Anne of a Different Island

Kantra, author of the March Sisters series inspired by Little Women, delivers an underwhelming homage to Anne of Green Gables. Schoolteacher Anne Gallagher travels from Chicago to her home of Mackinac Island, Mich., for her carpenter father’s funeral, while her boyfriend, Chris, a pediatric oncologist, stays behind to care for his patients. She’s greeted by her no-nonsense mother; her pregnant best friend, who stayed on the island and married her high school sweetheart; and Joe Miller, her former classmate and her dad’s apprentice turned business partner, with whom she regularly bickers. Trouble brews in Chicago after the funeral, first when Chris informs Anne he’s accepted a fellowship in Atlanta, and then when she refuses to keep banned books away from her students, prompting her to retreat to Mackinac for the summer. There, she spends time with Joe, whom she embarrassingly kissed when she was in high school and he used to call her Pest. While getting to know him as more than “the bane of my childhood existence,” Anne begins to question whether what she wants is in Mackinac after all. The novel has its charms, but the plot is predictable, and the characters aren’t fully fleshed out. Fans of the original will be disappointed. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House. (Jan.)