I received this book in my December 2024 Literary Book Club box. The author was familiar to me- Ms. Montgomery wrote the Anne of Green Gables series- but I had never read The Blue Castle before. In fact, I knew basically nothing about it going into the story. Sometimes I think that works in my favor, and in this case it did.
 

Very quickly into it I became suspicious of two things: one was about the news Valency would receive, and two, how her family treated her. My first thought in regards to her family was, "Emotional abuse from family??" As I continued reading, I saw more evidence of that and my heart went out to her. 

The story shows us Valency's growth as she is faced with some tough choices. I felt proud "watching" her grow into her own person. Are you curious as to what exactly the Blue Castle is? Well, you will have to read the book to find out.
 
*What I have expressed are entirely my own thoughts. I was not compensated in any monetary way.* 

I adored this book! It is definitely a more mature read compared to the Anne series and yet you still find the familiar witty and whimsical writing.
Valancy is a fun character to follow and her quips and observations are lively and makes relating to her an exciting time.
Her family, the Stirling's are eccentric and hilarious to follow and learn about, but you also feel the cumbersome weight they apply to Valancy.
Barney is a wonderful male lead too!
There are some cheesy parts, but they are written so magically that I loved the cliches because they felt right for the story.
I know this book is lesser known but by far a favourite of L.M. Montgomery! Highly recommend~

Cute and funny

the beauty with which l.m. montgomery described both the scenery of nature and the character's mental transformation was STAGGERING

 I remember enjoying the Anne of Green Gables series when I was younger, and this book was something I’d wanted to read for a while. It was an easy-to-read classic, which is something that I appreciate when it comes to classics. I also liked that it was actually written in the 1920s, allowing me to assume that the portrayal of women was likely more accurate. They were expected to be married by 20, they weren’t advised to read, etc. I feel like a lot of the historical fiction I read today has a lot of empowered women who seem like they are super groundbreaking, but in reality, they are just like every other FMC in the same type of story, which is completely fine, but not something that is necessarily accurate of the time period. One of the only complaints that I have is that I didn’t really connect to any of the characters, including the main character. However, I do wonder if that is because I am outside of the targeted age range for this book since I know that Anne of Green Gables was intended for a bit of a younger audience. For example, when the main character was complaining about breakfast in Chapter 3, she mentioned how she “hated marmalade” or how she didn’t like the nickname Doss. I feel like this is something that might better relate to a younger audience, but it is not an accurate portrayal of a 29-year-old woman. It reminds me of how TV shows that take place in high school were more appealing to me when I wasn’t actually in high school. However, having her be more relatable to a child even though she is a 29-year-old woman would make her a more relatable character for the younger audience, which is who the book was presumably intended for. My other complaint is that the book was very slow to start. However, the last ~20% was phenomenal, convincing me to recommend the book and bump my rating up another half-star. 

This book kept getting better and better, and I'm glad I picked it up.

The first thing I'd like to say is that this would be a great book to read for anyone who wants to get into creative writing. There is a lot of descriptive writing with beautiful similes, prose, and things like that that are not only enjoyable, but would be really good for students to pay attention to.

It's a cozy book, full of twists and turns. It gets rather crazy at some points, and there was a lot of shocking plot twists that I didn't expect, although I did predict one from the beginning that I'm proud of myself for. I'd like to reread this knowing all that happens. The writing, in true Montgomery fashion, is gorgeous. As a nature lover myself I absolutely relished those parts. Romantic tropes came up, but it wasn't cringy, and it was enjoyable and sweet. 

The only think that made me take away a half star was that during Valancy's rebellion, her attitude towards swearing was weird. She was decent in every way, but she had become weirdly tolerant of it to the point of considering doing it herself. It was an odd point in her character development.

Only knocking it down a peg because I was 50% through the audiobook before it could hold my attention. But the ending blew me away, so I'll have to buy a paperback of it someday to give it a reread. Unlike my beloved Anne novels, this one has one steady arc of plot rather than a slew of vignettes.