When Comes the Spring
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Average rating2.4
Elizabeth, the cultured young schoolteacher from the East, has braved the western frontier, spent a year teaching in a one-room schoolhouse, and is now preparing to marry Wynn. Can their love for each other sustain them through a harsh winter, loneliness, and rigors of life?
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3 primary books#2 in Canadian West
Canadian West is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 1983 with contributions by Janette Oke.
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Contains spoilers
If I could leave no stars I likely would. I read the first book in the series on a whim (I wanted to read a Christian romance and was interested in the historical fiction element of it. This was far from my typical wheelhouse) And I understand that these books were written in the 1980s, and that our standards have changed. Yet at the same time I really did not like Elizabeth in this book.
In the first book it was comical when she would struggle with life on the Canadian frontier, maybe a little much, but throwing mouse traps into the boy's outhouse because she couldn't handle the thought of it being in the girl's made me roll my eyes but also chuckle. In this book I found her to be more on the insufferable side. Shout out to her husband, because he sure did pick a real one. That man has more patience than I would have in similar situations.
I also understand that this book is written from a Christian perspective, and I have no innate issues with that, but the book is also predicated on the spreading of the Gospel in the community Elizabeth moves into, which while accurate to those who moved into the north country and all, was still a little preachy and eyerolly (for me personally).
The reason I gave the book as low a star rating as I did was due to how obnoxious Elizabeth is in this book and also how racist parts of it are. Elizabeth becomes obsessed with wanting another white woman to be living in the town she moves to and it's really off putting when reading it. I understand what the author was trying to achieve with that, but I don't know that she did successfully. This was a book I read on a whim after reading the first one, and I don't think I will be continuing this series at all.
An enjoyable continuation of the series about Elizabeth and Wynn. While it isn't the most exciting of books, it has solid storytelling and a strong Christian message. I liked her dog Kip and her friends in the frontier village, and will definitely have to read the next book to see what happens to all of them.
