The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

This is a sweet story about a spinstery spinster who conversely is given a new lease on life when her doctor pronounces a death sentence on her. "If I have only one year to live", she reasons, "I had better start living"!

The first thing Valency does while squeezing out of society's cage is to see things (and people) as they truly are and speak the truth, niceties and platitudes be hanged!

I have to say that if I wasn't pressured by my daugher to keep reading this, I would have given it up around page 45. It read like a serious pity party. 'Wah Wah Wah, I have a miserable life, no one likes me, I'm not even pretty, and did I tell you about the time my special buttons were unjustly shared out when I was a child... I hate this room, I hate porridge, all I want is a dust pile of my own....' serious whineage going on! I wasn't sure I could stomach any more. But my daughter ripped the book out of my hands, flipped the pages and said, "Give it 10 more pages". I did. And it turned out very good. So if you're tempted to give it up, give it to page 50-55 and then decide.

And for the record: Barney is quite possibly one of the sweetest heroes ever. No tall dark and handsome claptrap, just an honest to goodness decent guy for a change. We need more of that.

And I added a new word to my vocabulary: SNOBOCRACY. I love that!

CONTENT: CLEAN
MY RATING: G