Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood

Author: Ann Brashares
Published Date: January 2007
Letter Grade: A-

As you know is my habit, I was wandering through Barnes and Noble last week. As I was wandering through the Teen Fiction section, I spotted it.

I don't keep up on these things. I don't know when certain books are due to come out, at least not when it doesn't necessarily come in any set pattern (like Julia Quinn's books come out every June.) I read the first three books right after each other, and didn't expect to see another one for awhile.

Well, all right, I didn't see one for awhile. I read the first three books during those two weeks at Writing and Thinking Workshop. Well, those and... let's not discuss how many other books I read in those two weeks.

But yes. That was a year and a half ago. When I saw this book, it was an attack of nostalgia.

So, anyway the book:

The series, in case you haven't seen the movie (which, admittedly, got me to read the books) is about four friends, Bridget, Lena, Tibby and Carmen, who have pretty much been together since their prenatal days when their mothers were in some pregnant ladies' aerobics class. The first books starts out their sixteenth summer, the first time they'll all be separated from each other for the summer. The find this pair of pants, The Traveling Pants, if you will, which seems to magically fit all of their different body types.

Another two books insue, following the respective summers, and following different but connected plot lines for each girl.

The fourth book, then, takes place the summer after their first year away at college (the poor Pants, which cannot be washed, have been worn by each girl in turn for the entire year, not to mention the three summers prior. Poor Pants.)

It was nice to get back some old friends. Their "lives" are familiar, their loves and losses are familiar. I remember Lena and Kostos' romance. I remember the bit of the shock of how it ended in the second two books.

So, yes. I enjoyed this book overall. There wasn't anything that really bugged me, though I wish the ending didn't need to be the way it was, it made sense. It was a good way to end the series. I can't really complain, because I'm not sure I would have been satisfied with the end if it had been different.

I can see myself picking favorites. It would be nice to say that I love all the characters equally, that I enjoyed reading each one the same. Which is partly true. There were points during each of their narrations that I wanted to continue when it switched to someone else. "No! keep going! Oh, fine. Just don't take too long, okay?"

At any rate: I think I like Lena best. This might very well be because she's Greek. But I'll be honest: this counts for a lot. I read things that happen to her from another Greek girl's perspective. I love how she uses "I'm Greek" as a reason for things (not wanting to pose naked, loving garlic). Me: "Exactly. That's really all there is to it."

That, and I kind of like the reappearing Kostos. There are times in the series when I know I shouldn't, but let's face it: Greek men are sexy. Don't tell my mother I said so.

Carmen, on the other hand, has to be my least favorite. She makes me want to shake her sometimes. At one point for being too stubborn, at another (this book) for not asserting herself nearly enough. At the end I usually like her fine and think "Okay, now STAY that way, please? Ya got it just right."

As for Bee and Tibby... hmm. They have their ups and downs. I don't have a preference between the two. So, yes, I love them equally. :)

I think I like my bad reviews so much better.

Bottom lin: Read the book. Ignore that this is a bad good review. Just read it. I suggest getting it from Wal-Mart, it's cheaper. Or so my roommate told me.

Sun Kissed

Author: Catherine Anderson
Published Date: January 2007
Letter Grade: B

I came to an unfortunate conclusion about Catherine Anderson while reading this book: All her books are the same.

That isn't to say they aren't good, of course. They're wonderful. But... after the first couple, it starts to seem like you've read 'em all. With maybe one or two acceptions.

They follow a very basic theme: Battered woman meets sexy, sweet cowboy and they fall in love and he helps her overcome.

I will tell you the truth: I love the sexy sweet cowboy thing. Makes me wish I didn't live in Chicago.

Anyway. As for Sun Kissed specifically, it's the last of the Coulter family series (or at least, of the Coulters specifically. There's a spin off type thing dealing with the Keegan-Paxtons, who we met in "Keegan's Lady" back in the day (excellent book, though it does follow the aforementioned pattern) and Anderson plans to write more books about the heroine of Sun Kissed's family), a series about a family of five brothers and a sister (who was the heroine of my first Anderson book "Phantom Waltz," which actually diverged a little from the pattern). This one's about Tucker Coulter, the last of the Coutlers to get hitched (the one before him being his twin, Isaiah. What is it with authors when they do family series, making twins get married right after each other? Especially in this series, where they're all born freakishly close (poor Mary Coulter) together, so there's no huge age gap between oldest and youngest. I mean, between Jake (oldest) and Bethany (youngest) there's only a five year difference.)

Another thing about Anderson: all her heroines seem to have vulnerable-sounding names. This one: Samantha. (Shortened to Sammy sometimes, which brought to mind the little girl in Forever After).

But, I have to give Coulter kudos for this: when police/detective work needs to be done in a book (such as this one, dealing with some rather vicious poisionings of Samantha's horses), she does it very well. You see attempts to do this in books by, say, Stephanie Laurens (*gag*) to little effect (little effect for Laurens because, well, it's used more as filler between the hero and heroine humping like bunnies every other page.) Though, she seems to switch off every other book, at least with her contemporaries, as far as I can tell, doing the police/detective thing. Not sure if the pattern holds for her historicals (unless you count Summer Breeze, written in between Tucker and Isaiah's books, which kept the pattern going, actually) but they were already out when I started reading her, so I don't really pay attention to which came first.

Speaking of Summer Breeze, I was a little disappointed to discover that there wasn't much follow-up. The whole book starts with Tucker finding the diary of Rachel Hollister (the sister-in-law of his great grandmother) while looking through his parents' attic, and he and Mary sit and read all about what happened to Rachel and Joseph Paxton. Loved the book, but at the end, after they finish reading, Tucker thinks that maybe he should take a trip back to No Name, Colorado, where his family originated (can't believe the place STILL isn't named, even in contemporary times. OI!) to see if he'd have any better luck finding love there. So, I was, of course, thinking "Oh, yey! A trip to contemporary No Name!" But...

Apparently not. Sun Kissed is set back in Crystal Falls, Oregon, like the rest of the Coulter series, (and most of Anderson's other books are in Oregon, too), and, while Tucker DID go to No Name, there's only the briefest mention of it.

To give her credit, the way the plot went, it did make more sense to have it Crystal Falls, if only because Tucker and Samantha would have so many more resources to draw on, especially from already formed, and very familiar to the likes of me who have been following the books since Phantom Waltz and Baby Love (not Coulter, per se, but about Bethany's brother-in-law and his wife, and the Coulter series sort of rose out of that. And it's excellent,) characters.

One bit of nit-picking:

I'm all for characters being religious. It doesn't bother me one way or the other, though I like the dynamic of seeing the characters interact spiritually, but...

I should precede this with the fact that I have nothing at all against Catholicism. It's just that all the bits about it in the book seemed a bit too... much. Like "Okay, I GET that it's important to her. But please stop that fact over my head. I get it."

I've read books where the heroine was very religious. One of my favorite romances of all time is Flowers From The Storm, by Laura Kinsale, and the heroine Maddie is Quaker. If it's done well (and I think Kinsale pretty much does everything well, writing-wise), the effect can be amazing, and it can make the character seem more real. Even make you question stereotypes you didn't realize you were aware of.

Sun Kissed didn't do that for me. While some parts were great, made me smile, made me go "Awwww" and whatever else, the parts about Samantha's Catholicism fell... flat. Especially at the ending.

It is getting a "B" because a) I enjoyed it overall, b) Anderson obviously did her research about things like horse breeding, and vet. medicine, and Lordy, you wouldn't believe how many people wouldn't have bothered, and c) I really am a sucker for her heros. And she made me like Tucker, which is saying something, because I didn't like him very much at the end of My Sunshine (Isaiah's book). I figured she'd find a way to do that, anyway. ;)

Now to wait for more Paxtons. Or possibly Harrigans (Samantha's brothers, who have potential as heros, naturally). Whichever comes first. And come to think of it, Patrick O'Shanessy, the brother of the heroine in Keegan's Lady. I think she mentioned something about him for some point... hmmm...

Predictable, Anderson is. But it's a good predictability.

Missing You

Author: Meg Cabot
Published: January 2007
Letter Grade: B-

Finally, a non-A worthy book. I've been starting to think I'm getting too easy.

Granted, a "B-" isn't exactly a failing grade, but still.

Anyway. This is the last book in Cabot's 1800 Where Are You? series, which she started under the penname Jenny Carroll. (Now all her books are under Meg Cabot, though I have the first four before this one in the old publication.)

It's been awhile since I read the book before this, since it's been a few years (Cabot having only written it because we the fans demanded it :)) so I had to refamiliarize myself a bit with who non-main characters were. I had quite a lot of "Oh, yeah, I remember him/her!" moments.

The series is about Jess Mastriani, a girl who got struck by lightning on her way home from school one day, and it gave her psychic powers, so she could find missing people (in her sleep, don't you know.) It sounds much more corny then it is when I try to explain it, I'm afraid.

At any rate, Jess also has a boyfriend, Rob, who has been rather leery of their, as Jess puts it, "Whatever we were," because he's eighteen, on parole for an unspecified crime, and Jess is still underage. Or is for the first four books of the series, anyway.

By the time "Missing You" rolls around, though, Jess has come of age, gone to Afghanistan to put her powers to use finding terrorists there during the war, lost her powers from being overworked, come home to find Rob smooching a girl with boobs as big as Jess's head, and they take a... break from "whatever we were." And then Jess discovers she's been accepted to Julliard, and it's off to NYC with best bud Ruth (Columbia bound) for music-ing and night terror-ing, and... well, not much else from what I understand.

It really does remind me of a fanfic in places. This from the author who likes to discourage that sort of thing. (mini-rant: Like no one can tell the difference between a fan writer and the real author. Puh-lease. Give us some credit, Meg.)

So, yes. A year passes, and Rob arrives on Jess's doorstep, asking her to find his new-found half-sister who has gone missing. Trips home ensue, along with the discovery of an amateur teenage porno ring type deal.

All right, my synopsis doesn't make it sound too exciting, but I'll put it this way: it kept me entertained, it was nice to a character I've known for so long grow up a little bit, and while most of it was pretty predictable (Hello? The whole thing with Douglas and the school? Yeah, picked that one up right away, thanks) there were a couple things here and there that surprised me. Like the near-ending with Rob and Jess got an "Oh, my God" reaction from me.

But... all right, here's my beef:

Everything moved too quickly. It was like Cabot was trying to tie up one thing before moving on to the next, because God forbid there be two subplots happening at the same time. She found the sister to quickly. She got the whole porno thing out of the way too quickly. I got through it and went "What the hell are they going to do for the next 70 pages?" The romance part was all right. A bit strange, and in my opinion, out of character, like maybe Cabot had been away from her characters for too long and was starting to forget what they should act like, but it was good enough to pass. The conflict with Jess's mother could've gone somewhere, but she just sort of let it die, with a few half-assed moments.

And then, Lord Almighty, the ending.

What the devil was that?

Obligatory cheesy last lines aside. The whole thing with Dr. Krantz. WTF? He came all the way from Washington, D.C., to say all THAT? I would've just called. Save myself some air fare. Call on Saturday or something and avoid the cell phone charges. Not worth it to go all that way just for a cheesy-ass conversation.

And don't get me started on Karen Sue Hankey. First, I'm dying to make fun of the name, but will restrain myself. I don't care how happy Jess was at the end, who would want to spend any time at all with KAREN SUE HANKEY? Especially if the person's name is Jess Mastriani.

And the return of Boobs-as-big-as-my-head-Girl (Yes, she's called that, but that isn't unusual. Just funny) was not exactly what we'd call surprising.

Now you should be wondering why the book got a B-. It started as a B+. But... well. There's no denying I did, to some extent, enjoy the book. Cheesy pointlessness aside.

That, and I still think the stuff Cabot started as "Jenny Carroll" is far better than say... The Princess Diaries. And this deserves some acknowledgement.