The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery

This book. This BOOK. Both of my parents loved this book, so it has always been around. And when I read it as a young teen, I fell instantly in love with Valancy and Barney and Barney's cabin in the Ontario wilderness. 

It was one of the first love stories I ever read, so it ended up being a definitive romance. Every story since has been measured up against Valancy and Bernard. I know, I know. NOT romantic names. But they can't be blamed for what their parents called them. 

(Also, wild roses. I took these pictures last June, but never got it posted. Oh for wild rose days! They will be here soon, I guess. But this part of winter always seems to drag....)

Valancy is a sheltered spinster of 29, Bernard the local suspicious person who doesn't care what anyone else thinks. Not caring about what other people thinks in rural Ontario in the early 1900s was a pretty dire statement on someone's character. Clearly a person to steer clear of.  

After Valancy goes to the doctor for a chest pain and finds she has a terminal condition, she flouts her family's expectation and goes to care for a local, unwed mother. While there, she meets Bernard who comes to visit the lonely girl. Bernard is interesting in a way her family never was. Eventually, with a return to her family's home in the offing, Valancy goes to Bernard and proposes to him. She tells him of her terminal condition, which means he would not have to be married for ever. She argues they get along well and she could take care of his house, so why not? Why not indeed?

Much to her family's consternation, Valancy goes junketing off as Bernard's new wife. 

And of course, in the misty, purple evenings on a tiny island in a lake in Ontario, Bernard and Valancy become the best of friends and slowly begin to realize they are in love.

A little melodramatic, but oh! Going against society, finding a kindred spirit, a private island no matter how tiny, and a dramatic ending---how could I not love this book? 

There are times in this book that Lucy Maud talks a little too much. Some of the family chatter at the beginning seems a bit excessive. But it is entirely worthwhile to overlook these minor flaws. 

If you haven't already read this, give yourself a treat and do so. If you have already read it, give yourself another treat and read it over. I think I have read it about ten times.