Hi friends, happy Monday, I hope you’re all doing well! Today I’m posting my review of the fourth book in Anne’s journey by L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Windy Poplars.

You can read my review of book one: Anne of Green Gables
You can read my review of book two: Anne of Avonlea
You can read my review of book three: Anne of the Island

Anne of Windy Poplars by: L.M. Montgomery: Anne has left college behind and has now embraced her new job as principal at Summerside High School. She’s excited to start the next chapter of her life, even if she’s away from home, but not everyone in Summerside is excited to have her. The Pringles are a very prestigious family in town, who would rather her leave than stay, but over the course of her time there, she finds allies in the widows of Windy Poplars and others around. This novel takes place over the course of her three years in Summerside and this one had a bit of a different tone than the previous three books. For one, this was told in more of a letter-writing style, which wasn’t bad but sometimes it was hard to tell what parts were part of the letters and what parts weren’t. The reader gets why this was written in this format, but what they really wanted was more from the letters. We only got letters that Anne had wrote to Gilbert, it would have been better rounded out if we also had some she wrote to Marilla or Davy. It felt like now that Anne is growing up, the past characters’ matter less in her life and the sole focus is on Gilbert and the reader isn’t a fan of that. We got barely any of Green Gables in this, nor did we get much of our old characters we’ve come to love. We did get new characters that the reader really enjoyed, especially their role they played in Anne’s life, but it would have been nice to get a little more from our beloved characters. The children characters in this felt so wholesome and full of wonder that it was so interesting and fun to see Anne interact with them. They were like mini Anne’s, but Anne couldn’t really see it, which made the dynamic even more of a joy to read. The other thing that felt different in this novel was the writing; the tone definitely shifted to a more mature level because all these letters Anne was writing sounded so lovey dovey and it’s a complete 180 from who she was in the previous book. It was nice to see Anne in love, but it also felt so fast because we never get any of Anne and Gilbert together – they’re always separated for school or work. Maybe if we’d gotten scenes with them together, this wouldn’t have felt so strange to see because it would have been more established. The reader still enjoyed this immensely, but it just didn’t have the same spark as the past three books had. They still look forward to seeing where this series goes from here and exploring the new mature era with Anne.