Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
Here because my sister got me hooked on the TV series (I may never forgive her).
I haven't read a romance since I was about 12. This is only the second romance I've ever read (or at least, only the second that I can remember reading).
Somewhat disappointed. This was a very easy read, and I never felt the need to put it down, but I just... didn't find it satisfying, in the end. There is very little real characterization of anyone other than Elizabeth. Most of what we actually "see" are times when Elizabeth is alone, while her time spent with other characters is largely summarized. When we actually do see her with other characters, she either isn't really interacting with them, or the interactions are extremely brief, so it never really feels like she has any kind of relationship/connection with any of the people she calls friends. I can't even remember the names of most of the other characters, and couldn't keep them straight while I was reading. Even the love interest (whom she sees early on, but doesn't meet until nearly halfway through the book) barely gets sufficient characterization, and again, except for a few key moments, their interactions are quickly summarized instead of shown.
I also found it a little... overbearingly Christian at times (note: I'm agnostic and grew up attending a fairly liberal/progressive United Church). Admittedly, I didn't realize this was Christian fiction when I started reading it, so that doesn't help, but I found it often didn't feel like a natural part of the story, and in one scene in particular felt like I was being lectured at. And the defensiveness of the mounted police and describing them as ambassadors and heroes to "white and native alike" didn't quite sit right with me, given current events. Thankfully that was a surprisingly small portion of the book, considering the love interest is a mountie.
Those issues aside, I did find this a fairly pleasant read. There isn't really much in the way of plot, it's not very exciting, but it's... well, I think "nice" would be the right word. Like sipping a cup of tea while you watch the birds out the window. I've been wavering back and forth between 2 stars and 3 stars for the entire time I've been writing this review. So I guess I'll be generous and give it 3, since I do plan to read the next book in the series, despite my issues with this one (or maybe it's just wishful thinking that the next one will be better). And even if I end up abandoning this series, I'll probably give the "Return to the Canadian West" series a shot.
I haven't read a romance since I was about 12. This is only the second romance I've ever read (or at least, only the second that I can remember reading).
Somewhat disappointed. This was a very easy read, and I never felt the need to put it down, but I just... didn't find it satisfying, in the end. There is very little real characterization of anyone other than Elizabeth. Most of what we actually "see" are times when Elizabeth is alone, while her time spent with other characters is largely summarized. When we actually do see her with other characters, she either isn't really interacting with them, or the interactions are extremely brief, so it never really feels like she has any kind of relationship/connection with any of the people she calls friends. I can't even remember the names of most of the other characters, and couldn't keep them straight while I was reading. Even the love interest (whom she sees early on, but doesn't meet until nearly halfway through the book) barely gets sufficient characterization, and again, except for a few key moments, their interactions are quickly summarized instead of shown.
Spoiler
As a result, the inevitable marriage proposal feels like it's coming completely out of nowhere, and I had to remind myself that actually, they did probably know each other well enough at that point, we just never got to see it.I also found it a little... overbearingly Christian at times (note: I'm agnostic and grew up attending a fairly liberal/progressive United Church). Admittedly, I didn't realize this was Christian fiction when I started reading it, so that doesn't help, but I found it often didn't feel like a natural part of the story, and in one scene in particular felt like I was being lectured at. And the defensiveness of the mounted police and describing them as ambassadors and heroes to "white and native alike" didn't quite sit right with me, given current events. Thankfully that was a surprisingly small portion of the book, considering the love interest is a mountie.
Those issues aside, I did find this a fairly pleasant read. There isn't really much in the way of plot, it's not very exciting, but it's... well, I think "nice" would be the right word. Like sipping a cup of tea while you watch the birds out the window. I've been wavering back and forth between 2 stars and 3 stars for the entire time I've been writing this review. So I guess I'll be generous and give it 3, since I do plan to read the next book in the series, despite my issues with this one (or maybe it's just wishful thinking that the next one will be better). And even if I end up abandoning this series, I'll probably give the "Return to the Canadian West" series a shot.
This was so delightful, wholesome and wonderful!
This book was a really nice break from what I normally read, and I really enjoyed it. So much fun following Elizabeth and her journey and learning how to adult on her own.
This book was a really nice break from what I normally read, and I really enjoyed it. So much fun following Elizabeth and her journey and learning how to adult on her own.
1983 Rating: 4.5 stars
2014 Rating: 3 stars
This is the first time I've re-read this book since it came out thirty years ago. As a YA reader, I absolutely adored it and the first two or three sequels (I think I read four books in this series as they came out); it went quite well with the Sunfire romances from Scholastic that I was reading at the time. I do remember that I enjoyed them much more than the Love Comes Softly series that I was reading around the same time. (I went to a very small, very conservative Christian school for junior high, and Oke's books were available in the school library and so were acceptable to carry around and read on breaks; most of the rest of what I read at home wasn't.)
I've been . . . well, "enjoying" is a bit strong of a term . . . entertained recently by the Hallmark series inspired by When Calls the Heart, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to re-read it. I'm going to count this as my Inspy Historical Romance in my 2014 Genre Reading Challenge, though there are a few things about this book that, even by my definition, disqualify it from that genre.
First, it's written in first-person. I'm not a big fan of first-person historicals and I have a hard time counting anything but those in the Gothic subgenre as "romance" novels---because for me, romance novels need to include the hero's POV as well as the heroine's.
Second, though she gets a glimpse of the hero about 1/3 of the way into the book, she doesn't actually meet him and have a conversation with him until 50% of the way in. There's "insta-love" (because, let's recall, this is an Inspy romance, so it's definitely not insta-lust) on her part. His? We don't know---because, again, we don't get his POV.
Third, there's very little relationship development between the two of them in the last 50% of the book because they're so rarely together. A picnic here, a family dinner there. All the while, he's maintaining his attitude that Mounties shouldn't marry because it's selfish---unfair to the woman, who won't be able to handle the kind of rough living that a Mountie in the outback of Canada (can I call it that?) would have to deal with.
Other than those things, it's pretty standard Prairie Romance fare: City Girl goes West to teach in Country Town and has to learn how to rough-it while falling in love with Local Law Man. It even includes the Big Misunderstanding trope: she believes he's married and the father of one of the boys in her school. This Big Misunderstanding carries through most of the last half of the book because, let's face it, there is almost no relationship development, so there's no conversation in which the truth can be revealed. And Wynn never uses the terms "my sister-in-law" or "my nephew," which might clue her in. If he's as interested in Elizabeth as he's supposed to be, you'd think that, after continually getting the cold shoulder from her, he might take the opportunity to drop a few terms like that into a conversation to see if that makes a difference.
This book is basically Christy-lite: first person, wide-eyed, naive heroine; country school house; learning the quirks of a small town, etc. The good thing here, though, is that there's no love triangle forced upon the heroine. (Oh, and as far as that goes, in Christy, I'm Team-David all the way!)
Revisiting this book, I was really surprised by how little a presence the Mounties have, and what little attention is paid to the fact that Wynn is a Mountie. I guess because I have the memory of the story as it continues after they're married in the sequels, and because that's a huge draw of the TV show (ahhhhh, Mountie Jack!), I expected it to be more of a...thing in the book. The red serge coat, the boots, the hat, etc. But it's really downplayed in the book.
Another thing that surprised me going back to this one was how light it is on the Inspy part. It's clean, she goes to church, she prays, she's shown reading her Bible. There was one long "internal sermon" section that I skipped over (when she's having a long internal monologue over what she's just read in her quiet time), but other than that, there isn't any Bible thumping, verse quoting, witnessing/evangelizing, or sermonizing in this book (unlike in Love Comes Softly, where there's a full presentation of the gospel so Marty can get saved to be worthy of Clark's love).
All said, this was a quick, light read, and, while at twelve years old, I couldn't wait for the next book in the series, I do believe that a revisit to the first volume is quite enough for me now.
2014 Rating: 3 stars
This is the first time I've re-read this book since it came out thirty years ago. As a YA reader, I absolutely adored it and the first two or three sequels (I think I read four books in this series as they came out); it went quite well with the Sunfire romances from Scholastic that I was reading at the time. I do remember that I enjoyed them much more than the Love Comes Softly series that I was reading around the same time. (I went to a very small, very conservative Christian school for junior high, and Oke's books were available in the school library and so were acceptable to carry around and read on breaks; most of the rest of what I read at home wasn't.)
I've been . . . well, "enjoying" is a bit strong of a term . . . entertained recently by the Hallmark series inspired by When Calls the Heart, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to re-read it. I'm going to count this as my Inspy Historical Romance in my 2014 Genre Reading Challenge, though there are a few things about this book that, even by my definition, disqualify it from that genre.
First, it's written in first-person. I'm not a big fan of first-person historicals and I have a hard time counting anything but those in the Gothic subgenre as "romance" novels---because for me, romance novels need to include the hero's POV as well as the heroine's.
Second, though she gets a glimpse of the hero about 1/3 of the way into the book, she doesn't actually meet him and have a conversation with him until 50% of the way in. There's "insta-love" (because, let's recall, this is an Inspy romance, so it's definitely not insta-lust) on her part. His? We don't know---because, again, we don't get his POV.
Third, there's very little relationship development between the two of them in the last 50% of the book because they're so rarely together. A picnic here, a family dinner there. All the while, he's maintaining his attitude that Mounties shouldn't marry because it's selfish---unfair to the woman, who won't be able to handle the kind of rough living that a Mountie in the outback of Canada (can I call it that?) would have to deal with.
Other than those things, it's pretty standard Prairie Romance fare: City Girl goes West to teach in Country Town and has to learn how to rough-it while falling in love with Local Law Man. It even includes the Big Misunderstanding trope: she believes he's married and the father of one of the boys in her school. This Big Misunderstanding carries through most of the last half of the book because, let's face it, there is almost no relationship development, so there's no conversation in which the truth can be revealed. And Wynn never uses the terms "my sister-in-law" or "my nephew," which might clue her in. If he's as interested in Elizabeth as he's supposed to be, you'd think that, after continually getting the cold shoulder from her, he might take the opportunity to drop a few terms like that into a conversation to see if that makes a difference.
This book is basically Christy-lite: first person, wide-eyed, naive heroine; country school house; learning the quirks of a small town, etc. The good thing here, though, is that there's no love triangle forced upon the heroine. (Oh, and as far as that goes, in Christy, I'm Team-David all the way!)
Revisiting this book, I was really surprised by how little a presence the Mounties have, and what little attention is paid to the fact that Wynn is a Mountie. I guess because I have the memory of the story as it continues after they're married in the sequels, and because that's a huge draw of the TV show (ahhhhh, Mountie Jack!), I expected it to be more of a...thing in the book. The red serge coat, the boots, the hat, etc. But it's really downplayed in the book.
Another thing that surprised me going back to this one was how light it is on the Inspy part. It's clean, she goes to church, she prays, she's shown reading her Bible. There was one long "internal sermon" section that I skipped over (when she's having a long internal monologue over what she's just read in her quiet time), but other than that, there isn't any Bible thumping, verse quoting, witnessing/evangelizing, or sermonizing in this book (unlike in Love Comes Softly, where there's a full presentation of the gospel so Marty can get saved to be worthy of Clark's love).
All said, this was a quick, light read, and, while at twelve years old, I couldn't wait for the next book in the series, I do believe that a revisit to the first volume is quite enough for me now.
Honestly, I was interested enough that I wanted to (and did) finish it—I’ll give it that. I understand the book was both written and set in previous times. But note to self: Read the book first, and then watch the show. I couldn’t help but compare it to the show, which I generally enjoyed much more than the book.
I just didn’t feel much of a connection to the characters, some events were breezed through far too fast, other events were stretched out unnecessarily long, and I didn’t like the way things were narrated/focused on in general. For instance, in the show, Elizabeth has one very good friend in town (Abigail); in the book, there’s no 1 good friend ;at least in detail) that’s always there for her—mostly just vague and brief descriptions about how everyone in town is so nice.
Still, it was a quick and pretty fun read.
I just didn’t feel much of a connection to the characters, some events were breezed through far too fast, other events were stretched out unnecessarily long, and I didn’t like the way things were narrated/focused on in general. For instance, in the show, Elizabeth has one very good friend in town (Abigail); in the book, there’s no 1 good friend ;at least in detail) that’s always there for her—mostly just vague and brief descriptions about how everyone in town is so nice.
Still, it was a quick and pretty fun read.
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
This was such a sweet, light-hearted book! There was really only one really sad part, but still enough to break my heart a little when I was finished reading. It was a quick read and had short chapters (which I always appreciate). I am excited to finish the series and start watching the television series.
Truly enjoyable and heartwarming. I absolutely loved the characters and the romance and the community.
This was my first family approved romance novel, and it has a special place in my memory. Of course reading it now was a bit underwhelming, but I enjoyed the nostalgia.
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have really enjoyed the Hallmark series of When Calls the Heart, so thought I would give the book a try. I found the tv show very loosely follows the books, but if you changed Elizabeth’s name and found an occupation for her love interest other than a Mountie, I might not recognize the book and show are of the same title. In either case, if looking for a good wholesome read or show to watch, I would recommend either.