The Last Summer (of You and Me) - Ann Brashares

This is a book about growing up, learning to love yourself, learning to love others, and how to forgive. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Riley, Alice (sisters), and Paul have been best friends their entire lives. Their respective families summer on Fire Island every year away from the hustle and bustle of the big city NYC.

Now they're all in their 20's spending one last hurrah on the island together before they officially venture into adulthood on different paths while trying to keep their relationships intact. Riley, steadfast and unchanging is still a lifeguard at the beach while Paul and Alice find themselves torn by feelings that have always shadowed their friendship. Where do they go without betraying Riley and endangering their friendship forever?

Then an unexpected illness sends the family back to NYC, Paul is left heart broken and angry on the ferry dock plunging in for the ceremonious dive as Alice walks away from their romance without reason. What happens next, you'll have to read it for yourself!

I'm a sap for a romance novel...and as soon as Brashares created the romance between Paul and Alice I was hooked. Paul is wealthy, sexy, and emotionally handicapped from the death of his father, his unstable mother, and the endless legal battles between his mother and paternal grandparents. Paul has always found his anchor in Riley and Alice - they are literally his best friends and the family he's ever had. But now in his mid 20's he allows Alice to become something more, something he's not sure he's ready for. The transformation is heart wrenching and the love scenes are steamy :) How could a girl not love Paulo by the end of this novel!?

I hope Brashares writes a follow up...in the meantime I've heard Warner Brothers bought the rights for the movie. The sucker in me rates this 4 stars...I was completely enthralled despite the slow beginning.