Anne of the Island

In this review, I lament how disappointed I was in Anne of Avonlea after having loved Anne of Green Gables so much. I am happy to report that I found Anne of the Island to be a vast improvement on Anne of Avonlea. Still not as good as the original, it is a worthy follow-up…

Anne of Avonlea

Anne of Green Gables is pretty nearly a perfect book. Even if you don’t love the story or the character, it is hard deny that Anne Shirley, in her debut novel, has been an international sensation for more than 100 years. According to Wikipedia, Anne of Green Gables has been translated into 36 languages and…

The Blue Castle

“Valancy was in the midst of realities after a lifetime of unrealities.” L.M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle is one of her stand-alone novels.  It is also one of the few she wrote for adults.  The story opens on the morning of Valancy Stirling’s twenty-ninth birthday.  “The only homely girl in a handsome clan, with no…

Lucy Maud Montgomery

I would like to think that L.M. Montgomery needs no introduction.   There, that was short and sweet! I do believe most of us have at least heard of Anne of Green Gables, the book, the character, that made Montgomery famous.  It is difficult now to believe that after several rejections from publishers, Montgomery stuck…

A Tangled Web

Oh, such a tediously tangled web! I considered taking notes as I read so I could keep characters straight. I kept thinking the cast would eventually resolve into a few manageable main characters and I would figure out which I was supposed to care about. It didn’t and I didn’t. In three generations sixty Darks…

Kilmeny of the Orchard

L.M. Montgomery’s Kilmeny of the Orchard is a stand-alone short novel published two years after Anne of Green Gables.  Try as I might, I couldn’t help comparing the two as I read Kilmeny.  Is this from the same pen from which Anne flowed into the hearts of thousands of girls around the world? “Eric Marshall,…