Valency has always lived a dull and restrained life under the thumb of her family, but decides to start living how she likes when she learns she has only a year to live.
I knew the plot twist of this book before I got into it, though I’m not sure how – maybe the plagiarism controversy of Colleen McCullough‘s The Ladies of Missalonghi? Anyway, luckily it didn’t really affect my enjoyment.
This book has all the hallmarks of an LM Montgomery book – the rich inner life of the heroine, the intense delight in the beauty of the natural world, and so on. At the same time it’s definitely an adult book concerned with topics that would never dare rear their head in an Anne Shirley book. I enjoyed how Valency broke free of her staid life, and shared her glee in finally thumbing her nose at her overbearing family – it was hilarious and probably my favorite part of the book.
The romance between Valency and Barney was sweet and I enjoyed their banter, though I’m not necessarily sold on the realism. I also could not take the big reveal of Barney’s source of strife seriously – I suppose new money problems were more affecting in 1926.
Valency’s preoccupation with her beauty also gets a bit frustrating. It’s not so compelling for her to be reaching out for happiness and love in spite of her much emphasized plainness if it turns out she really was always a beauty who just needed to wear her hair different. I’m not sure why it annoyed me here considering what a common trope it is though.
