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~

One of my favorite books of all time!!! 

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. 

Predictable and nothing particularly novel, but gentle, easy and nice nonetheless.  

Do you know that feeling of reading a relaxing favorite book that makes you feel like no matter what you may face in your life and where you find yourself, that book can transport you completely? This book did wonders for me in that way. 
Trust me, I have been in a rut in nearly every way lately, but reading this book for a second time was refreshing, and I always love L.M. Montgomery's works. 

I found this hidden gem of a book two Mays past and fell in love with it. It was that grey time of year when winter had long since left its mark, but the rain-stained windows and almost dead scorched plant life grew. It was a little depressing, especially in Florida, where we virtually have no seasons, which I sorely miss. After growing up in New England, near enough to the places in Canada that take place in Montgomery's writing, it felt like getting little fragments of my own memories and senses back to me, which was amazing after feeling homesick for so long. 
Her writing is eloquent and describes Valancy's emotions well. 

I remembered the beginning was slow, though I had not remembered just how slow. The story kicks off a little after the 50% mark, and it is quite depressing until then. I resonate a lot with Valancy; though somewhat different circumstances and times, I understand her well. Even if you could not relate to her in the sense of circumstances, you could tell by how well her character and story are written—even if it is so great a difference as can be set from fiction. 

Only after reading some classics within the year and a half since my first reading of this book did I realize and can compare this book to Jane Eyre. I feel like Barney has an incredible likeness to the character of Rochester, with the same humor offset to a new life with a young woman who refuses to give into depression as much as it begs at her doorstep. In this case, Barney is considerably younger, and looking through rumors circulating about his character, he only shows a good one apart from the gossip. 
So if you like Jane Eyre without so much tragedy and the writing, albeit for a more mature audience than Anne of Green Gables, I know you will love The Blue Castle if you are patient. I loved listening to it as a sleep story on YouTube and annotating my favorite parts on my copy. 


We all have our blue castles, and I loved the details about nature and human hearts. Hope is given brighter and brighter and will only be appreciated by those who love the slow things in life and can accept and respect the shadows as well as the sunshine. 
The feeling of the forest, God's presence throughout it, and the spirit of the forest give pause and house new miracles you will likely miss if you are not seeking them. 
There are characters for the world and for another, yet they live in the same one with dazzlingly different hearts. 
I love John Foster's words and how Valancy fell in love completely with life. 
I love her perspectives and enjoyed everything so many characters in books I have read with similar promises could not, which brought respite and bitter tragedy into their stories. Still, this one was beautiful, balancing life and the acknowledgment of death with a sense of peace. 

I know it will be hard to enjoy if you are feeling depressed yourself. It happens, I know, but it will not last forever. Reading a good book and enjoying a quiet, cozy evening will bring back some of the good; it is easy to overlook and gain some peace for today. 
You may not like it if you are tired of classics where the characters hope to marry for love but their parents for money, but all is well because they fall for the rich men anyway. I understand that, but it is not who the characters are which is the point. Love does not define circumstance, love, or worthiness of attention based on financial and social judgment, despite its presence. 
In that way, I was practically not too fond of Valancy's family. Still, even though they endure as present characters for nearly the whole book, they pale compared to my favorite moments and a pure and good romance. Maybe because I have always been a sucker rooting for the romances, but this book and Valancy and Barney have a soft spot in my heart. I hope to have something like their story, even if I am not as well off as they are one day. That will not matter, but love and the slow moments will always matter most. 

[24/8/22: Finished reading for the second time, barely longer than a week since I read it originally. I'm just. In love with this book. It has this soothing quality... however in other news I hated the ending this time, lol. It's too much, WAY too much.]


Oh my soul. The way L.M. Montgomery crafts her stories are wistfully melancholic and deeply joyful. Her descriptions of nature are stunning and could make me cry for how in love with the world, despite all tragedy, her characters are. Her classic children's novel, Anne of Green Gables, is one of my all time favourites and now, and now, and now...

I love The Blue Castle. I love it despite all the reasons I shouldn't. It's largely a romance novel, which is not something I typically enjoy -- but even more so it's the story of a young woman, Valancy, falling in love with life itself. She is searching for her "Blue Castle", in other words, her home -- her true home, her purpose. She lives a loveless life in a loveless family, all tradition and routine and rules and reputation. It's in the threat of losing her life -- a sudden diagnosis of a terminal illness -- that she discovers love can exist for her. She pursues life like she never had before, to the horror of her family. (she even dares to slide down the bannister!!!)

This novel is funny, with Valancy's family and their utterly ridiculous ways. It's tragic, in the ways books about terminal illness usually are and bittersweet in the way that L.M. Montgomery always is. It's also very circumstantial in ways that make little logical sense...but it doesn't matter much. The ending is the stuff of fairytales, and almost too cheesy to bear. But it doesn't matter. I don't care even a little. I love this story wholeheartedly. This book is my blue castle. 

p.s. Banjo and Good Luck are the loves of my life