The Last Summer (of You and Me) [Mass Market Paperback]

Ann Brashares (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 6, 2008

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

Ann Brashares's series, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, has made her one of the most successful contemporary authors, shipping more than 8 million copies over the last five years and winning even more millions of passionate fans. Now, like Judy Blume (Summer Sisters) before her, Brashares turns her spectacular gifts to adult readers. In The Last Summer (of You and Me), Brashares uses her remarkable storytelling, emotional insights, and talent for capturing relationships to weave a rich, textured, mature novel that will resonate as clearly with readers in their forties as in their twenties.

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 Pants series, 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants author delivers her first novel for adults, a treacly tale about the tribulations a trio of longtime friends encounter. For as long as she can remember, 21-year-old Alice has spent summers on Fire Island with her parents and older sister, Riley. Riley, 24, is a beach lifeguard, more boyish in both looks and spirit than sweet, feminine Alice. An island neighbor and Riley's best friend, Paul, whose father is dead and mother mostly absent, returns to the island after two years away and must decide whether to sell his family's house there. More importantly, he and Alice finally act on an attraction they've felt for years, but they keep their frequent nuzzling quiet so as not to hurt Riley. Riley, meanwhile, has her own problems that could ruin Alice and Paul's clandestine romance and just about everything else. Brashares's YA roots are on display: the girls and Paul act like high school kids (Riley threatens to move out of the house unless everyone butts out; Paul and Alice are stricken with the most saccharine of puppy love), and anything below the surface is left untouched. It's a beach read, for sure, but a mediocre one. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

An unputdownable beach book calls for love, deceit, and sex. And The Last Summer (of You and Me), by Ann Brashares, has all those elements. The page-turner follows two 20-something sisters as they cross the threshold into adulthood and try to make summer romance last all year. -- Cosmopolitan

Ann Brashares has written a glorious novel of unrequited love, longing and the meaning of friendship in The Last Summer (of You and Me). She weaves a tale full of delicious plot twists and revelations that will surprise and enthrall you. Riley and Alice are sisters, their relationship is as potent and complex as the real thing. Funny, deep and true, this one will keep you reading long after the sun has gone down. -- Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of Big Stone Gap and Lucia, Lucia

Ann Brashares's new book, The Last Summer (of You and Me), will delight all of her Traveling Pants fans-now grown-up and ready for this very adult novel of love, loss and the beauty of intense family bonds. -- Anita Shreve, New York Times bestselling author of The Pilot's Wife and A Wedding in December

Brashares's writing is natural, insightful, and affecting. -- Entertainment Weekly

This debut adult novel from Brashares will please her unnumerable fans and win over readers who enjoy a thoughtful coming-of-age story....The themes strongly resemble those explored by Ann Packer in The Dive From Clausen's Pier. -- Library Journal

When summertime neighbors Alice and Paul realize their feelings for go deeper than friendshipm they're afraid to share the news of their clandestine affair with Riley, Alice's sister and Paul's best friend. But then a darker, more tragic secret threatens to come between them. The page-turning pace of Ann Brashares's The Last Summer (of You & Me) makes it a perfect beach read. -- Redbook

[Those with] a hankering for a breezy summer read will easily relate to Brashares's restless threesome of lost souls -- People, three stars --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade (May 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594483086
• ISBN-13: 978-1594483080
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (159 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #542,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ann Brashares is the bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, Girls in Pants, Forever in Blue, The Last Summer (of You and Me), and My Name is Memory.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Book, May 14, 2008

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Last Summer (of You and Me) (Mass Market Paperback)

In this book, sisters Riley and Alice are going to their summer home on Fire Island, where they have gone every summer since they were kids. Their friend Paul is going to be there too, whom Riley and Alice haven't seen in quite a few years since he didn't come to Fire Island in the last three summers. So many things happen to the three friends in that one summer. A romance between two of them happened (I won't say who), a illness overcomes one of them (I still won't say who) and secrets are uncovered regarding them. Deep secrets. This book was wonderful and I loved it. Although, it was made for adults, I read it anyway, since I love Ann Brashare's books! Although it was a little sexual, I loved it all the same. I suggest this book to anyone, even kids, if your parents will allow you to. That's how good it is. So, go read the book!!!!

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A summer to forget, October 24, 2007

By 

Amanda Richards (Georgetown, Guyana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Summer (of You and Me) (Hardcover)

If you're looking for another "Traveling Pants" sort of story, I'm sorry to say that this isn't it. Instead, the author of the famous and highly acclaimed series "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" aims for the heart, with a rather drawn out tale of two sisters, a guy who hasn't decided who he wants to be if he grows up, and life in Waterby, Fire Island.

Intended for adults, this book fails completely in that respect, especially as the main characters are all young adults, and even the few steamy parts come over with only a weak sizzle. Having said that, there's a very nice little story buried in here, about the close relationship between two sisters, Riley and Alice, and how this is affected when their close friend Paul returns to the island to pick up where he left off three years before. Things have changed, people have grown, and secrets long hidden start popping up, but it takes eons to develop, leaving the reader lots of time to walk on the beach and watch the ferry come and go.

In summary, this rather dry tale of sisterly love and growing up serves as a reminder that sometimes, life's a beach.



Amanda Richards, October 24, 2007

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't go to sleep until I'd finished the entire novel., June 9, 2007

By 

Gretchen C. Rubin (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Summer (of You and Me) (Hardcover)

I bought THE LAST SUMMER (OF YOU AND ME) yesterday, and I couldn't turn off the light last night until I'd reached the end. The relationship between the three main characters (two sisters and the guy who lives next to them every summer, when they stay on Fire Island) was complex and fascinating.

This is a love story, but also the story of the love between two sisters...it's romantic, poignant, suspenseful...what more can you ask?

I am a huge fan of Ann Brashares's TRAVELING PANTS books -- this novel is written for adults, so feels very different, but just as good.