Where Courage Calls (Return to the Canadian West Book #1): A When Calls the Heart Novel Kindle Edition

I, too, was confused about Beth Thatcher and her family. When I first started reading the book, I thought she was Elizabeth's little namesake from the Canadian West series. But no, the parents' names aren't the same--her mom's name is Priscilla and they live in Toronto. At one point we are told that Elizabeth is actually Beth's distant cousin and not an aunt, and her father's name is Ephraim. Did Janette Oke and her daughter collaborate before writing this book? How can they call the series "Return to the Canadian West" when this Beth Thatcher has never been there to begin with. I, too, am so confused as to who this Beth Thatcher is that I'm having a hard time following the plot. I'm just not feeling this series.

I have not yet finished the story, and I'm sure I will like it, because I love Janet Oke and would never want to leave a bad review! However, I'm totally confused as to "who" Beth Thatcher is. I understand that she is the niece of Elizabeth Thatcher from the "When Calls the Heart" series (one of my favorite series of Janet Oke), however, WHICH niece is Beth??? Maybe I'm just getting stuck on the details here, but I am so distracted as to Beth's origins that I find it hard to concentrate on the story.I thought at first that Beth Thatcher was Elizabeth's little namesake niece that is referred to often during the When Calls the Heart series. However, little baby Elizabeth (Beth) is the daughter of Jonathon and Mary, who live in Calgary. And though they seem to be well off, the house that is described is not at all a rich house with servants that Beth Thatcher in this book lives in. And not only that, but it takes place in Toronto.The other confusing thing is that Beth's mother (who I thought was supposed to be Mary), seems to be a mother who lives in a high-end life, full of glamour and parties; not at all the Mary that was described in the other series, who is warm and hospitable. And at one point in the story, her husband (Jonathon??) calls his wife Pricilla, not Mary. Huh???So now I am wondering, who exactly IS Beth Thatcher and where did she come from? If a story branches out on other characters, I like to be able to "know" the character so the story can continue on, but this one is so confusing that it's distracting. The authors either didn't accurately describe the relationship or just made up a new character and dubbed her as a niece but didn't say where in the family she comes from.Other confusing things...repeated names from the When Calls the Heart series is also used, such as Julie. Julie is originally Elizabeth's flighty sister (also mentioned often throughout the series) and so I was very confused to hear that Beth also had a sister named Julie who is flighty as well. Margaret is also another repeated name, again very confusing, because you think that there is a clue to explain exactly where Beth fits into the family tree, but again, Maragaret just seems to be a repeated name from the last series. From the When Calls the Heart series, Margaret is Elizabeth's older sister, and in this book, "Margaret" is also Beth's older sister. At one point, I was thinking that maybe Elizabeth actually IS Beth, but before a younger Beth, from before she met Wynn, but that doesn't make sense either.There are also other characters (brothers and sisters) that don't match up in the story either, according to the last series. It leaves you wondering who these repeated characters are, such as Margaret and Julie, and who these other new brothers and sisters are. Not to mention who the heck her mother is--Mary? Or Pricilla??I'm hoping I'm just super confused and someone can explain it all to me. All in all, it shouldn't be so confusing. I hope to be able to forget where Beth fits in with the family and just be able to enjoy the story.

After watching When Hope CAlls for the many seasons on Hallmark it took a little bit to recognize that this,was the story the show was based on. I'm glad to have seen the adaptation before reading this first book. I love all the details unfold in book that the series left out. It was great to read as life was left in the hands of God so each character was allowed to mature into the person they were intended to become. I felt their growth from much hesitancy to acceptance to deep feelings of family toward one another. Through your beautiful craft with words we learned to work with compassion, acceptance, trust, love and much more. I look forward to see how this story continues as new relationships develop new characters and challenges are formed, and how the theme town develops.

I bought this book after downloading a free sample on my daughter's Kindle. I had known about the movie but I skipped it as Michael Landon Jr. has screwed up every movie he's made that's been supposedly based on an Oke book. But I figured the book might have potential. The first chapter sounded pretty good, so I bought the book. Then it got a little slow and I wondered if I'd wasted my money. Once the story got going, it was pretty good. It wasn't anywhere near as good Where Calls the Heart, but not bad, either. I wonder if Laurel did most of the writing, I don't think she has quite her mother's talent. My biggest issue was the histories of the characters. In other books Mrs. Oke has totally re-written history so this isn't a first, but it's still just as annoying. First of all, Jon's family is almost totally different. When Elizabeth first went west, Jon and Mary had four kids, William, Sarah, Kathleen and Elizabeth, who was the baby at the time. Mary may have had another baby or two before the series ended, I don't remember. But the children are completely different now other than Beth. Also, Beth says she learned that her Aunt Elizabeth wasn't actually her aunt, but an older cousin, the daughter of her father's much-older brother, Ephraim. Well, those of us who know and love When Calls the Heart know that Jon's father died, his mother remarried to a man named Ephraim Thatcher and had several more children, including Elizabeth. So Elizabeth and Jon are half-siblings, making Elizabeth Beth's aunt. Those family relationships don't come up much during the story. What is persistent is that Mary has been made into a total snob. Yes, Jon and Mary are wealthy, but I never got the idea that Mary had a house that could have passed as a museum. She was more of a down-to-earth westerner. She most certainly would have known that Beth needed sensible easy-to-care for skirts and blouses to teach school in a coal-mining town. Also, she or Beth would have written to Elizabeth for advice on just that kind of thing before the original shopping trip. I'm sure some of this had to do with the changes made in the movie, but surely Mrs. Oke could have reclaimed her background story and stuck with what had been established in her former books.But enough complaining about the past. This story takes place many years after When Calls the Heart, but Beth encounters many of same situations her aunt did -- teaching children with less than what she's used to, adjusting to a new lifestyle, trying to fit in and finding God's will. You don't have the depth of characters that you do in most of Oke's other books and it was easy to forget some characters even existed. I thought the storyline really picked up around the time the little boy got sick at the church picnic. Beth did tend to think that she was the salvation of the town and had to solve all their problems, but that's not unique. I remember when Elizabeth thought she would teach the village ladies to sew and then was surprised to find they had their own sewing projects that they excelled at. And that kind of thing happens today, too, I suppose.After reading the synopsis for the next book, I plan to skip it. More of Mary being over-bearing.

Interesting historical context and also interesting to read of the challenges facing a youngish believer in a very inhospitable environment.Janette;s writing is just within the limit that I an cope with romantically- I am far more interested in the life in God of the young lady Elizabeth and the reality of her commitment to go North than in the intricacies of their love affair

A brilliant author who I thoroughly enjoy.

Not finished reading yet but enjoying it very much

Good book

Really enjoyed book