Review: The Last Summer (of You & Me)

Title: The Last Summer (of You & Me)

Author: Ann Brashares

Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover

Release: 6/6/07

Pages: 320

Rating:(out of 5)

Summary from Goodreads:

"From the author of the multimillion-copy, #1 bestselling series The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants comes a heartbreaking first adult novel.

Set on Long Island's Fire Island, The Last Summer (of You and Me) is an enchanting, heartrending page-turner about sisterhood, friendship, love, loss, and growing up. It is the story of a beach community friendship triangle-Riley and Alice, two sisters in their twenties, and Paul, the young man they've grown up with-and what happens one summer when budding love, sexual curiosity, a sudden serious illness, and a deep secret all collide, launching the friends into an adult world from which their summer haven can no longer protect them.

As wise, compelling, and endearing as her Traveling Pantsseries, and as lyrical, thoughtful, and moving as the best literary women's fiction, this novel is sure to win an entire new generation of adult fans."

When I finished this book I found myself trying to decide between two extremes: totally hating it and absolutely loving it. I'm still not sure which side I'm on.

The plot was completely riveting and entrancing yet boring and repetitive at the same time. I absolutely loved the romance aspect of the book! The relationship between Paul and Alice was undeniable and you just knew that they had to be together. I just wished they'd developed the relationship more earlier on in the book rather than have it be all physical. Also, the sadness that is Riley. *Spoiler Alert* Riley's illness and her struggle to be herself and preserve the past was very moving. Unfortunately it wasn't a tear jerker like I had been hoping for but it was still very emotional. *End Spoiler Alert* The book did get extremely repetitive though. It seemed as though Alice's jobs would be described endlessly! I would have rather she spent the time developing the characters and showing how they changed more than describing the store and park in which Alice worked. Also, when they described everyone's worry for Riley and Riley's impatience for the attention, that was also beaten to death. It would have been better if that was more of a side thing and there was more, real plot.

The characters was another love/hate relationship. On one hand I loved Alice and how sweet she was. She was generally a good person and it showed. It did annoy me that she made some stupid decisions regarding school but in the end it ended up working out best for her any way. Paul who is Alice's love interest was also pretty awesome. He had problems and he knew it so it was okay. He was the kind of guy I would definitely fall for! Riley is where the hate comes in. She was just annoying. And she was a word that rhymes with witch and starts with a "B". She purposely kept her sister and Paul apart because she was like jealous? Lame. She couldn't just accept everyone's kindness for her which was annoying. Her mother, who she hated for absolutely no reason, just wanted to be there for her and love her but she was totally rude to her from what I could tell! Speaking of the parents. They were interesting and I wish that Brashares had gone more indepth with their relationship and the same with Paul's mother's life. That would have been really juicy in my opinion!

One more love/hate thing left. Bare with me here. The setting. Fire Island just seems like an amazing place to live! The community they described and homes and towns! It just seemed like such a great place to vacation and if that's how it really is, I really want a home there! After such a great setting like Fire Island, New York seemed pretty lame. Brashares tried to make it magical I think with the park but it just wasn't happening. New York just was kind of blah and it's such a cool place that I feel she could have done better with it.

Overall, everything about this book was split right down the middle. Some was great and some was terrible.