Jane of Lantern Hill, by L. M. Montgomery

Rating: 8/10

Jane Stuart has always lived with her mother and grandmother in a mansion on dreary Gay Street, where she never feels at home. Her grandmother is cold and controlling, and Jane's mother, always going out to social gatherings, does not have the backbone to stand up to her; neither does Jane, at first.
This all changes when Jane's father, who has lived apart from his wife for years on P. E. Island, sends for Jane to come see him. Jane has been taught to hate him, but when she visits him she finds everything a father should be. They pick a house together on Lantern Hill, where Jane spends the summers, and it becomes her real home, where she comes alive.

I'm going on a Montgomery spree! I've found several great websites where I can read her books for free!! Because my library does not have them. After the review I will list the sites.

This is a great book! I love the way Jane blossoms when she is living with her father during the summer. He helps make school subjects more interesting and meaningful to Jane, and when she goes back home to the mansion, she has more nerve to stand up to grandmother, and not let her biting remarks hurt her. Jane's natural cooking and housekeeping skills stretch plausibility, and the ending is rather abrupt, but these are very minor grievances.

Montgomery defies the notion that without a definite 'plot', there is no good story. She defies that so well! Especially with her characters that fairly walk off the page. I can just see Jane's grandmother sneering at me, and Jane cooking in the kitchen. The characters in Montgomery's books are the sort that make me expect them to appear before me at any moment.

A recurring theme I see in her books is that imagination is wonderful and can add so much to life, but it can never replace real people and experiences. It was great to see Jane able to feel useful and appreciated. I understand the need to be useful! Sometimes it takes me a bit to get engaged in Montgomery's books, but once I do they make a home in my heart. All the warmth and gorgeous descriptions of nature! Ahhh...wonderful stuff!

Aren't these Bantam editions beautiful?

Up next is Kilmeny of the Orchard.

Here are the sites where I found free Montgomery e-books:

Project Gutenberg

Onread.com

Free-ebooks

Many Books

Another thing- one of my favorite authors, Shannon Hale, posted a great entry in her blog some time ago. It has changed my outlook on reading! You can find it here.