Series - Return to the Canadian West Book 2
Author - Janette Oke & Laurel Oke Logan
Title - Where Trust Lies
Format - ebook, paper
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Beth Thatcher is home for the summer after teaching in the small mining town of Coal Valley out in Canada's West. She isn't the same girl who left home the year before. As Beth looks forward to a summer of catching up with her mother and sisters, she soon realizes that perhaps she no longer belongs in the world she grew up in. A surprise cruise along Canada's east coast & the Northeastern United States has Beth wishing for the simple summer she'd planned. Yet Beth realizes that the trip is a chance to bond with her mother and sisters and perhaps bridge the gap that grown between them. When one of her family members trusts the wrong person, Beth has draw on the strength she found out West. Will her family ever be able to move forward?
I think I've outgrown Janette Oke. And that makes me rather sad. I mean I can still enjoy her books, but not like I did twenty something years ago. You see, I was between the ages of 10 and 14 when I first picked up one of Janette Oke's books. And I loved the Love Comes Softly Series and the Canadian West Series. But something happened. I grew up. I discovered authors whose stories grabbed me and wouldn't let me go. While I will always have a soft spot and fond memories of the Janette Oke books, I think that I'd be better off not requesting to review her new releases. Oh, I'll probably still read them. I can easily rent them from the library. But I seem to hold reviewing books to a different standard than the ones I read for pure pleasure. Anyway, all that is to say that my thoughts on this one may seem a little more harsh or critical than I mean to.
I enjoyed this book much more than the first in this series. I did find that it was a very slow moving book. I literally went for days without picking it up. Beth has grown up since I first met her in the first book. And her character has developed more too. But I still found her rather shallow. Though no where near as shallow as one of her sisters or a family friend.
The romance I was hoping for in this book between Beth and Jarrick, Jack from the first book, is almost nonexistent. I get the fact that they are on different sides of the continent, but I still wanted more. Sure there are a couple of phone calls and letters exchanged, but not at all what I was hoping for. I also had hoped for more of Coal Valley. I'd grown to like that little town by the end of the first book. I would have liked to revisit that community.
I really felt that this book was too long. I felt that there chapters that did nothing to move the story along. And once the climax of Beth's family member trusting the wrong person occurs, there was too much time spent describing everything.
Still fans of the Hallmark series will enjoy this book. I'm not saying that it wasn't a good book, because it was good. But like I said earlier, I think I've outgrown Janette Oke.
I received this book for free from Bethany House Publishers for the purpose of reviewing. I was not required to like the book, only give my honest opinion. My thoughts and opinions are my own.
Recommended to fans of Janette Oke, Beverly Lewis, Little House on the Prairie, Hallmark's Love Come Softly movie series, Hallmark's When Calls the Heart movie & series
Rating - 3.5 stars - It was better than the first, which I struggled through, but not stellar. Goodreads/Amazon Rating will be 3 stars.
I didn't read this book, Dawn, but I read another Oke book last year and had almost your same thoughts. I do like the Hallmark series, though.
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