Reviews

“She felt very old and mature and wise - which showed how young she was. She told herself that she longed greatly to go back to those dear merry days when life was seen through a rosy mist of hope and illusion, and possessed an indefinable something that had passed away for ever. Where was it now - the glory and the dream?” *** My favorite out of the three books I’ve read! It has been a journey to witness Anne’s growth throughout Green Gables and Avonlea, but this one takes the cake because her sentiments really hit close to home. In Anne of the Island, our child wonder has finally matured, bid farewell to kindred spirits, and gone off to college. Everything has changed but coincidentally, nothing has at all. Anne retains her fascination with the world around her, yet what makes this book special is that it reinforces how some actions have necessary consequences— this time though, they not only affect her but the people she cares about too. Especially when it comes to love. Overall, this is peak Anne x Gilbert romance, so I’m glad I finally reached the third installment to witness their development for myself. It’s such a bittersweet yet rewarding experience. Montgomery captured the seasons of change and the joys and pangs of growing up in her beloved protagonist’s life so well.

This book is so incredibly heartwarming! The new characters are written into the story so well— I cannot rave enough about this book. The end was an added bonus!

giving this a 5 stars if even tho i think id realistically give it like a 4.75 which may not seem like a big difference but it is a big difference to ME. i think im still riding the high of the last book which i ADORED but this one is still so good im just sad its over (i realize there are four more books in the series but i am choosing to believe they do not exist)

This is the life

i am crying

Again loved this book!! Anne made me so made (in a good kind of way) the whole book until she finally decided to listen to sense in the end.🤣

I read this like years ago but I would be remiss if the best Anne book wasn't on my Goodreads. This is like the ultimate comfort book I still read it when I'm having a bad day and I don't even have a physical copy I just go on the Project Gutenberg website from my laptop and read it there that's how much I enjoy this book.

"I don't want sunbursts and marble halls. I just want you." Just going to say right up front: absolutely none of the books in this series can come close to the beauty of the first Anne book. It's a slice of magical, golden childhood and I will defend that book with my life. :') Secondly: I've literally been shipping Anne & Gilbert since before I even knew shipping was a thing. And they fINALLY have their Moment!!! "There was nobody else--there never could be anybody else for me but you. I've loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school." Oh look, that's me dissolved in a puddle of happy feels. Other things I liked: - The writing style is soft & unassumingly lush. It's such a comforting & homey thing to get lost in. March came in that winter like the meekest and mildest of lambs, bringing days that were crisp and golden and tingling, each followed by a frosty pink twilight which gradually lost itself in an elfland of moonshine. - Avonlea is like a second home to me now. - Phil is a riot and she injected so much life into this story. - All the college/change-related stuff was super relevant to my life right now. I know exactly how Anne feels watching all her old friends get in relationships and feeling left out. It's so hard to articulate, but this has been happening to me a lot & I relate to Anne's dread of changing relationships. You desperately want things to remain the same, familiar way they always did. But people (and relationships) change . . . and that's a hard thing to accept. - Patty's Place is the coziest little home imaginable. I want that to be my new dorm room, please and thank you. - Marilla getting all sentimental and nearly making me C R Y. (Also, I still miss Matthew, terribly. <3) - I know I already mentioned this, but Anne and Gilbert. They were probably my first OTP, and they finallyyyyyyyyyy get together by the end of this book. I wanted to shake some sense into Anne because it took her the entirety of college to figure out she liked him. *facepalm* - I just feel so light and happy reading L.M. Montgomery's books. I'm sure this doesn't need any explanation. Things I didn't like: - Not enough of all the "classic" Avonlea characters (Marilla, Diana, Gilbert, etc.). They're like family to me, and I missed them. I like the new "school chums" that Anne makes, but I almost feel like Anne's friendship with Diana is forgotten. :/ - OKAY. So. Rant time. This is the major reason I docked off an extra star. I'm a huge animal lover, so the one chapter where they try to freaking chloroform a cat they couldn't take care of??? I. Was. So. Upset. I don't care that it's a different time period. I don't even care that they were "trying to not cause the cat pain." THAT'S NO EXCUSE. I know people are probably rolling their eyes right now. Like, "Seriously, Mary, it's supposed to be funny. Stop making such a big deal out of nothing." Well, I'm sorry, but I fail to see any humor in the fact that they actually tried to kill an animal they couldn't take care of. That's never okay, and it made me so furious & disturbed. It seemed so out of character for Anne, and worse, it was never portrayed in a negative way. If you can't keep an animal . . . find someone who will be able to. I don't know how anyone can justify this. *deep breath* I'm sorry, but despite how much I love these characters, that chapter was sickening. - It could get a little boring at times & it lacked the magic of the first book. But that's mostly just because I was pining for all of Anne's hilarious antics and adventures with the classic Avonlea gang. Overall? This was a delightful, transportive experience. L.M. Montgomery never fails to make my heart thrill with nostalgia and happiness. This may not be the standard of golden perfection that Anne of Green Gables is, but it was a much-needed book for this period of my life. 3.5 stars

This is going to be short and sweet. As with the previous two books, I thoroughly enjoyed this installment in the story of Anne Shirley’s life. Here, we see Anne attending college and fighting against the assumptions of others regarding her love life. She makes new friends and a new home and watches as old friends and Green Gables begin to change. It’s hard growing up and seeing that life doesn’t stay the same, and Anne struggles with this. She also struggles with her love life. There’s a bit of a love triangle here, which I always hate, and Anne is downright silly and ignorant in her desire to not love a particular someone, but everything works out right in the end. As with all of these books, there’s lots of humor, and a multitude of profound statements. I love the mix of depth and levity Montgomery is able to produce with such deftness. Although I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as the two before it, it’s still a lovely story. I’ve never made it beyond this book in the eight-book series, so I’m excited to see what happens next!

This series feels so alive. The characters are lovely, interesting and realistic. Their feelings are relateable and natural
The romance part was just perfectly built up

i am crying

anne & gilbert!!

Despite this book being the one where Anne and Gilbert finally get engaged, it's also the one that convinced me Anne was aro-spec. Her experiences with disillusionment throughout this book felt so familiar to me that I can't read her as anything but on the aromantic spectrum. Anne's revelation of love feels more like a revelation that she doesn't want to live without Gilbert in her life and traditional romantic love/marriage is the only way it's going to happen, so that's how she reacts.

At this point I know that I can read about Anne anytime I want a heartfelt and wholesome story. Anne of the Island may be my favourite yet. Now that Anne has gone off to university you see just how much she has matured. She’s growing up so fast. Yet she still has that curiosity and love of life that makes her Anne. The longing between Anne and Gilbert is everything that I could want. It’s heartbreaking but also the slow burn I need. The side characters are also lovey to read about. I do hope we get more Diana and Marilla, now that Anne isn’t at college, in the next book. Basically, I can see why some may see these books as too moralistic but I don’t care, it warms my heart.

The way all the characters have my heart🤧

My favorite of the series!

This was a brilliant sequel to Anne of Green Gables, and to me, a far better successor than the second in the series. It held all of the original whimsy and charm of Anne, but with the sweetest slow burn love story I’ve read.

My favorite of the series!

** spoiler alert ** "I have a dream," he said slowly. "I persist in dreaming it, although it has often seemed to me that it could never come true. I dream of a home with a hearth-fire in it, a cat and dog, the footsteps of friends—and YOU!" Anne wanted to speak but she could find no words. Happiness was breaking over her like a wave. It almost frightened her. How will I cope after this series?

It has the most beautiful prose. The story feels like a warm blanket and some of the passages are just magnificent.

** spoiler alert ** Sinceramente, esperava o casamento de Anne com Roy, pois queria um plostwits maior. Queria que ela noivasse e no dia do seu casamento descobrisse que amava Gilbert. Ademais, achei um tanto desnecessário a parte em que o gilbert quase morre, tal ocorrência não foi necessária. Todavia, o livro é bom e recomendaria para um amigo

3.5* I enjoyed this book quite a bit more than the second in the series - but this can probably be attributed to the fact that I listened to the audiobook. Anne was as bright as ever, Diana as graceful and Gilbert as charming (and all the new characters were lovely) Although, I was not expecting the one random chapter in which the girls try to chloroform a cat but the cat survives so then they adopt it... very chaotic...

I must admit this book made me a bit sad, as it was a bit more grown up. Author shows so much more aspects of growing up - how messy it really is, how all the feelings affect you so wrongly. I must admit I hated some of Anne´s decisions at first, but I know everything had it´s own meaning. It was more realistic, less like a fairytale about childhood. Realizing how accurate everything happening in this book is, the death and it´s fatality, the changes we all go through during childhood, losing friends and finding new ones, our relationship with them ever so changing. Love and dreams that sometimes make your real feelings look dull. I can relate so much to this, to Anne´s feelings about "wanting more than that." I feel like even though this book series is middle grade, I am learning SO much from it. About myself and about life, too. I did not like it as much as the first two, but mainly because of my *escapism* and constant need to push away reality lol. And some aspects of this book were so real. But the ending, aww the ending was so sweet and beautiful. All of her books are like this - beautifully written, so sweet and funny, too. But the ending was really something I was waiting for for such a long time.

Oh I just adored this one. Possibly because I'm also studying at the moment, and so I felt a bit more connected to it, but it was just so lovely. More Gilbert didn't hurt either, I guess.
Highlights

"I don't want sunbursts and marble halls. I just want YOU.”
🥹

“There was nobody else- there never could be anybody else for me but you. I've loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school."

‘The night was so very still that one should have been able to hear the whisper of roses in blossom-the laughter of daisies-the piping of grasses-many sweet sounds, all tangled up together. The beauty of moonlight on familiar fields irradiated the world.’

‘Anne had always loved that brook. Many a dream had she spun over its sparkling water in days gone by. She forgot lovelorn youths, and the cayenne speeches of malicious neighbors, and all the problems of her girlish existence. In imagination she sailed over storied seas that wash the distant shining shores of "faery lands forlorn," where lost Atlantis and Elysium lie, with the evening star for pilot, to the land of Heart's Desire. And she was richer in those dreams than in realities; for things seen pass away, but the things that are unseen are eternal.’