I'm re-reading the fourth one now and really enjoying the arcs that the four books map out for all the characters. Here for no apparent reason, I recap the stories so lovingly rendered by Ann Brashares.
Book one sets the scene, all the girls have their big issues mapped out.
Tibby, grouchy older sister: left alone by others makes friends with Bailey, a ten year old dying of leukemia. Bailey teaches her to be good.
Bridget, whose mother committed suicide: recklessly falls in love with older soccer coach Eric and throws herself at a boy, goes too far and loses her grip on herself.
Carmen, only child: visits her father, is surprised by his new family and acts like a giant brat.
Lena, painfully shy and a devoted artist: goes to Greece where she falls desperately in love with Kostos and bonds with her grandfather.
Book two expands on these issues, and introduces some more. A huge focus on reconnecting with their mothers, and mother figures.
Tibby: at film school tries to impress some cool kids that she doesn't really like with a humiliating film about her mother, has huge guilt and remembers Bailey. She ends up making a film about Bailey and apologising to her mother.
Bridget: after being depressed all year she goes to Alabama and finds her Grandmother, remembers happy summers and rediscovers her roots.
Carmen: bratty, sabotages her mother's new relationship with David. She is jealous and angry and uses her jealous anger to destroy her mother's happiness.
Lena: after yearning for Kostos for so long, she has broken up with him so that she can stop thinking about him all the time. It doesn't work. He shows up in her town and they reunite, then he disappears into a forced marriage and breaks her heart for real.
Book three revisits the main themes for each character, deepens some relationships and revisits some things too.
Tibby: Starts a romance with Bailey and her mutual friend Brian, who has loved her for long time. Scary romance is reflected in the story with her little sister being injured because Tibby left her window open. Tibby learns to care for other people, culminating in helping with a birth.
Bridget: coaching at a soccer camp, Bee is thrown back together with Eric. Bee learns self control and self denial, then discovers that in fact Eric loves her back. He takes care of her very tenderly when she gets a high fever.
Carmen: David and her mother have married and Carmen discovers that they are expecting a baby. Carmen acts like a brat, but agrees to look after Lena's widowed Grandmother, who is miserable and angry. Carmen learns to look outside of herself and be a good person. She has a little romance with a guy called Win who makes her want to be a good person.
Lena: Defies her father to pursue her art, loses herself to improving her skill and then uses that to recognise her family's true feelings. Gets herself a scholarship to art college.
...and now I'm on the last book.
Tibby: has a pregnancy scare with Brian and shuts him out.
Bridget: goes on an archeological dig in Turkey and falls for her professor.
Carmen: having lost her identity when seperated from her friends and family by college is subsumed into a relationship with a glamourous new best friend.
Lena: falls in love with someone new and finally moves beyond the ghost of Kostos.
PoF: Do I ever blog in anything but my Pjs?
CO: raptor safari