Rewelacja! Kanadyjskie Downton Abbey. Nie wiem czemu nie został jeszcze nakręcony serial na podstawie tej książki.

L.M. Montgomery the OG soap Opera writer!!!

Seriously though, I wanted to love this book, but I struggled for days to finish it. There are too many people in this book, and it’s just not put together in a way that makes it easy to remember who is who.

That said, I enjoyed some of the storylines more than others. I was VERY confused about the Jug and completely thrown by Jocelyn’s storyline. She was probably the biggest idiot since Juliet (aka Romeo and Juliet).

I did enjoy Aunt Becky and her sassiness and prickliness as the matriarch I’d the family. I can’t even begin to go into all the family and their plot lines as there were at least 40 people talked about...

Overall I’m glad I read it, but I won’t be picking it up again anytime soon, actually probably never will.

I have made the decision that the Darks and Penhallows are my favorite LMM clan and a Tangled Web may just be my favorite stand alone LMM book.....yes, I believe that I shall now declare that it is now my favorite stand alone LMM book-- we have to change our favorites as we change, you know :-)

I started out reading this book on the heels of "Magic for Marigold" and "The Blue Castle" just to simply study the clan dynamics. I do love Marigold's clan a lot and I detest Valancy's clan in "The Blue Castle." I realize that I love Marigold's clan with a child's eyes because that's how we see Marigold's clan-- with a proud child's adoration.

I love these Darks and Penhallows with an adults eyes. They are complex and messy and real. I love the stories of the clan in this book and I found myself wishing that I could jump in this book and live among them and be one of them. They all had a love hate relationship with the clan but in the end, they couldn't have survived without each other. They lived in the most beautiful place in the world during a time when life was much slower and they all knew each other and each other's ancestors etc. and stories.

Oh and LMM's nature descriptions are so beautiful and healing!

For some people in the clan such as Jocelyn and Margaret, this clan knowledge and nosiness proved to to cause them years of loneliness and depression until they decided to just go for what they really wanted no matter what people thought (once they figured that out for themselves).

For people like Gay, the clan always protected and supported her and as much as she didn't like it-- they always knew what was best for her.

Oh and sweet dear young Brian-- the neglected clan orphan child. I love thee.

It's amazing how certain stories speak to us at different times in our lives. I really need to re-read this book more often. I actually did not ever adore this book as I do now, today, this weekend-- September 17-18, 2016. I set out to study the clan dynamics and found myself healed of some things that I've been confronted with lately. Yes, it's vulnerable to confess such a thing in a book review but I do this more for myself than others since this is more my reading journal than a review for others. I actually never think of others when I review books-- I'm selfish that way haha ;-)

I can identify with so many stories and people in this book! I spent all day yesterday consumed by it-- a perfect rainy day read that spoke to me on many levels at this moment in my life. Thank you once again, LMM, for giving me your counsel and wisdom right exactly when I needed it.

A lovely little book full of tales of PEI that revolved around a family heirloom jug over the span of a year. Definitely not what I was expecting, but the tales were a pleasant mixture of sweet, humorous and rather strange, making it an enjoyable read.
Not 5 stars because I’m concerned about the inbreeding situation.

This book holds many different storylines from two different families. Some I loved and others I didn’t really like to read about. But by the end of the book, I had thoroughly enjoyed the story. It all starts over a big ugly jug and then tells of the consequent year after those first few chapters. The lives of so many of the characters change over that year and it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it all. Highly recommend and I will definitely read this again.

It was a tangled web indeed so many characters in the families of the Penhallow and the Darks who never married anyone but only within themselves. Their love interests , bickering , gossiping and sarcastic digs at each other constituted the story. It was fun but it took me about 30% of the story to understand who was who and who was who's beau.L M Montgomery is my comfort read and it did not disappoint though it would have been easy on my brains if she had omitted a couple of characters.

n  "She longed for freedom, as all women do, but had sense enough to understand that real freedom is impossible in this kind of a world, the lucky people being those who can choose their masters, so she never made the mistake of kicking uselessly over the traces."n

I love when L.M. Montgomery drops you into the middle of a family gathering and leaves you to get your bearings and try to keep up. She writes the clannishness of large families so well, and you can always be sure that her characters will cover the range of every possible personality. No matter how crazy the personality or the situation, it always feels plausible in Montgomery's capable hands.

n  A Tangled Webn is full of wonderful characters. Roger is consistent with his sweet presence, with absolutely no red flags of pressure or expectations. Gay is at times frustrating but always honest with her naive view on life and love. Margaret's acceptance of her dull life despite her desperate wish for a home and a baby. Moon Man appears at the exact right moment with his insightful commentary and wandering spirit. All thrown together with plenty of not-so-wonderful gossipy self-serving characters.

It's lovely to see that instalove was alive and well in the 1930s, though, showing up twice(!) in n  A Tangled Webn. As usual, Montgomery has to one-up everyone and show them how instalove is done - one look is all it takes in these situations. In the end, it just ends up causing heartbreak, lost time, and stupid, inflamed reactions. If Montgomery can't do it, no one will ever convince me this is a legitimate (or believable) plot device.

Oh, I thought I was going to make it - I was so optimistic, but I should have known better than to hope that we'd make it through a book from this time without some form of racism. I suppose it's good the only openly racist comment happened in the very last paragraph, but it's certainly not the ideal note to end on.

I love Montgomery's writing, and n  A Tangled Webn is prototypical of her best, especially as a standalone. I grew up loving her series (both Anne of Green Gables and Emily), so it's nice to read one of her standalones for the first time and be transported back into her beautifully written world for a short visit. While the families and the settings may be different, they all leave a similar feeling of nostalgia and satisfaction.

Review originally posted here on Britt's Book Blurbs.

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I'm sorry L.M. Montgomery fans, I just can't read this book right now. I am finding it painful to continue, I only like three people out of the dozens of Penhollows and Darks. In the summer, when I have more patience I may try again. Maybe then I will be able to stomach A Tangled Web.

Right now, I just can't be bothered. Why everyone wants an ugly old vase that has no sentimental value I don't know. They're all ready to bite each others heads off for the stupid thing! And that infuriating Nan! Ugh. I. Can't. Take. Her.

Another time perhaps.

I wasn't sure I would enjoy this, but once I'd made it through the first couple of chapters it became hugely entertaining. I never did get a grip on who all the cousins were or how everybody was related but it didn't matter - just enjoy the ride. Because the ride is the thing with LMM. It's fairly obvious from the start what the endings of all the subplots will be but it's far from clear how we are going to get there, and her ingenuity often is quite brilliant.

So I think this is one I may come back to again. I loved the central idea, of a fairly rubbish jug assuming massive importance as a prized heirloom within a sizeable family, both as a setpiece and as a mechanism for bringing together the various characters' stories. And I liked the characters and the ebb and flow of the action. Excellent.

Fun book to read with a wise ending. I will admit I was looking forward to seeing who got the jug so that was disappointing.

It took me a good long while to get into this book, but when I did, I fell hard. I was actually thinking about why I was struggling with it—there are too many characters, I can’t keep track of what’s happening, things are muddled—when I realized that this was the whole point. The book was a tangled web, just like our lives, just like the webs our stupid decisions create. People weave in and out of our lives leaving tangled knots. The characters came alive for me. I couldn’t put it down in the end. Well done.

This was one of the most entertaining books of this genre I have ever read. Montgomery has such a knack for portraying silly, interesting, still very convincing and lifelike characters. And the clan and family dynamics seem true and familiar as ever, showing that people are the same no matter where, and have the same life dreams, hopes, disappointments and wonders in their life. One of my favorite books by Montgomery, Anne and Emily series included. Such a joy to read.