Confession: I am an Anne of Green Gables nerd. As a kid, I re-read the entire series at least twice a year well into my young adulthood. I am fairly certain if The Chancellor and I were to take a pilgrimage to Prince Edward Island, he’d have to Xanax me up, because I’d have a full-on, Kristen-Bell-meets-a-sloth panic attack at seeing the Cavendish farmhouse.
I’m not even kidding. It’s really serious.
So I was intrigued when yesknopemaybe posted a CBR review (happy Cannonball, by the way!!! I’m super bad about keeping up with other people’s reviews on the blog, not to mention my own) of Andi Teran’s Ana of California. I don’t always warm to contemporary updates of classics, but I had really enjoyed Re Jane, so I figured it couldn’t hurt.
Ana Cortez is fifteen, stuck in the foster care system, and out of options. She has been bounced around from home to abusive home, and the only option left is a work study program at a farm in northern California. There, she is taken in by siblings Emmett and Abbie Garber and immersed into agrarian life. Emmett is crusty and skeptical, Abbie warm and guarding a secret past. Ana falls in love with her new life, but a series of events threaten the possible joy she might attain forever at the farm.
I enjoyed this book immensely. It was warm and delightfully written. I do have Notes, however, which kept this from being a five-star book. The love story was underwhelming and not a great enhancement to the overall story arc. Cole Brannan, you are no Gilbert Blythe. How dare you, sir.
I mean, for reals. [sobs]
Yay! So glad you gave it a try :) Totally agree about Cole not holding a candle to Gil. I did enjoy Abbie’s romantic plotline though!