Where Courage Calls (A When Calls the Heart novel) {book review}

Disclosure:  A copy of Where Courage Calls was provided to me at no cost to me, via Bethany House (Baker Publishing).  Though the book was provided at no cost for the purpose of facilitating this book review of Where Courage Calls, the opinions are 100% my own.  I was not compensated at all for posting this review, nor the mini-review I posted on the Barnes and Noble website.

As a huge fan of historical fiction, I appreciate a good, clean romance that focuses more on courtship than bodice-ripping lust (though I might occasionally find myself reading one of those, too.)  I saw previews of the new show on Hallmark, When Calls the Heart, and dutifully got all five books from the library.  Funny thing is... the TV show focuses on a different Elizabeth Thatcher than the one in the original When Calls the Heart series by Janette Oke. 

Don't fret, though!  It's a nice companion to the original book series.  I connected with this Elizabeth Thatcher just as well as to the other one.  Both are strong women from privileged backgrounds who venture west to teach.  A huge risk, especially 100 years ago when the story takes place.

Where Courage Calls finds Elizabeth falling in love with a mountie while teaching in a coal town that lost a good number of their men in a mining accident.  Though she was not there during the time of the accident, she nonetheless grieves with the women and children and helps them to find hope in the future, and hope for her own as well as she must decide to stay on in Coal Valley or go back home at the end of the school year.

Overall, I really liked the romance story presented.  There was a lot of character development of the townsfolk and the storyline flowed well and to a satisfactory conclusion.

Where Courage Calls is available now and is a rather nice companion to the TV show.  You won't see a lot of agreement in the storylines, but you can easily see Erin Krakow as Elizabeth Thatcher in the novel, making it feel like this book is just as exciting as a few episodes of the TV show.