There are two tragedies in life: one is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it. -George Bernard Shaw

In the second novel chronicling the Sisterhood, Ann Brashares delves deeper into the oft’ times chaotic and always touching lives of Lena, Bridget, Carmen and Tibby. The pants, having been safely stored away since the end of last summer, are brought down and prepped to bear quiet witness to the four friends’ on-going grievous errors and splendid recoveries. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood finds Carmen struggling with her mother’s new boyfriend and the repercussions of her careless behavior. Lena is not thrilled to be working at a stuffy ladies boutique, but is revived as her Greek love from the previous summer reappears. Tibby, still dealing with her loss, goes to a summer film school in Virginia and succumbs to peer pressure. And Bridget, having given up on soccer and much of life, goes to Alabama to get answers about her mother and grandmother.

Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed. - Michael Pritchard

Although Second Summer is a stand-alone story, it is best to start with the first novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. This allows the reader to fully immerse one's self in the glory and pain of the bond that connects the friends, regardless of where they are physically located or who is wearing the pants. 

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. - Nelson Mandela

Brashares tells a good story and does an excellent job of taking the reader through the various stages of identifying right from wrong and the reasons that we sometimes still choose the wrong path. I was moved and just as when I was reading the Traveling Pants, I shed some tears and laughed heartily at the splendor of life and all its lessons.