Anne of Windy Poplars

ohh I just recently learned that although in my childhood box set this is #4, it was actually written much later than the next book, [b:Anne's House of Dreams 77394 Anne's House of Dreams (Anne of Green Gables, #5) L.M. Montgomery https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442471048l/77394.SY75.jpg 1133797], so this is in some ways kind of a filler because it has to lead up to the events of the next book. Still I love the widows and Rebecca Dew and That Cat <3

This was a really enjoyable book, but I didn't love it as much as I loved the other books in the series. I felt like this one had the most annoying characters (and there were SO MANY). I really wanted more of Anne and Gilbert, I've been waiting for so long for these two to finally be together and now all I get is some letters Anne is writing to Gilbert? NOOOO
I wanted them to be together and do things and I wanted to READ about those things, ugh.
All in all, it was a beautiful book, thanks to Anne who is such an amazing character and makes everything better.

This is the fourth book in the Anne of Green Gables series so if you haven't read it yet you might want to skip this review because it could potentially be spoilery for previous books.

So I am still really loving Anne. I love following her character and hearing about everything she gets up to. She's still one of my favorite characters and she's the reason I continue to read the series because despite the issues I am having I still really love her.

As for the issues I mentioned. Well the majority of the side characters are all very similar to each other. There's not enough to differentiate between them and considering we keep meeting new characters in each book it's getting old basically reading the same character personalities over and over again. But I am more interested in Anne so this doesn't seem to be bothering me as much.

My biggest issue has to do with the romance. I am a romance lover so I of course zone in on it the most. It's what I am most interested in. I love Anne and Gilbert but we don't get anything from Gilbert. We are being told about the romance and not shown and in this book it's Anne writing to Gilbert for 3 years and we get absolutely nothing from Gilbert. I am so tired of Gilbert being a huge part of Anne's life but barely being in any of the books. I understand this series is following Anne's life and I love that but I want more Gilbert.

Despite my issues I am still really enjoying the journey I am just starting to get more annoyed that some of the aspects I mentioned have been going on since the beginning.

Re-read Autumn 2020This book was translated into Finnish only 2002. So, when I was young and read them first time, I didn't know this book even existed. It is written almost all in letters to Gilbert, and it is funny. Little Elizabeth's tale reminds me of [b:Jane of Lantern Hill 149543 Jane of Lantern Hill L.M. Montgomery https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1435103595l/149543.SY75.jpg 839504] - what could have happened, if Jane's mother had died, and Jane had been a softer, more sensitive soul. It also reminds me of [b:The Star of Kazan 402141 The Star of Kazan Eva Ibbotson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1309286916l/402141.SY75.jpg 839241].The little goose and her gander to fiance...what a horrible person! I wish the person who was the model to that read the book and understood, and was ashamed. But I don't think she did. (Or they. There probably were several people like that in her life.)This is in my mind a perfect book to read in Autumn.

A return to the real Anne, the one that seemed to disappear briefly in book 3. Many moments that made me laugh and smile, and tear up. The letter format of the first few chapters threw me off a bit, but the transition to the narrative format was smooth and evened things out. Rebecca Dew was a highlight for me.

Awful.

What can I say. I fell into a Lucy Maud Montgomery hole this summer. Anne of the Island will always be my favorite, but this one has a lot of funny character observations about Anne's neighbors I'd forgotten about.

Slowly working through all of the series.