• Author: Scott Wilbanks
• ISBN: 9781492612469
• Genre: Fiction

I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

For most of the story, I thought it was clever and well written.  Annie and Elsbeth are memorable and charming characters.  There are some Fantasy elements involved, including a magic door that allows anyone who knows how to use it to time travel.  There are also some Classic Literature elements such as Annie’s obsession with the Victorian Era.  To top it off, the “present” time of Annie’s life is during the 1990s.  I had a few moments of nostalgia with little details like the sound of the dial-up modem Annie used to connect to her AOL account.

However, sometimes the dialogue was difficult to understand and made me feel as if I had somehow missed important information.  Have you ever been thinking something and tell someone when you’re in the middle of your thoughts, and they give you a confused look because they weren’t privy to what was going on in your head?  That’s how some of the characters’ conversations felt to me.  It was as if the author already knew the characters inside and out but forgot to fill the reader in on some of the background.  The same thing happened with some of the later plot points.  I got the impression that the explanation for why some things occurred was obvious to the author, but he forgot that the reader wouldn’t know.

Despite the missing information, The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster was an enjoyable light Summer read.  If you’re a fan of Victorian times or non-Science Fiction style time travel, and you want a book that doesn’t require a lot of mental energy, this book might be for you.