Anne of the Island (L.M. Montgomery)

Genre: Period fiction (takes place around 1885 in Canada)
Year Published: 1915

Today I finished Anne of the Island, the third book in the Anne of Green Gables sequence. I will admit to having been totally entranced by Anne Shirley and her little world, even as it sometimes annoys me. I am somewhat unusual in that I only picked up Anne of Green Gables for the first time a few months ago, having never read it as a young girl. But I fell for Anne as so many have done before me.

This series has its faults; the one that I think is most glaring, that Montgomery tends to introduce problems for Anne merely to solve them two pages later, is probably more pronounced in Island than it has been in the previous two books. However, I was much more involved with the plot of Island than that of Anne of Avonlea (the second book). Anne's about my age for the last bit of Island, and she's finally old enough to resolve the question of where her relationship with Gilbert Blythe is going. I was definitely clutching the poor cover pretty hard toward the end when she finally has to face up to the fact that friendship has ceased to be enough on at least one of their parts. (I won't spoil it completely!) So on an emotional level, it hit me harder than the previous two books. And it should speak for itself that I went and picked up Anne of Windy Poplars (the next book) today at the secondhand shop.

Recommend? Yes, though this is not a series you can jump into at any point; you really have to start with Anne of Green Gables.