Tome Thursday: Janette Oke

Hey everyone!

It's Tome Thursday again, and that means talking about some more books that I've read. For some reason, these first two blogs were/are actually about a book series, but I think I'll be moving away from it next week and just do one book per blog. For this week, however, I'm sticking to the series bit, and I'm going to talk about Janette Oke's 'Canadian West'.

Janette Oke is a Canadian author and I first heard about her through the movie 'Love Comes Sotfly' (starring Katherine Heigl and Dale Midkiff), but that's an entirely different series which did, however, launch me into her world. But after doing some research on the matter, I found another one about a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a school teacher at a time when pioneers were still establishing communities and outposts through the Canadian wilderness.

Stephen Amell and Maggie Grace, When Calls the Heart

Okay, I'll admit - when I did some research on the books, I found that a TV series had been filmed based on the first one, and launched by a two-hour event that had Maggie Grace and Stephen Amell in the titular roles. I've been a Stephen Amell fan since I saw him as Brady in The Vampire Diaries, so I was definitely curious about this and decided to give it a go after trying to convince myself I really didn't want to watch it.

But back to the books: the first four volumes describe the life and trials of Elizabeth Thatcher and Wynn Delaney. In 'When Calls the Heart', we first meet our protagonists as a school teacher who accepts a post on the Canadian frontier, and a Mountie who is very dedicated to his job but happens to be staying at the same outpost to help his sister-in-law while his brother is in the hospital. This, of course, leads to a lot of quite funny mishaps since Elizabeth originally thinks Wynn is the boy's father and is therefore not in any position to flirt with her, but everything is set straight and we do get our drama-filled moments (the fact that Wynn kisses Elizabeth to keep her from fainting after a close encounter with a bear makes me definitely think about Oliver doing something like that; so Arrow-ish somehow). It does end with the two leads coming together in an agreement to get married, just before Elizabeth is supposed to return home east.

The second book, titled 'When Comes the Spring', takes Wynn and Elizabeth into married life and to his first posting as a Mountie in the far north of the region. This means a huge step away from our teachr's well-off family, no other 'white' women to talk to, and a lot of hours alone since her husband is off playing judge, doctor, herbalist, and whatever else the people of the colony need. It didn't hook me as much as the first one, since at times Elizabeth was really annoying (not going to wear pants but she does want to climb a mountain - ahem?), but at the same time, I enjoyed the descriptions of how she faced things and what she had to go through to get meals on the table, how she learned, how they did things then etc. I was also happy with the way the relationship developed, and even though there were certain unrealistic scenes, all in all it was a good book.

The third book, 'When Breaks the Dawn', picks up right where we left off in the second, and covers a range of years while Elizabeth and Wynn live in the northern outpost with their friends and how they struggle and survive through it all. Life isn't as harsh anymore as it was the first winter, and we can focus on other things, like her infertility and the problems it causes for her, the way she has with children and how she and her husband foster a couple of those, but they never seem to last since their parents or other relatives come to take them away. And then comes the news: Wynn is reassigned.

This is covered in the fourth book, 'When Hope Springs New'; the Delaneys move to an even more remote outpost and life seems to have to start again for the pair of them, with similar hardships as before at Beaver Creek. Only this time, Elizabeth is much stronger in character and doesn't need to lean on Wynn so much, she really comes into her own in this book, however, since there is a fire while her husband is away and she is largely responsible for helping save the community.

The next two books, 'Beyond the Gathering Storm' and 'When Tomorrow Comes' weren't as good to me since they centered around the two adopted children Elizabeth and Wynn fostered and raised as their own. Obviously, Elizabeth was never able to conceive and I felt sad for the character because I grew to love her and Wynn so much over the four books, but at least they had something to help them through that loneliness. The fifth book was okay enough, since the life of the son was fairly interesting as he had also become a Mountie, but I really disliked the sitxh book because the daughter, to me, was a bit of a fool. Or at least she had some issues to work through; for all of the book, she basically keeps complaining and pining for the North and wishing to return there, yet in the end instead of taking the offer with a young Mountie, she marries a city doctor. Maybe I just didn't understand the book's message right, but to me, it was a bit inexplicable that to follow your faith you have to give up your biggest wish and lifelong dream. I'm not saying I'm openly criticizing her, because obviously I wasn't in the character's shoes and I'm not the author - but it just didn't sit well with me, I suppose.

Overall, it was a very good series and I enjoy Oke's writing each time I pick up one of her books.

Have you read any of Janette Oke's books?

Have a good one x