The was an interesting but very depressing novel. Though a portion of the book did deal with the creation of Anne, most of it was true to the title and showed how Maud's writing and getting published affected her private life. Even before his downward spiral, it was sad to see that her husband, who otherwise seemed quite thoughtful, took no interest in her writing and even seemed threatened by it. On top of that Maud had to deal with her own depression, loss of loved ones, having her accomplishments diminished and trivialized by the publishing community, and she had a really horrible, hateful son. Overall, very depressing. I wasn't prepared for the way the book would begin, and it was a rough, depressing start. The end was bittersweet and moved me to tears.

I wasn't a huge fan of the nonlinear timeline. Also, sometimes it was hard to know how much time had passed between one event and the next. And there were gaps of years that left me wondering if anything relevant had happened during that time.

I appreciated the author's note at the end.

Those who enjoyed LM Montgomery's work will be interested to read this.

Thank you to NetGalley and BookClub Girls for the early read.

After Anne is a thoroughly read based on the life of the famous author Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Anne of Green Gables one of my favourite series of books and two of my most loved characters: Anne and Matthew. In fact I named my son Matthew after the books.

I didn't know the personal life of Maud and the story is based on her journals told in different times of her life.

Although Maud's story is sad at times, Logan Steiner has done a remarkable job of showing the strength and her struggles.

Highly recommend if you are a fan of Lucy Maud Montgomery or even if you are not After Anne is well worth the read.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow and William Morrow Paperbacks for a very enjoyable and intriguing read

As a fan of the Anne of Green Gables series, I was really hoping to like this book more than I did. I found the story of author L.M. Montgomery to be interesting, but the telling of the story through so many different time lines made it difficult to follow, and further complicated by the addition of "birthday party" day as one of those timelines.

Thanks to Net Galley and William Morrow Publishing for the Advanced Read Copy of the ebook. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

3.5* "Sometimes Maud imagined what would happen if everyone in her life knew her real thoughts. She'd feel some amount of relief at the truth coming out, no doubt. But she'd never be able to stomach everyone's faces. Their pity would double the pain."

This quote aptly describes the arc of this story. According to the author's research, Maud rewrote her journals, knowing that the public would have access to them and deleted much of the original writings. Along with well researched facts, this book imagines what some of that deleted information might have been.

I enjoyed the more hope-filled first half of this book more than the second. The time jumps were a little confusing at first and then there are short chapters that didn't seem to fit but as I kept reading it made more sense.

My favorite part of the story was reading the parallels in Maud's life to the plot, characters and setting in Anne of Green Gables. I loved the growing relationship between Maud and her grandmother.
My least favorite part was all the time devoted to the very sad and depressing parts of her life after her marriage.

There is one PG intimate scene and there is plot and character.information that will spoil the Anne books for those who have never read them but I am thankful Anne's voice in Maud's head is the delightful, optimistic one we have come to love.

As a young woman, Maud had dreams bigger than the whole of Prince Edward Island, but her exuberant spirit draws frowns from her grandmother and their neighbors. She knew she was meant to create, to capture and share the way she saw the world. And the young girl in Maud’s mind became more and more persistent: Here is my story, she said. Here is how my name should be spelled—Anne with an “e.” But the day Maud writes the first lines of Anne of Green Gables, she gets a visit from the handsome new minister in town, and soon faces a decision: forge her own path as a spinster authoress, or live as a rural minister’s wife, an existence she once called "a synonym for respectable slavery." The choice she makes alters the course of her life. With a husband whose religious mania threatens their health and happiness at every turn, the secret darkness that Maud herself holds inside threatens to break through the persona she shows to the world, driving an ever-widening wedge between her public face and private self, and putting her on a path towards a heartbreaking end that I should have known was coming but was surprised anyway.

The creator of Anne of Green Gables and subsequent books was a conflicted woman with a harrowing marriage and a heartbreaking end. I grew up with the Anne of Green Gables books, and it was interesting to see a look at the author and her hard, dark life. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read about the life of the author.

****Publishing May 30, 2023****

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Did you grow up reading Anne of Green Gables? If so, After Anne, is one to put on your TBR list!

This book focuses on Lucy Maud Montgomery’s life and her inspiration for Anne of Green Gables. Maud had her own struggles, including the criticism of her own grandmother and the hardships of her husband, so writing Anne of Green Gables in her journal was an escape and helped to put her life in perspective!

I absolutely loved how Logan Steiner explained in her author’s note her love of Anne of Green Gables, which led her to research and write about Lucy Maud Montgomery.

This Historical Fiction book is so well researched and written, which makes it a must read for all those who grew up reading Anne of Green Gables or watching the mini-series. A wonderful tribute to Lucy Maud Montgomery!

Thanks to William Morrow, I was provided an ARC of After Anne by Logan Steiner via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. #AfterAnne #NetGalley

After Anne is a historical fiction account of the life of Lucy Maud Montgomery. From a linear timeline perspective, it opens at the start of Maud Montgomery’s determination to bring Anne to life on the page and through her death in 1942.

The writing is engaging, and it never bored me; however, the time jumps are jarring and unexpected-the book opens at the close and then jumps back in time to the beginning of the telling. The timeline stays fairly consistently linear through the first third of the book. Then we have a fictional rendering of Maud’s 33 or 34 birthday weekend. I thought this idea was fascinating as it seems that birthday weekend had gone missing from all the journals— and the weekend felt very Anne of Green Gables in the telling of it. But then the weekend abruptly ends and suddenly Maud is not only married but has two boys, 6 and 3 seemingly the picture of marital and maternal bliss. The time hop was so startling I had to go back and count the years. 12-14 years had gone by with nothing to account for them or any mention to explain their absence. The moment the reader is comfortably situated in the new “present,” the time jumps again. After this second inexplicable jump, I learned to pay attention to where I was in time and it prepared me slightly, but the first third of the book was like a different book entirely- linear and cohesive. After the time starts bounding from place to place it’s very much like entering madness— which may have been the intended effect? With so little to prepare the reader, it just felt awkward and alien. Mental illness, in my experience, is not a sudden thing, it takes root over the passing of time, growing in intensity. The ingredients for mental illness are all very present, but with the jumping so suddenly and inexplicably through time, one moment she’s handling it and the next she’s middle aged and contemplating her life, the next she is burning it, and still, we have this random flashback to a birthday weekend scattered throughout l, and then one day, she just downs a bottle of pills. I’m not upset with the suicide so much as I feel more could have been done to show the reader the depth of what she felt she was trying to escape. The vibrancy of the first third of the book seemed to bring Anne (and the imagination of Maud) literally off the page. And it was Maud who penned that those who experience life’s greatest joys also experience some of life’s deepest sorrows (paraphrase is mine). We saw the greatest joys, but the deepest sorrows felt very much … superficial at best. Certainly nothing to contemplate suicide over, but I think that’s the crux of it. The despair was there. The heartbreak. The tragedy. It was all there, but with the telling and the jumping back and forth to different times had the reader so jumbled that the scope of the heartbreak was muddled and muffled. Which does a disservice to Maud’s struggle with mental illness.

The other thing that bothers me is the birthday weekend. I love the idea, the romantic notion of a missing birthday and imagining what really happened and retelling it for the reader. The idea is fascinating and compelling. But. I am not sure it remained true to Maud and Ewan and the propriety of the times. I believe the author takes too much liberty in the rendering. I find it hard to believe that the only content that seemed at all sexually intimate in the whole book occurred before the two were married when Ewan was described to be shy and very much concerned with his own righteousness being the reverend of a very small town parish no less. Does that mean it couldn’t have happen? Not necessarily— but the character set ups up to that point don’t lead me to believe a rural pastor would watch his fiancé undress and then get into her nightgown and hungrily touch her as is described… it just seemed contrary to the set up of his character and while I can certainly imagine the person who penned Anne and all her scrapes might have some experience in the art of getting into them, the propriety of both of them given the circumstances didn’t seem to be one they would risk all for.

I want to thank Harper Collins Publishers and NetGalley for the advanced reader coped in exchange fort honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really struggled with this book. The story moved very slowly and there was an overall ominous depressive feel to the story. Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

After Anne is the story of Lucy Maud Montgomery's life in novel form. An inspired writer and author of the Anne of Green Gables series, her life at home with her stern minister husband was not as idyllic.

I wanted to read this novel because I love classic children's literature and knew very little about Lucy Maud Montgomery's life. She faced more challenges and sadness than I knew.

This is a well written novel and a unique glimpse into a beloved author's life behind her words.

A fictionalized biography of L.M. Montgomery - I’ll admit - I didn’t read any of Montgomery’s work until I was an adult, and knew next to nothing about her so I didn’t go into this with the same emotions a long time fan might.

Perhaps it’s due to that, but I found this one rather slow and meandering. I read After Anne over a week (just a few chapters each day) and mostly liked it though I never felt truly compelled to keep reading.

Thank you to Morrow Group, HarperCollins Publishing, for sending me a copy of "After Anne" to read and review.

I enjoy reading debut novels and this is a debut historical fiction novel by Logan Steiner. After Anne is a portrait of the life of Lucy Maud Montgomery, a famous Canadian author who gave us Anne of Green Gables.

"After Anne" is a well researched telling of a fabulous and tragic life story of a famous Canadian author in the early 1900s. The life style, etiquette and values of the culture of the time was well portrayed. This is a colorful, joyful and very tragic story.

I did find the time line changes in the novel a little hard to follow at times. The story seemed to flow better as I got used to the style of the writing.

In reading "After Anne" I feel a need to revisit Anne of Green Gables and find my copies of Lucy Maud Montgomery's books shelved away in boxes. Thank you Logan Steiner and Congratulations on a wonderful debut novel.

This is a read about the life of a woman that shared her gift with the world, and we were all blessed by her.
We meet her in this read as a young woman living with her Grandmother, her own mother died when she was an infant, and her father gave her to her grandparents to raise.
It is good to note that this is a fictional read, and some things have never been proven, and you can take away what you want.
You will find the book flipping on time line, mainly The Birthday! It is a pivotal point in Maud's life, and she makes a decision. While, I don't agree with some of the happenings, it is up to the reader to take what you want from what the author offers.
Life is not always easy, and Maud's life sounds very bleak here! You are left with questions, and I choose to accept that we were blessed by her.
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher William Morrow, and was not required to give a positive review.

I have not only read most of Lucy Maud Montgomery's works (save for some short stories and her poetry) but I've also read her journals - both the edited and NON edited versions. While I am *no* expert on her, I think I have a pretty good idea of who she was as a human and what her life was like. It definitely was a hard life and it makes it even more amazing that she gave us the stories she did.

My main complaint about this book is the varied timelines. If I hadn't been familiar with Maud's story I would have been really lost and confused. There's 4 timelines that are told in this story - the one from after the end of her life which kicks off the story, there's one where close to the end of life Maud is burning her notes and discarded journal entries, one where that Maud goes back and forth to various points in her life as she reminisces about her life and finally throughout it all is a fictionalized story about her 33rd birthday. I think the story would have been better told without the birthday being a central line through the book and instead been just a visit to the past like the other stories.

It's curious the stories and threads that this author chose to follow and the ones she didn't pick up. Even as side notes I think there's some pieces that would have served the stories told in retrospect a bit more for the readers not familiar with the story.

For what it's worth, it's just a thought that she died from suicide from the family but it's never been proven, it's very possible the note found was for a journal and that she died from illness and an unintentional drug overdose. It's even been considered that the drugs she was taking killed her from their side effects which were brutal and likely part of what was causing her illness at the time.

Overall I still think this will be a good book for those who love Anne or LMM's works but it will be hard to follow if you aren't intimately familiar with at least the broad strokes of her life.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an eARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

AFTER ANNE is the sort of thoughtful, gentle novel that will linger with you, long after you've finished the book, peering into the life of someone who brought so much happiness to people and ended up so lonely and on her own in the end. Steiner's framing can't help but provoke questions of what might have been for L.M. Montgomery, and is bound to raise discussions of mental health and support for caregivers.

I'm not going to lie fans of the Anne of Green Gables series, and Emily of New Moon aren't going to like this book. Because of the light that it puts L.M. Montgomery in. But fans of The Blue Castle and those who have read all of her journals and letters. Will know that her life wasn't perfect and that she had issues. This book does an awesome job of telling that story in a historical fiction book.

After Anne really brought back my love of L.M. Montgomery's work. I loved reading about her life. Maud was an interesting person that loved nature, her family and writing.. she yearned for love...her husband dealt with mental illness and possibly addiction...she had one son with a lot of issues and one son that was lovely. I loved reading about the real life of a writer. I thought the author did a wonderful job of bringing Maud's story to life and she even renewed my love for Anne.

After Anne
by Logan Steiner
Pub Date: May 30, 2023
William Morrow (HC)
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
A stunning and unexpected portrait of Lucy Maud Montgomery, creator of one of literature’s most prized heroines, whose personal demons were at odds with her most enduring legacy—the irrepressible Anne of Green Gables.
Outstanding debut! Fans of Anne of Green Gables are sure to delight in this book! But so are fans of interesting, and complicated women.
4 stars

Although I am a huge Anne of Green Gables fan, I knew nothing about the life of author L.M. Montgomery. This book is a novelized story of her life based on her journals. It was interesting to see where her inspiration for her books came from and how her life was similar to and different from the characters she wrote.
I found the book to be a little difficult to follow in places as it skipped around to different times in her life, especially as it kept coming back to one particular day, which Steiner admits is fictitious. I understand that this method compares her life experiences and how her life changed, but I much prefer a linear story. While this book is engaging, it is unclear just how much is Steiner “filling in the gaps” of the journals. I would like to read the journals themselves sometime; I did not know they had been published.
*I received a free copy of this e-book from NetGalley and William Morrow Publishing. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A delightful read! A bit sad, but a fine depiction of a possible life. I love the Anne books and it was so interesting learning about her author! A must read on so many levels!

Logan Steiner’s divinely impressive debut novel got inside my soul like a rose with its thorns and pricked my heart over and over as it made me feel Lucy Maud Montgomery’s deep and distressing anguish. The Prince Edward Island author of the famous Anne of Green Gables inspired many readers and writers, including myself with her vivid descriptions, quirky characters and insightful clever phrases. I have not only read her stories, poems and journals and received much joy and food for thought from them but I have also lingered on the passages in After Anne that made me aware of this woman’s pain and suffering.

Logan Steiner has done incredibly well weaving Maud and her words together into a tremendous cohesive work to give us an authentic feel of what life may have been like for this gifted woman. Anne became the voice of hope, dreams and advice when Maud needed it. Yes, her own character Anne of Green Gables kept whispering in her ear like a conscience, a guide, a reminder of the good things she loved. Including her walks in the forest—her cathedral of faith—where she felt closest to God. And I can relate to that. Sadly, when Maud moved away from her beloved island— her soul faltered, her courage shrivelled and her strength faded as she was now cut off from her life source. Even still, she revisited those areas of passion in her writing. In many ways it was her great escape—and she was always trying to get back there where her imagination knew kindred spirits existed, where relationships played out, where dreams were exercised and deep desires achieved—replacing the failures and emptiness of real life.

The seed of curiosity that moves with force through After Anne is the mystery of why Maud committed suicide. For she had stated in her younger years that it would not be something she’d choose. Logan explores the question: what would drive her to that end? After reading the novel, it is clear to see how it could happen.

After Anne made me think deeply. I knew that below the surface of Maud’s wit and wonder, was another story. Her life had been a difficult one. Losing her mother at twenty one months, and then being denied her father’s presence when he moved away to the prairies and remarried, would have affected her young mind. And on top of that, later in life she lost a child upon birth and her dearest ‘bosom’ friend to illness and then her husband to his depression. The latter particularly was a heavy burden to bear. As Logan reveals, Ewan’s battle with faith and himself had a monumental effect on her. It left deep marks in her own psyche for in many ways his mental disease infected her: especially once she succumbed to his medication.

As the trials and doubts magnified, the roller coaster of self-medicating skyrocketed. In many ways it became balm for her troubled soul—a way to feel disappointments less. It is easy to understand how hard it was for her to live with a severely depressed person. Positivity buoys the soul but negativity drags it down—even causes one to drown in its mirky dire depths. Despair is a state of mind—a heart emptied of hope.

Eventually, the voice of destruction proved louder as the medication altered Maud’s perceptions. Logan paints a realistic picture of how emotional sedation causes a person to not care anymore—about anything. And back then, they were using some powerful drugs to still the mind.

There are a number of chapters devoted to Maud’s destruction of her own writing documents. She had a fascination with fire and burning letters, journal notes, etc. The power it gave her may have been the attraction since she had little control over life. Her sense of responsibility to her grandmother and then to her husband, meant they were a silent and not so silence force behind her decision making.

Her husband, Ewan, was clearly not the best match for her. In After Anne, there is another man shown to be better suited who was not only physically attractive to her but who offered mental stimulation. Maud had an active mind that was sharp, imaginative, inquisitive and captivated by the natural world. She hungered for another to share the things she loved. Her husband did not and his ordinariness comes through in many passages of this novel and the realisation of it hits Maud hard at one point. Her own soul craved a kindred spirit and her lack of it in her marriage created a huge hole in her life that became an abyss. I felt such sadness for her. Some ask why did she marry him? Love is blind. A positive person, a writer, a dreamer might see more than is there for their mind may fill in the missing pieces with their own strengths. It is easy to do. And then there is duty. A very persistent mindset in Maud’s day that may have played upon her moral character.

Another area explored in this novel is one of the married female writer. Women authors may question whether their writing takes time away from their family. Yes, there are sacrifices and yes, marriage and children will compete with the Muse but it can be done. Maud, sadly began to wonder if she failed in this area and blamed herself when one of her children went awry. Chester had issues but should a mother blame herself for her children’s failures? Sometimes all the love and attention in the world is not enough. And children fail on their own terms. I believe even with all the best care possible, sometimes things can go wrong. The old nature versus nurture debate is never so cut and dry. Everyone will make mistakes but what we do with those mistakes makes all the difference. Do we learn and move forward or fall back into a circular destructive pattern?

And then the theme and importance of friendship present in Anne of Green Gables is also highlighted in After Anne. Especially in dealing with the errors we all will make on our journeys through life. A mistake is just a mistake, and a bosom friend would never blame you for it. Or else she isn’t much of a bosom friend. Did Maud make some mistakes in her life? Did she have a bosom friend who understood her and loved her warts and all? Maud found her intimate friend in cousin Frede—a kindred spirit that she was able to confide in without worry of what her friend would think. Of course, there were moments of doubt but Maud realised she was trying to hide from her own mistakes and that her friend would never judge her.

These are just a small number of issues expressed in this novel. It is filled with many nuggets of truth and wisdom. Maud’s life, her friendships, her imaginative realm as a writer and her married life are explored beautifully, thoughtfully and with reverence.

This is a story, with fact intertwined with fiction. A highly imagined account of the spaces between that have been a mystery. It is based on a portion of Maud’s life, her marriage and her end and what may have driven her to suicide. Maud was an author who edited and re-edited her personal journals like her novels to protect, preserve or please herself. After Anne delves into the mind, actions and words of a woman who gave so much joy to others but whose own life was rife with sorrow. Fire was part of her editing process. Did it give her the liberty she desired? We don’t know. But Logan fills in the might-have-been and the maybes. And her use of Maud’s thirty-third birthday is a genius move into the past: a focal point to keep going back to. There is hope that Maud in her last hours may have remembered this special day. Logan Steiner states that the birthday event is her own invention but I think it is a clever and insightful one that draws us back over and over to a possible moment in time of Maud’s happiness.

This novel After Anne is an outstanding delivery and I highly recommend it for so many reasons. It will break your heart, make you smile and remind you what is important in life. It is a must read if you are an Anne of Green Gables fan. Even though it paints a possible picture of reality that bears much sadness and contrast to the author’s books, it does not take away from the great gift this author had: to inspire generations of readers who continue to escape into a world where anything is possible, where natural beauty is celebrated, where the unexpected happens and where the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Love, family, hopes and dreams are at the core of Maud’s novels and demonstrated exquisitely in After Anne. 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Many thanks to the author and her publisher for a review copy.