Plot:

The Blue Castle is widely hailed as a reader favorite. Valancy Stirling is 29, unmarried, and has never been in love. Living with her overbearing mother and meddlesome aunt, she finds her only consolation in the “forbidden” books of John Foster and her daydreams of the Blue Castle a place where all her dreams come true and she can be who she truly wants to be. Shortly after her birthday Valancy receives some news about her health that makes her decide to throw caution to the wind and make a fresh start. Rebelling against her family she soon discovers a surprising new world, full of love and adventures far beyond her most secret dreams.

Review:

I’m a bit torn about this novel.
Despite it being a historical work and the language is therefore not exactly the same as todays, it was a rather quick and easy read.

The language actually had me chuckle a couple of times, when I realized how the meaning of words has changed in the last hundred years or so.
The love story is very sweet and for me it was believable.

My problem was with Valancy or rather with some aspects of her character. Mostly I liked her just fine … just when she was dealing with her family, I didn’t.
I understand being exhausted by and angry at her family, but I still think she was very harsh and sometimes even cruel with them. They weren’t psychopaths who held her captive and tortured her all her life. They were just little people with little minds and huge egos and it’s not their fault that they never treated her differently when she never told them to change their behavior! How were they supposed to know she was unhappy when she never told them? She never stood her ground until she was twenty nine and then she let them have everything. She never acknowledges that maybe she has a part of the guilt for her unhappy life as well and that really annoyed me.

In essence, if you want something changed in any of your relationships, talk about it. The other person can’t read your mind!

3/5 Stars