William Morrow Anne of Manhattan: A Novel

If you are a true Anne fan this book might now be for you. I know it takes place in today’s times but I was very disappointed to see the turns the author took with this book. The original author would be sad to know the turn it takes. I only made it to the second chapter and decided to put the book down. Cursing and making Diana Barry gay did it for me. Just disappointed that everything has to have homosexuality in it which the original book never had that. Why change characters?

While I loved revisiting beloved characters, the extremely explicit sex scenes totally put me off this book. It is so bad than all I can do is pop it into the recycling container -- I'm not even comfortable passing it on to anyone else - even via a donation bin.What a shame -- the basic idea and storyline was great.For a much gentler read involving "modern" reworking of beloved characters, try Virginia Kantra's Meg & Jo and Beth & Amy.

I'm definitely one of those "Anne Girls" who wore out her copies of the Anne series in paperback and VHS. I was a bit reluctant to dip my toes into one of the contemporary spin-offs or retellings because why ruin a good thing? This was a really sweet book but, it's not a standalone at all: you really need to *know* the Anne series and the character development already laid out by L.M. Montgomery, that's the only way you'll appreciate it and get a smile out of it.The claim that there's "explicit sex" is not true at all. The two intimate scenes between Anne and Gilbert are far from explicit and I wouldn't object to an older teen reading this, there are more explicit forms of fan fiction that are free and accessible out there to read. The same is true of Diana and Marilla's sexuality: it just is, nothing is heavy-handed or moralistic, it just is.This is good for a beach/plane read and a frothy distraction for a few hours.

Super cute story