Acquired Digital Audiobook by: I am a new blog tour hostess with Audiobookworm Promotions wherein I have the opportunity to receive audiobooks for review or adoption (reviews outside of organised blog tours) and host guest features on behalf of authors and narrators alike. When I saw the blog tour for ‘Anne of Green Gables’ I was wicked excited – as I have been wanting to re-read the series for a bit over a year and a half when I first saw a collection of the paperbacks at a thrift store! Mum surprised me with them but for the life of me, I never felt it was the ‘right time’ to read Anne. Seeing the blog tour was featuring the narrations by Post Hypnotic Press – the same publisher of the Betty MacDonald memoirs, I knew I wanted to take part as I love their quality and dedication to how audiobooks are produced!
I received a complimentary audiobook copy of “Anne of Avonlea” via the publisher Post Hypnotic Press (of whom was working directly Audiobookworm Promotions) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Where we left Anne:
Anne and Marilla had to walk through a period of heart-wrenching grief and anguish the moment they realised dear Matthew had gone to Heaven ahead of them both – leaving them wretched for the ache in their soul and the emptiness in their hearts to fill in the gaps by which his absence placed in their lives. His was a gentle spirit – a kindly man who was sensitive about Anne – he wanted only the best for his ‘girl’ and he took a liking to her ever since he first laid eyes upon her at the train station – all wide-eyed and curiously eager to see where she was going to ‘call home’ now that he had come to fetch her for Green Gables.
My, how much had changed from those formative years – Anne was nearly seventeen, fully matured past some of her growing wrinkles of angst and a considerably different minded young woman than the one who fought the urge to forgive Gilbert Blythe all those moons ago. She is still fiercely attached to Diana and to the pursuit of knowledge but inside her, was a kind spirit bursting to right the world with her compassion and to endeavour to give back a selfless act of kindness to Marilla of whom saved her from a life of feeling unwanted and unloved. This truly is a story and a series which champions adoption and the non-conventional ways in which children, guardians and parents enter each others’ lives.
There is a quiet sincerity about Anne – she recognises her short-comings and has endeared us all by her ability to see the larger picture without focusing solely on her own intentions and dreams. She feels with all her might a responsible to Marilla (and to Matthew, had he lived) to repay the older woman somehow, someway if only to return a small provision of what Marilla had always bestowed to Anne.
It is here – as she leaves Queens (a bit of a pre-University or Community College segue past lower grades) and enters the workforce as a teacher at Avonlea (courtesy of Gilbert giving up his own teaching position to give Anne the chance to stay local; something which reminded me of how Laura received the teaching fellowship in Little House (the tv series) as I am forgetting if it followed true in the books; you can see everyone in Avonlea has changed their strong opinions against her – even Mrs Rachel Lynde has softened a great deal since she first met Anne and had judged her to a degree in which no one deserves.
Anne of Avonlea
Following Anne of Green Gables (1908), this book covers the second chapter in the life of Anne Shirley. We learn of Anne's doings from the age of 16 to 18, during the two years that she teaches at Avonlea school. It includes many of the characters from Anne of Green Gables, as well as new ones: Mr. Harrison and his foul-mouthed parrot, Miss Lavendar Lewis, Paul Irving, and the twins Dora (sweet and well behaved) and Davy (mischievous and in constant trouble).
Anne matures, slightly, but she gets into a number of her familiar pickles, as only Anne can: She accidentally sells her neighbor's cow (having mistaken it for her own), gets stuck in a broken duck house roof while peeping into a pantry window, and more.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 978-1-927817-09-4
on 2014
Length: 9 Hours, 25 Minutes (Unabridged)
Published By: Post Hypnotic Press (@Post_Hypnotic)
The Anne of Green Gables series by Post Hypnotic Press:
The publisher is considering adapting the rest of the series and is looking for feedback on behalf of these adaptations by both the bloggers who are listening to them for the blog tour and the readers who are finding them along the tour route itself – to gauge if the rest of the series would have a readership who would appreciate hearing them. I, for one, am hoping they do produce the rest of the series as these adaptions are great addition for all of us who grew up knowing Anne.
Likewise, if you haven’t yet seen the publisher’s announcement about how their offering a coupon this month on their audiobook catalogue, I encourage you to visit my review of Anne of Green Gables (linked below this review) where I first found out this lovely news myself!
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2017 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
