Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares Grades 8+ 400 pages Delacorte January 2007 Hardcover     If you’re like me, you’d been following the lives of the girls from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants since long before the movie came out. While the movie certainly isn’t bad by any means, it really can’t compare to the touching, often heartbreaking books that Ann Brashares has written. Beginning with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and ending (we assume) with her newest book, Forever in Blue, Brashares has brought readers into the lives of four lifelong friends: Tibby, the indie film enthusiast whose life was forever changed when she met a young girl with cancer in the first book; Bridget, a gorgeous soccer jock whose life has always been colored by the suicide of her mother; Lena, a shy Greek beauty who is still mourning the loss of her first love, Kostas; and Carmen, a half-Puerto Rican firecracker who has spent years trying to find herself amid a broken family. The girls, who were brought together before birth when their mothers all attended the same childbirth class, have remained friends throughout school and are now further bonded by the Traveling Pants, a pair of jeans they found at a secondhand store that miraculously fits them all. As the girls find themselves spending time away from each other during the summers and then when they go to college, they send the jeans to each other to remind themselves how close they all still are and how they will always be there for each other. However, the pants may not be enough in Forever in Blue as college presents a whole new list of challenges to each girl. Tibby has a pregnancy scare that alienates her from her sweet, devoted boyfriend, Bryan. Bridget travels to Turkey and begins falling for one of her older, married professors. Lena meets an incredibly gifted boy in one of her art classes who just might make her finally forget Kostas, and Carmen struggles with new feelings of inadequacy and alienation in her first year of college. Will the pants help each girl through, or will the rock-solid friendship that has defined them since birth finally crumble? Like all of the Pants books, Forever in Blue is written in a deceptively simple way. You cruise through the chapters quickly, yet the writing is never superficial. You get to know and love these girls on every page, and their joys and sorrows quickly become your own. As a finale to the girls’ journey, Forever in Blue makes a fitting ending—providing each girl with some closure, yet still leaving plenty of opportunities in case Brashares chooses to write another book. Each girl stays true to the character Brashares has created from the beginning, yet they all change in their own believable ways as they get older and experience more of life. Though Brashares’ books are meant for young adults, they are also highly enjoyable for adults. I would suggest starting at the beginning of the series to get the full story on all the characters and not stopping until you turn the last page in Forever in Blue.   web reviews   Angela McQuay/2007 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)