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Friday, July 31, 2015

The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster

by Scott Wilbanks

I adored this book.  Absolutely loved it.  It was magical and fun and I found myself wanting to do nothing else but immerse myself in its story.  It made me happy.

Mind you, I started off wanting to like the book because of the title and the cover - mailbox, epistolary novel maybe, but soon found myself perplexed and annoyed.  The characters seemed unreal and there were several things going on that I felt I had to keep track off.  The characters are unreal but appropriate for this story and I really didn't to need to keep track of anything because eventually it all fell into place.  I persevered and it wasn't long before I was swept up in the story and loving the characters.

The secret is to loosen your grip on reality.  You don't have to give up totally on reality, just let it slide.  This is a fantasy.  Not one with elves, gnomes, fairies, etc.  This fantasy has time-travel and a secret door, romance and mystery, good guys and really bad guys, magic, friends and family, and yes, it even had letters and a mailbox.

I didn't know very much about this book when I started reading and I think that allowed me to keep a fresh out-look.  So I'll only share what I knew going in.  Annie Aster buys a red door that somehow connects her to an old lady in 1895 Kansas that she can write and receive letters through a mailbox that appears on the boundary of her house and a Kansas wheat field.  Annie and her new 'neighbor' must solve a mystery before one of them is convicted for murder.

Has anyone else read this book?  What are your thoughts?













1 comment:

Mystica said...

Never heard of the book before but it certainly sounds intriguing.