the book where you’re angry and want to throw it across the room in a Carmen-like rage.  Give Brashares the chance she earned with the first three to gradually show you what she’s doing.  It’s an emotional journey that’s well worth taken.  Fans might be frustrated at first, but those who stick it out and love the series for what it really is will love this entry. I don’t doubt it at all.  Plus, Brashares hinted that there might be still more to come.

5 out of 5 stars

Source: Netgalley

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Previous Books in Series
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood
Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood