Not LMM's best either - it takes quite some time to get into it. (Although going to Silver Bush before reading it does help with the long descriptions at the beginning.) I'm not the biggest fan of Pat, especially in the beginning - she's frankly quite unreasonable! It gets better when she meets Jingle, and Bets, and when she grows up a bit. The second half is definitely better.

It is interesting to read in light of the info I got while reading Magic Island: The Fictions of L.M. Montgomery, though. About how LMM was depressed and dreadfully homesick while writing it for her Island and the home where she had been so happy as a child... and the "secret field" and her friendship with Frede... It made the book much more poignant. I know authorial intent isn't supposed to matter but it did enhances the book for me.

I was gonna give this 3 stars cuz I was just kinda “meh” most of the time? But then I decided: you know what, L. M. Montgomery doesn’t GET to be “meh.” I know she can write brilliantly.

Pat just irked me by the last page. I don’t think her attachment to Silver Bush is quite healthy. I’m not saying it’s possible to love good things too much, but it IS possible to love good things out of proportion to other more important good things. And I think Pat does that.

I enjoyed this so much! I'm pretty sure I read it as a girl, at the height of my Anne of Green Gables obsession, but I didn't remember much of anything about it. It's really charming and fun though, with lots to laugh at and lots to touch the heart. Home-loving Pat Gardiner is a lovely heroine - I liked seeing her grow up. And how did I ever forget the family's loyal, loving Irish housekeeper, Judy Plum? What a great character - so hilarious and wise. Pat's sweet friend Hilary "Jingle" Gordon is adorable - I love him. L.M. Montgomery was good at creating childhood friends that grow up to be dreamy men her heroines want to marry.

Humor, warmth, a little sadness and a lot of hope and beauty - this was just the kind of cozy, sweet-natured book I was in the mood for. Thanks as always, Lucy Maud.

Judy Plum. Jingle Gordon. Cuddles. Need I say more?

When you ask a L.M. Montgomery fan what their favorite Montgomery book is, you would rarely hear Pat of Silver Bush. In fact, Pat has been the subject of criticism for her unwillingness to change and her flair towards the dramatic. While those may be fair descriptions, Pat is more than that. Pat is fiercely loving towards her friends and family. Pat is proud of where she grew up. In many ways, Pat may be the Montgomery heroine that is closest to reality. Her stories are filled with reassuring domesticity and imagination. Montgomery's loving descriptions of her native Prince Edward Island are as beautiful as ever. For that, I am thankful for the story of Pat, Silver Bush, and the people she loved.

3.5 stars

3.5

It was quite different from the Anne books. Pat is obsessed with her home and is unhealthily afraid of changes. I can relate to her story because I also had such a lovely home as a child that I used to be very homesick whenever I had to leave it. I also can relate to her not wanting to have a career only wanting to make home for her family, but I don’t understand why she doesn’t want to have her own family. The lovely home my parents established made me yearn for a similarly happy home which is mine and my husband’s, but Pat doesn’t want this at all. She just want everything stay the same and everybody remain in the house forever, which is of course impossible. I didn’t mind Pat being different from Anne, but I didn’t like the ending and the fact that despite the inevitable changes and the fact that even Pat was able to accept them, her basic attitude to life didn’t change. I also agree with someone else’s opinion that the other characters are not as well developed in this novel. We only get to know Pat and Judy, we learn very few things about the other people. For all this reasons, I’m giving it 3,5 stars.

At first the prose felt needlessly engaged in the superstition of a child, her naïveté, and trivial day-to-day. I found myself eye-rolling at wishing the flowers good night or attributing emotions to furniture. But this cynicism is exactly what the book attempts to remedy, and successfully so. Little by little it won me over, and Pat’s overwhelming affection for life, for places, for the little moments, became irresistible. It’s a window into a unique, loving mind—one from which we could all learn some sensitivity.

Not sure what happened with this one. I typically love Montgomery but I just could not get into this book. I have to say the Irish accent writing threw me for a loop. I had a hard time reading that. But normal great Montgomery story line.

I'd been meaning to reread this after reading it rather perfunctorily the first time (in sixth grade) and I'm glad I did, even if it's on the more bittersweet end of LMM's work.

3.5 stars.

I felt like I didn't quite understand Pat's inclination to cling to Silver Bush. It sounded like a lovely home, but I never quite embraced her dedication to it.

I also found myself a bit frustrated with Montgomery's return to madly-in-love male friend and reluctant, wants-to-stay-friends female protagonist. Anne's rejection of Gilbert will always be the worst hurt in the world. Seeing it play out again with Pat and Hilary is just salt in the everlasting wound.

...still, Pat and Hilary better end up together, yo.

I discovered Pat, after finding Anne, and Emily, and while she isn't my most favorite of Montgomery's girl heroines, I have read this book several times now...

Pat, like many of Montgomery's girls is a nature lover, is imaginative (though not as much as Anne Shirley), and unlike the others is very much a homebody. This clannishness is something that is a little odd to understand now, when families are spread so very far apart.

Though, we do see Pat grow, and change her opinions in the eleven year span of the book, she is still rather selfish and self centered when the book ends.

I found that Judy, and Jingle and poor Bets were more interesting charecters at times than Pat with her idea that she wan'ts nothing to change at all in her life.

I'm setting this aside to send as a birthday surprise later in the year along with the second book in the series.

See this book's travels at: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/4...