Anne of a Different Island
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected 20 Jan 2026
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- USD 9.99
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- Pre-Order
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- USD 9.99
Publisher Description
A woman learns to be the heroine of her own life in this heartfelt novel inspired by Anne of Green Gables by New York Times bestselling author Virginia Kantra.
She believed life could follow a plotline—until the story she was living unraveled.
Anne Gallagher has always lived by the book. Anne of Green Gables, that is. Growing up on Mackinac Island, she saw herself as her namesake: the same impulsive charm, the same wild imagination, even the same red hair (dyed, but still). She followed in Anne Shirley’s fictional footsteps, chasing dreams of teaching and writing, and falling for her very own storybook hero.
But when a string of real-life plot twists—a failing romance, a fight with the administration, and the sudden death of her beloved father—pulls her back to the island she once couldn’t wait to leave, Anne is forced to face a truth no story ever prepared her for. Sometimes, life doesn’t follow a script.
Back in the house she grew up in, Anne must confront her past and the people she left behind, including Joe Miller, the boy who once called her “The Pest.” It’s time to figure out what she wants and rewrite her story to create her own happy ending. Not the book version. The real one.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kantra, author of the March Sisters series inspired by Little Women, delivers an underwhelming homage to Anne of Green Gables. Schoolteacher Anne Gallagher travels from Chicago to her home of Mackinac Island, Mich., for her carpenter father's funeral, while her boyfriend, Chris, a pediatric oncologist, stays behind to care for his patients. She's greeted by her no-nonsense mother; her pregnant best friend, who stayed on the island and married her high school sweetheart; and Joe Miller, her former classmate and her dad's apprentice turned business partner, with whom she regularly bickers. Trouble brews in Chicago after the funeral, first when Chris informs Anne he's accepted a fellowship in Atlanta, and then when she refuses to keep banned books away from her students, prompting her to retreat to Mackinac for the summer. There, she spends time with Joe, whom she embarrassingly kissed when she was in high school and he used to call her Pest. While getting to know him as more than "the bane of my childhood existence," Anne begins to question whether what she wants is in Mackinac after all. The novel has its charms, but the plot is predictable, and the characters aren't fully fleshed out. Fans of the original will be disappointed.
