lovesarahmae 's review for:

When Calls the Heart by Janette Oke

2.0

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This may be a rare time when the screen adaptation is better than the book (CBC television adaptation, on US Netflix currently). Janette Oke's 'When Calls the Heart' is a solid historical romance, this is what you want to read when you're looking for a teacher falling for the Mountie in the wild Canadian west. There's lots of rude awakenings to the situation in the West for an Eastern lady, plenty of confusion about the life of locals and dismay at the uncivilized nature of life outside of civilization- but the show is just so much better for a modern feminist audience. The book shows it's age, second wave feminism is there- Elizabeth is a working woman, working through her struggles with little help of men. But then there is a collapse, she falls in love after a few encounters with a man she had thought married, and immediately agrees to marry him without any formal courting or long emotional connection. I'm continuing the series, because I'm a sucker for historic romances, and stories of the great untamed North West, and there is a dream-boat Mountie(!), but I wont be waving the feminist pride flag about it. Overall this book is decent, but nothing to write home about.

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