I started this sequel without high hopes. The first book was really sweet with more depth than I expected out of a young adult novel about pants. When The Second Summer started out slow, I thought it would stay that way. Eventually, even though the action and pacing kind of stayed the same, the emotional drama and my feelings for the characters grew. I don’t know why but I related so much more to the characters in this book – maybe it was because there was more of an overarching theme. All of the characters really struggled with their mothers and learned to love and appreciate them more in different ways. I really related to this theme. As a teenager, I definitely went through a phase where I realized my mom was a real person too. Overall, I can confidently say that this sequel was better than the first book – I never though I would say that!

Two and a half out of four parallel plots were really good. Bee’s was probably my favorite. After the events of last summer, Bee really lost herself and fell back into grief over her mother. She hid who she used to be by gaining weight and dyeing her hair, but this summer she decides to go to Alabama to find her estranged grandmother and learn more about her late mother. Her character arc was very well done – it felt unfinished at the end of the last book, but this one brought it full circle. She learns to face her true self and feel comfortable in her skin, which was a super relatable theme for teen and young adult readers. I’ve seen some complaints about a lack of body positivity and there’s a lot of really tough mental health issues that all the characters go through. However, I think the book just really realistically followed teenage girls’ attitudes toward everything, including the concepts of gaining weight, grieving, or dealing with mental health issues.

Carmen’s story line felt like a copy of last books, just with the other parent, but I feel as though it’s all building up to a true conclusion where she learns to manage her emotions better in the third book – I guess we’ll see when I read it though!

Lena’s plot annoyed me. She was very overcome with her feelings for a boy, which seemed very different from her characterization in the last book. She supposedly didn’t care how she looked or about love, but threw herself head over heels very quickly for a relatively uninteresting guy. It ended very sadly and abruptly.

Tibby’s arc was a beautiful look at the aftermath of a friend’s death and feelings of being lost and lonely. She tried to cope with it badly but learned her lesson and responsibly dealt with her grief in the process.

I appreciated the girls’ relationships more in this installment. Because they were mostly all around their hometown for the summer, they interacted a lot more outside of the notes and letters that break up each chapter. It helped me feel like they had more of a connection outside of the pants, which wasn’t something I got in the first book.

I also loved the dynamic each of the girls developed with their moms. It seemed that each young woman’s storyline revolved around getting closer with their mom, understanding her better, or coming to terms with her death (as in Bee’s case). I truly loved this topic. It seems that way too many books nowadays completely ignore a teen’s relationship with their parents outside of low-level conflict or toxic relationships. It was so refreshing to read about positive and realistic female relationships that don’t make the mom seem like just another girl friend or some kind of ignorant and out-of-touch gen-Xer. I related to the girls – especially after going to college for the first time last year and learning how to live at home over breaks and in the summers, I’ve dealt with plenty of clashes with my mom. I’m still learning how to be a good daughter. I felt represented by Carmen, Tibby, and Lena in a deeper way than before.

The writing style really improved from before. While the book started out slow, I did notice some maturation and better flow in the writing. The tone fit the events of the story really well. I could tell apart the point of view shifts better too – each character had a more unique voice.

All the girls (except Lena) showed a lot of personal growth. They learned to admit when they were wrong, take responsibility for their actions, and clean up their own messes even if they had “excuses” for causing them in the first place. That’s something I really appreciate about this series – it doesn’t try to forgive bad behavior because the character was dealing with mental health struggles or something bad happened to them. It doesn’t try to make the girls seem perfect and give them a few token flaws that only make them more annoying. Instead, all four girls had deep issues to work through that they committed to fixing at the end. It had such a healthy viewpoint on growth.

Despite the repetitive plots in Lena and Carmen’s stories, The Second Summer of The Sisterhood brought all the same relatability, friendship, and drama as the first installment, with the addition of refreshing mother-daughter relationships and loose-end tying. The themes of finding yourself, growing as a person, and building strong, true relationships gave this sweet coming-of-age some surprising depth. I will definitely be reading the third book next. If you love realistic fiction and 2000s girlhood love letters, you’ll love this sequel in the Traveling Pants series.