Please note that I read this book for the first time as an adult.

Ultimately, I was a little disappointed, but most of my disappointments were in plot aspects:

-I was disappointed that Marilla's death was mentioned more in passing (if I remember correctly) and not an actual event in the book. Perhaps it was too hard for Montgomery to face the death of a woman so centre to the story?

-I understand why Montgomery chose to focus on Rilla, what with her being the youngest and named after Marilla, Anne's mother figure. Still, she's my least favourite character of Anne's children. My favourite was Walter, who dies, of course (we saw that coming, but I was still so angry about it!) but perhaps I was supposed to be angry.

-I was quite surprised that the last book ended up being about the war - perhaps others saw this coming and I don't know enough about Canadian history. ;) It felt different from the other books, so I was surprised it concluded the series.

I feel like Montgomery's style changes dramatically, and while that wasn't necessarily bad (I still finished the book), it was unexpected for me. Maybe this is because I wasn't expecting the war to play such a prominent part in the last book, nor did I fully understand the shift in persona (covering Rilla rather than Anne). I loved Anne and felt very connected to her, but I did not feel as connected to Rilla. It just didn't work for me, so it felt a little disappointing.

Even with all the negatives that are mostly my opinion - the writing was well done, and I appreciate the character development and the poignant, truthful details - but I was left a little disappointed in the storyline as a whole.