Review by Booklist Review
Kantra (The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale, 2023) once again takes inspiration from a beloved children's classic in this charming, life-affirming tale. Anne Gallagher always identified with the fictional Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables. She has the same impulsive spirit and zest for life and, as a girl, yearned to escape her small hometown of Mackinac Island. However, after a series of setbacks in her personal and professional lives, she returns to Mackinac for the summer and discovers that the life she imagined for herself as a child may no longer match her desires as an adult. Kantra ably balances story lines about Anne's thorny relationship with her mother, her grief over losing her father, her uncertainty about her future, and a burgeoning romance with someone from her past. While there are many references to L. M. Montgomery's novel that will please fans of the original, readers don't need to have read it to appreciate Anne's journey to finding fulfillment and self-acceptance.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Kantra, author of the March Sisters series inspired by Little Women, delivers an underwhelming homage to Anne of Green Gables. Schoolteacher Anne Gallagher travels from Chicago to her home of Mackinac Island, Mich., for her carpenter father's funeral, while her boyfriend, Chris, a pediatric oncologist, stays behind to care for his patients. She's greeted by her no-nonsense mother; her pregnant best friend, who stayed on the island and married her high school sweetheart; and Joe Miller, her former classmate and her dad's apprentice turned business partner, with whom she regularly bickers. Trouble brews in Chicago after the funeral, first when Chris informs Anne he's accepted a fellowship in Atlanta, and then when she refuses to keep banned books away from her students, prompting her to retreat to Mackinac for the summer. There, she spends time with Joe, whom she embarrassingly kissed when she was in high school and he used to call her Pest. While getting to know him as more than "the bane of my childhood existence," Anne begins to question whether what she wants is in Mackinac after all. The novel has its charms, but the plot is predictable, and the characters aren't fully fleshed out. Fans of the original will be disappointed. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House. (Jan.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Kantra follows up The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale with another retelling of a childhood classic, this time L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. Kantra moves Anne from the Victorian era to the present day and sets the novel's action on Michigan's picturesque Mackinac Island. Anne Gallagher, a teacher from Chicago, is spending time at her childhood home on Mackinac Island after her father's sudden death, conflict with her boyfriend, who has just gotten a new job in Atlanta and wants her to follow him, and a dispute over her classroom library. Reeling from professional betrayal and personal upheaval, Anne regroups over the course of a summer on Mackinac Island, where she confronts old wounds with her emotionally distant mother, reconnects with her best friend Daanis, now a busy mom, and gets reacquainted with Joe, the childhood crush who once teased her relentlessly. As she helps at her family's candy store, Anne rediscovers the comfort of familiar places and rekindles long-lost connections. Joe becomes an unexpected source of support, and their relationship begins to evolve, hinting at something deeper. But Anne's summer is anything but idyllic; it is a season of grief, reflection, and tough decisions about love, career, and where she belongs. VERDICT This charming modernization of a children's classic is sure to suit readers of Kristan Higgins or Carly Fortune and should have nostalgic appeal for Anne of Green Gables fans.--Stacy Alesi
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