Review: The second summer of the sisterhood by Ann Brashares

3/5 stars 

​“She used to cry roughly three times a year. Now she seemed to cry three times before breakfast. Could that be considered progress?”

I try not to use stock photos for my reviews, but the library copy of this book was so battered and dirty that I didn't have the heart to take any pictures with it. 

I enjoyed the 1st book of this series much, much more. The only thing that improved in the book two was the writing - it was more refined and less juvenile, but unfortunately that was the end of improvements. 

“She got tired of herself. She got tired of not being able to say what she wanted or do what she wanted or even want what she wanted.”

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The only character that had an appealing and meaningful story was Bee, everybody else's storylines were just a mess. Bee's storyline honestly saved the book for me, I really loved exploring the attic of memories with her, and watching her reinvent herself. 

​I couldn't stand Carmen in this book at all - she wasn't my favorite in the first book, but here she definitely took the gold on the most annoying character ever. Her story arc was exactly the same as in the first book, but with a different parent - total waste of time. 

​Tibby was as usual coarse and bitter and unlikable, which made no sense considering what she went through in the first book. I really thought that her character would be different, but she kept making the stupidest choices for absolutely no reason. 

“I mean putting yourself out there in the way of overwhelming happiness and knowing you're also putting yourself in the way of terrible harm. I'm scared to be this happy. I'm scared to be this extreme.”

Lena's character was completely lost in her romantic arc -which was so incredibly unrealistic. Lena was my favorite in book one because she had personality - she loved art, books and she knew what she wanted from the world. Lena in book two was a lovesick puppy with absolutely no personality left - it was disheartening to read. 

Despite the uninteresting and repetitive plot lines, this was still a good summer read. I am just hoping that the next book is much better, otherwise that will be the end of this series for me.