Tag: Anne of Green Gables

After Anne

By Logan Steiner

Summary:

I am grateful to Goodreads for the chance to read this uncorrected proof of this novel. I looked forward to reading it and prepared myself by reading Anne of Green Gables first.

The novel is well written and it felt like an extension of Lucy M Montgomery’s own work but it wasn’t. The author’s voice seemed similar to her subject’s.

The story starts before Lucy has published her famous Anne of Green Gables. It shows how difficult it was for her to pursue a writing career at that time. Everyone acted as if it was just a hobby and once she was married, she wouldn’t have the need to pursue a career any longer.

It made me feel for Lucy because everyone seemed to be working against her. She does finish the novel and actually put off marrying while she completed her work because she suspected that if she waited, it might not happen. The book highlighted how women of the time were meant to take care of the home and family but not seek doing anything else they might find fulfilling.

The story was told in different time lines and I felt it was easy to get confused as to what year it was, even though each chapter had the dates. I found myself flipping back and forth to make sure I was following the story correctly. The author jumped from the past, when Lucy celebrated a couple of her birthdays with her cousin Frede and the time after when she was married.

Lucy’s journals indicated that Anne of Green Gables was roughly based on Frede, her wild spirit cousin.

While a small child, her mother died and her father abandoned her to be raised by her grandmother. When the story starts, she is an adult who has come back home after college. Her grandmother handles the mail for the area and people come to her home to retrieve it.

The handsome, young minister appears to be the most eligible bachelor in the community and several of the single women are vying for his attention. Even though he obviously is interested in Lucy, she doesn’t appear to have noticed him.

Her grandmother waits until Ewan Macdonald, the minister shows up to get his mail and suddenly has something else to do, leaving Lucy to hand it over to him.

When others tell Lucy that the man is interested in her, she finally takes notice. She decides he is worth pursuing.

Ewan is so shy that it is Lucy who attempts to kiss him first. It still takes them a long time to get serious.

He eventually proposes but Lucy puts him off because she knows if she marries, she will probably not be able to finish her novel.

Their home life seems ideal until Lucy becomes famous and Ewan starts struggling because he is unable to provide for their family as well as his wife.

We eventually learn that Ewan can’t handle that he thinks Lucy cares more about her writing than him.

Ewan suffers serious depression and her publisher pushes her to keep writing more of the series than she had ever planned to right. Lucy struggles. She wants to write about other stuff but because Ewan’s illness is affecting his career, she is pushed even harder to continue the successful series to be able to provide for them financially.

There was also a storyline about another man that Lucy was attracted to while Ewan’s condition continued to get worse. Edwin, the other man, encouraged her with her writing and seemed to be giving signals that he had feelings for Lucy. But when she acknowledged her feelings for him, Edwin exited her life and returned to his own unhappy marriage.

The story follows Lucy until she is an old woman. It shows highlights of the happy and sad moments of her life. We see her two boys grow and have families of their own and we follow her journey to the end of her life.

Review:

I think I might have enjoyed this more if I had thought it was non-fiction. The author says she used Lucy’s journals and filled in the gaps. Because it is called a novel, I am not sure what is true and what isn’t.

I do believe it was well written. The author is a skilled writer. It was interesting to find out more about Lucy Montgomery.

I guess I was a little disappointed with where the story went. The author tells you about the end, in the very beginning of the book and it was a shock for me. I would have liked to have read the story in a more linear style and found out at the end what happened to Lucy. I think because of her hardships, I could understand why it happened but I think knowing from the beginning ruined it for me.

I do like this author’s writing style and may look for future books from her, depending on the subject matter. I think she probably did do a great deal of research but I wish she could have written this more as a biography than a novel. Because of that, I gave it 3 stars.

Published: May 30, 2023

Category: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Rating: Goodreads rating is 4 stars

Setting: Prince Edward Island

About the Author:

Logan Steiner is an Assistant United States Attorney in Denver. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Pomona College and a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. She says that balancing lawyering, writing, and mothering is not easy but she finds that they complement more than compete. Being a lawyer makes her a clearer writer, being a writer makes her a happier lawyer, and being a mother makes her a more grounded one of each.

I hope you found this review helpful.

Are you a fan of Anne of Green Gables? I tried not to leave spoilers in this review. I hope you do read this book. If you do, come back here and let me know your thoughts.

Have you read something recently you think I might enjoy? Leave a comment to let me know.

May you find yourself lost in a book soon,

Virginia

What Did I Read in April?

This is going to be a quick message to review what I read in April.

Mystery:

Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich – I gave it 4 stars

Sinister Spring by Agatha Christie – 4 stars

The Shop on Royal Street by Karen White – 3 stars

Classic:

Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery – 5 stars

Historical Fiction:

After Anne by Logan Steiner – 3 stars

Non-Fiction:

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot – 4 stars

If you are new to my blog, the reviews for these books can be found under their genre in the menu on the side. All except After Anne – I will be reviewing that one this Friday. Those reviews will summarize the book and explain why I rated each book the way that I did.

For April my visitors came not only from the United States but also, Ireland, Canada, Germany, France, India, Taiwan, China, Philippines, and Japan.

If you are like me, I enjoy a little bit of stats information. So far this year, my most popular post was – What I read in January. It had 107 views.

I appreciate all of my visitors to this site. I currently have 419 subscribers and I would love to see that number explode. If you know anyone else who might be interested in So Many Books, you can direct them to Virginia-Gruver.com.

May you find yourself lost in a book soon,

Virginia

Why Should You Add Classics to Your Book List?

I enjoy classics because they never grow old. They have stories that pull you in and hold onto you until the very last page.

“When you re-read a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before.” Cliff Fadiman

Someone recommended this book to me many years ago. I did purchase it but it sat on my shelf. I have been trying to dip into the classics and decided this would be a perfect spring read. It was.

First Published: January 1, 1908

Category: Classic, Young Adult, Historic Fiction

Setting: Prince Edward Island

Pages: 384

Goodreads Rating: 4.30

Summary:

I enjoy classics because they never grow old. They have stories that hold you like a warm hug. They have characters you love and they are written with a passion that can be felt even a hundred years after they were first written.

If you are like me and have never read Anne of Green Gables, it is the story of a little orphan girl who is adopted by Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, an older unmarried pair of siblings.

Matthew and Marilla live on a farm on Prince Edward Island. Because they are getting up in age, they decided a young boy would be helpful for Matthew with the farm chores.

Matthew drives to the train station to pick up the little boy and finds Anne sitting there waiting. The station master tells Matthew there is no little boy, only the little girl.

Matthew who is very shy finally approaches Anne and finds out that yes, she was the child sent to them. He doesn’t let her know of his disappointment. He takes her home because he has no choice, he can’t leave her there alone.

On their way home, Anne talks constantly. ( A trait I noticed when raising both a boy and a girl. My daughter, when she was small, was the chatter box. ) Anne talked constantly while Matthew listened. On that ride home, she stole his heart.

Of course Marilla said she had to go back and Matthew had already decided to leave the raising of the child to Marilla but when he had a moment alone, he let her know that he thought maybe she should stay. She could keep Marilla company.

Anne’s heart is broken and she cries all night while Marilla sleeps on it. After Marilla and Anne go to visit the woman who was supposed to bring the boy they find out that there had been a miscommunication.

In the meantime, Marilla learns about the struggles Anne has already had to endure. She’d been loaned out to other families to help raise children and do housework. She’d often been treated like a slave. She learns that Anne has not had a chance to have a childhood.

Marilla’s heart is softened and she decides to give Anne a try. The story then tells of their time together as a family and how they learn to love each other and grow.

Review:

There are lots of heartwarming characters within the community and you feel for Anne as she tries to fit in but always seems to make mistakes. Sometimes I too wanted to shake Anne because she kept doing so many things she shouldn’t but I learned to love her despite her over active imagination.

Marilla was chosen to raise the child so sometimes she had to be the bad guy. I loved watching her character evolve as Marilla opened her heart to Anne and her attitude softened.

Loved the inter action between Anne and the other children. Anne was a born leader and half the time they all got into trouble for following.

It felt like a snapshot of the past. You were able to experience how life was then without the hardships.

Montgomery tells the story beautifully making you want to pick up the book and read yet not necessarily want to finish it because you’ve come to love her world.

If you want a read that warms your heart and gives you hope, this would be a good choice. This is a book I would read over and over again. I gave this book 5 stars.

I guess I have always had some connection to Anne.

I felt for Anne who hated her red hair. People often made fun of it. I too am a redhead and though I did go through a phase where some kids at school taunted me by saying – I’d rather be dead than red, I ignored them and grew up thinking my hair was beautiful because it was different.

Anne also always pointed out that her name was spelled with an e. I ran into a similar situation when naming my daughter. Her name is Jennifer Anne and the hospital kept trying to drop the e off the end.

About the Author:

Lucy Maude Montgomery was born at Clifton, Prince Edward Island November 30, 1874. She lived at Leaskdale, after marrying Rev Ewen MacDonald on July 11, 1911. She had three children and wrote almost a dozen books. She died April 24, 1942 and is buried at Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.

Coming Soon:

Another reason I chose to read Anne of Green Gables at this time is because I was gifted an uncorrected arc of a book from Goodreads. That book is After Anne – by Logan Steiner. This is a novel that was written using L M Montgomery’s journals. I will have a full review soon.

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