A Tangled Web Published by Sourcebooks Fire by L.M. Montgomery
on 1931
Genres: Fiction, Historical, Classics, YA, Romance
Pages: 288
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Reading Challenges: Beat the Backlist 2020, Summer 2020 Reading Assignment
Also by this author: Anne of Green Gables, Emily of New Moon , Emily Climbs , The Golden Road , Emily's Quest, The Blue Castle, Pat of Silver Bush , Mistress Pat , Magic for Marigold, Jane of Lantern Hill, Twice upon a Time: Selected Stories, 1898–1939
Find the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
ISBN: 0770422454
Rating:
No amount of drama between the Dark and Penhallow families can prepare them for what follows when Aunt Becky bequeaths her prized heirloom jug - the owner to be revealed in one year's time. The intermarriages, and resulting fighting and feuding, that have occurred over the years grow more intense as Gay Penhallow's fiancé leaves her for the devious Nan Penhallow; Peter Penhallow and Donna Dark find love after a lifelong hatred of each other; and Joscelyn and Hugh Dark, inexplicably separated on their wedding night, are reunited.
Hopes and shortcomings are revealed as we follow the fates of the clan for an entire year. The legendary jug sits amid this love, heartbreak, and hilarity as each family member works to acquire the heirloom. But on the night that the eccentric matriarch's wishes are to be revealed, both families find the biggest surprise of all.
This is the first Montgomery book that I started and kind of didn’t want to finish. I don’t know why–maybe it was the slurry of characters that you get hit with in the very beginning. But, it was just kind of overwhelming.
The premise was promising. I mean, a whole family, all very much invested in an heirloom jug that an aunt left one of them. And they won’t know who gets it for awhile. So, they all do their best to be on their best behavior–in the hopes of getting the jug.
What’s funny, is that the “race” for the jug, leads to a domino effect in so many of their lives–events that wouldn’t have happened if not for the jug.
So, by the middle of the story, I was invested. I couldn’t help but love some of these characters as they were changed and challenged.
This is one of Montgomery’s later works and you can tell by the way she wrote her characters. Not quite as whimsical–and a little more jaded.
But, I’m really glad I read this one. It ended up being one of my favorites, regardless of the rocky start.
About L.M. Montgomery
The author of the famous Canadian novel Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery, was born at Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Nov. 30, 1874. She came to live at Leaskdale, north of Uxbridge Ontario, in 1911 after her wedding with Rev. Ewen Macdonald on July 11, 1911 in Prince Edward Island. Her three children were born at Leaskdale, and she wrote close to a dozen books while she was living in the Leaskdale Manse before the Macdonald family moved to Norval, Ontario in 1926.
Maud died in Toronto April 24, 1942 and was buried at Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.
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