Avid Series Reader's Reviews > Anne's House of Dreams

Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery is the 5th book in the Anne Shirley series set on Prince Edward Island in the early 20th century. Anne marries her childhood rival and sweetheart, now Dr. Gilbert Blythe. Their new home in Four Winds Harbor is a small cottage that Anne adores immediately. She loves her House of Dreams even more after she learns its romantic history from Captain Jim, the lighthouse keeper, a masterful storyteller. After Anne learns the tragedy of neighbor Leslie Moore's life, Anne determines to befriend Leslie, but she does not succeed until tragedy touches Anne's life as well. Love and friendship conquer all in the end. Delightful writing with lavish descriptions of beautiful scenery, a thought-provoking moral decision, an eccentric local busybody, unmistakable foreshadowing (Anne's "deepest secret hope"), interesting astronomy: Anne and Gilbert see the Shadow of Venus on New Year's Eve, "the shadow cast by that brilliant star of evening, that faint, mysterious shadow, never seen save when there is white snow to reveal it, and then only with averted vision, vanishing when you gaze at it directly." Luxuriate in the author's lovely prose.