After two years, I’ve finally finished the main part of this series of books! There are two more that follow, but their focus is on the children, no more “Anne of….”, so I sort of consider this a job done!
That said, even thought this is an “Anne of” book, the focus really is on the children – Anne and Gilbert have six children including a set of twins, all with their different escapades, and not a huge amount of time spent on Anne other than when the children take their problems to her to solve. For the most of the book, Anne has become a flawless woman with her days of escapades and learning about herself long gone – but there is a really nice moment near the end where we find she’s not perfect after all, and she struggles with something so completely relatable to us all, it’s nice to see she’s still got a realistic side to her.
Still very enjoyable, warm and fuzzy, and an easy read.
As with the previous books, this one still has some lovely one liners – here are a few of my favourites:
- “‘Praying’s good. I lost a dime once and I prayed and I found a quarter. That’s how I know.'”
- “‘Hasn’t the world got its face washed nice and clean?’ cried Di, on the morning sunshine returned.”
- “‘God doesn’t make bargains, He gives… gives without asking from us in return, except love.'”
- “‘If a minister preaches a sermon that hits home to some particular individual people always suppose he meant it for that very person,’ said Anne. ‘A hand=me-down cap is bound to fit somebody’s head, but it doesn’t follow that it was made for him.'”
- “‘David is going to be married at last,’ said Miss Cornelia. ‘He’s been a long time making up his mind which was cheaper, marrying or hiring.'”
- “‘The same summer will never be coming twice'”
- “Anne knew quite well that this idea was absolutely unreasonable, but when was jealousy ever reasonable?”
ineke.co.uk 