When Calls the Heart / Janette Oke

 

2 out of 5 stars

***2022 Summer Vacation in the West***

My first summer theme book, not a traditional western but a tale set in the Canadian west, when my current home, Calgary, was just getting its start. The cover proudly proclaims that it is a Hallmark Channel movie edition. It is certainly the kind of saccharine sweet story that Hallmark is known for.

Part of the reason I chose this novel was that the author was born the same year as my mother, who was a writer who often wrote historical romances like this one. Oke’s author photo looks exactly like what she is: a nice church lady. There are many Christian details, so if you are allergic to that I would encourage you to put this book down and find something else to read.

My parents both attended one room schools in rural Alberta and two of my aunts taught in them, so I knew many of the details of the classroom and the treatment of the teacher to be accurate. Elizabeth is a greenhorn in Alberta, having very little experience with starting fires, chopping wood, dealing with mice, or cooking for herself. Her wardrobe is too fancy, she lives in fear of coyotes, and faints when she sees a bear. Despite this (or maybe because of it) she is aware of being the focus of single male attention in the community.

First she must deal with a school superintendent who is so sure she will marry him that he neglects to even ask. Once Elizabeth sets him straight, he responds by posting her in the back of beyond (sorry, Lacombe, you're a nice town now). The good people of the area are so glad to finally have a teacher for their school that they are more than willing to take care of her. But of course, it is her half-brother's friend, Wynn, who snags her attention, a member of the North West Mounted Police. This is a romance, so they have to have some misunderstandings and miscommunication, but there's little doubt that the Mountie will get the woman.

It's a quick read, but the writing is a stilted and the course of events is obvious. The main characters are so goody-goody as to be pretty boring. I know my mother would have been eager to get published, as she was writing at the same time as Ms. Oke, but I don't think she would have been willing to use a religious publisher to accomplish her goal. It would have felt like cheating, I suspect.