- The Last Summer (of You & Me) by Ann Brashares
- Publisher: Riverhead Trade (May 6, 2008 )
- Paperback: 320 pages
- ISBN-10: 1594483086
- ISBN-13: 978-1594483080
Last month I entered a giveaway on Book Club Girl and was one of five lucky entrants chosen randomly to win a copy of Ann Brashares’ The Last Summer (of You & Me) PLUS a cool beach towel to commemorate the book’s release in paperback. Thank you, Book Club Girl! My 12-year-old, who is a huge fan of Brashares’ Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, quickly claimed the towel for herself, but let me enjoy the novel.
After the great success of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants young adult series, this is Brashares’ first novel written for adults. She has moved beyond the world of tweens and teens, and now shares the story of three adults in their early 20s. They are a pair of sisters, tomboy Riley and sweet Alice, and the boy-next-door, wealthy Paul who lives with the memory of his dead father and a strained relationship with his mother.
The three have spent every summer of their lives in a beach community on Fire Island. Now that they’ve reached adulthood, their childhood games have given way to more adult pursuits. They are on the cusp between being children and being true adults, about to take a turn that will propel them into the next stage of their lives. Broken hearts, secrets, betrayals and tragedy ensue.
Brashares describes Fire Island and Manhattan with a practiced eye; anyone who has spent an extended time at the ocean or stepped inside the fluorescent-lit box of a Duane Reade drugstore will connect with her writing. The characters are young but wise; insightfully, Alice thinks “sometimes you couldn’t face the sadness of being forgotten until you felt the comfort of being remembered again.”
This is a satisfying, moving novel. It brought back pleasant memories of discovering first love, as well as the relief that I’m past the stage of second-guessing and being held hostage to the games of early love. You should be warned to read it with some tissues nearby (a beach towel will do, if you’re reading outside). Discussion questions are available here.
Have you read this book? What is your favorite book that takes place at the beach? Are “ocean” beach books inherently different than “lake” beach books?
I enjoyed this book as well!
This does sound like a good book–a good beach read. Thanks for the wonderful review.
I keep seeing trailers for the sequel to the Traveling Pants movie and it’s got me curious about the books.
Literary Feline – I think my daughter will have me with her at the theater the weekend that movie opens! I should re-read the series before then ….
I read this one by the pool. Great summer read.