When Calls the Heart [Unabridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Janette Oke (Author), Lois Betterton (Narrator)

Product Details

• Audio Cassette: 5 pages
• Publisher: NorthStar Audio Books (1998)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000FFZQ2W
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,257,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Janette Oke (pronounced 'oak') pioneered inspirational fiction and is the leading author in the category today. Love Comes Softly, her first novel, has sold over one million copies. Janette is now the bestselling author of over 70 books, 32 of which have been translated into fourteen languages. Her books have sold over 22 million copies.
Janette receives fan mail from all over the world and answers each letter personally. She received the 1992 President's Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association for her significant contribution to Christian fiction, the 1999 CBA Life Impact Award and has been awarded the Gold Medallion Award for fiction. Janette and her husband, Edward, have four grown children and enjoy their many grandchildren. They make their home in Canada.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best of Janette Oke, November 21, 2000

By 

Amelia Sunderland "tesslouise" (Charlotte, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Calls the Heart (Canadian West #1) (Paperback)

I have read most of Janette Oke's books, and this series is my favorite by far. The story takes place in a different setting from most Christian historical fiction (i.e., not the prairie), and with the first-person narration Elizabeth's voice shines through. If you are tired of finding the same plot in many books, try this series; the books do stand out. They are also laugh-out-loud funny in places.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good book; the others in the series aren't, though, January 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: When Calls the Heart (Canadian West #1) (Paperback)

I have read most of Janette Oke's books, and I must say that "When Calls the Heart" is really one of her best books. It is one of the few Janette Oke books I have actually enjoyed, without getting annoyed at the characters or finding historical inaccuracies.

The book's heroine, Elizabeth, travels to the western frontier to be a teacher. Her adventures are interesting and often humorous (but not outlandish) as she adapts from city life to frontier life. Of course, she meets a handsome Mountie and falls in love with him... Untypically, Janette Oke doesn't have them meet each other right away, and quickly marry them off; she allows Elizabeth to remain in suspense for quite some time and get to actually know Wynn (the Mountie) better. That is one thing I liked better about this book than other Janette Oke books- the characters were more realistic (on the whole) and they did not fall in love at first sight and want to get married right away. I liked that because it left the plot freer for other topics besides the characters' romance.

I must say, however, that one must not let the good reviews of "When Calls the Heart" to lead them into buying the other three books in the "Canadian West" series. They are not nearly as good as the first book. In fact, I highly suggest that you read "Mrs. Mike", by Benedict and Nancy Freedman, instead. "Mrs. Mike" is a true story, and when you compare it with the remainder of the Canadian West books, it is obvious where Janette Oke got much of her material for incidents and characters.

You'll enjoy "When Calls the Heart." I definitely did. The other three books aren't as good, but you can read "When Calls the Heart" by itself; it doesn't necessarily need sequels.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When Oke Engages My Heart, July 20, 2007

By 

Kerry's Students "from Honors 150" (Provo, UT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Calls the Heart (Canadian West #1) (Paperback)

When Oke Engages My Heart, by Sara Larsen

Anyone that likes a quiet, sweet story about the experiences, joys, and sorrows of life from the perspective of a woman will love "When Calls the Heart" by Janette Oke. Oke effectively engages us and connects us to her protagonist by using strong characterization, sensory details, diction, and appeals to emotion.
On the first page of the novel, Elizabeth thinks to herself. "And how are you this delightful spring morning? I asked myself. Why, I am just fine, thank you, I silently answered, and then almost blushed as I quickly looked around for fear that someone might be able to read my thoughts." This is one of the first glimpses we get into the life of our protagonist. By developing the thoughts of her character and letting us into her brain, Oke has quickly helped us understand the personality of her character, and thus we become involved with the character on a more personal level. By connecting us to her character, Oke can then communicate messages, emotions, or ideas to us through her protagonist.
The powerful sensory details used by Oke when Elizabeth is spending her first night out in the Wilderness allow us to almost see what our protagonist sees and smell what our protagonist smells, thus inviting our sympathy and involvement. "...the tall grass had recently been cut but had been left to lie, browning where it fell. It smelled musty and insects buzzed busily about it...the riotous colors flamed out over the sky in shades that I had no words to describe..." (73) We get a glimpse into the newness of Elizabeth's experience by reading these sentences and can vividly picture the scene before her. Because of Oke's use of imagery, we feel as though we are experiencing Elizabeth's world because we have a detailed description of what her world is like, which is essential because then Oke is able to get us to feel what she wants us to feel.
Oke lets us know the terror that Elizabeth feels when she hears a sound that she's never heard before, and we become further engaged in the story because we can almost hear these sounds for ourselves and feel the heat on our faces because of the details used. "A wolf pack!...They had smelled new blood and were moving in for the kill...the sharp stubble of the grass and weeds bit into the palms of my hands, but I crawled on. Another howl pierced the night...the flames were robust now...I continued to feed the fire and huddle over it, coughing and crying into the woodsmoke." (74) We can imagine what is happening, almost feel the thorns in our own hands, and we also feel the same fear that Elizabeth does. Oke entices us, by using such imagery, to experience this with Elizabeth, to take an active part in the story and connect with her protagonist.
On the fourth page of the novel, Oke's carefully-chosen words effectively illustrate her characters when Elizabeth is describing her family; we are invited to see these characters as she sees them, thus aligning our point of view with our protagonist's. She uses words like "flighty one," "adventure-seeker," "the romantic," "silliness," "dainty," "pretty," "plenty of male attention," and "never enough" to describe her sister Julie. By using four rather short sentences with well-chosen words, Oke develops a single character, letting us get personally involved with her description. It is easy to paint in our minds an accurate, though unique, picture of Julie. But again, we see these characters through the eyes of Elizabeth, and Oke can then get her message across to us by using her characters--characters that we now view in the way she wants us to view them.
Oke superbly uses diction to get us involved in Elizabeth's dilemma with the school stove, and just by reading these words we understand how she feels about herself and how she feels about her friend, Wynn Delaney. When Wynn Delaney walks in, we read words like "gasp," "choke," "embarrassment," "self-conscious," and "predicament," causing us to feel Elizabeth's humiliation. Words we read about Wynn Delaney include "benefactor," "save," "purposefully," and "friendship," (133) making it clear that Elizabeth was appreciative of Wynn's help. Oke strategically uses these words to cause us to subconsciously feel the same way that Elizabeth does; thus we see the following events from Elizabeth's point of view, which is Oke's objective, because then we become attached to our protagonist and sympathize with her feelings when things go wrong for her.
Oke gets us emotionally involved when Elizabeth is about to return home and leave behind the world she has come to love. She pauses when she hears her name. "A hand was placed on my shoulder, and through the mist in my eyes I saw a red-coated chest and I looked up into the face of Wynn Delaney. His eyes looked troubled as they gazed deeply into mine." (219) By this point in the story we have a firm understanding of Elizabeth's confusion about her relationship to Wynn, and we also know how reluctant she is to return home because we, too, have come to love this wilderness through Elizabeth's experiences. Oke now effectively touches our emotions, but is only able to do so because throughout the story we have come to know, experience, and love her characters, which she has effectively done through characterization, sensory details, and diction. Now that Oke has fully and completely engaged us with the story and with her protagonist, she gives us one last gift of connecting with our emotions. We leave the book feeling our hearts touched in some way.
Oke does an excellent job of connecting us to her protagonist and engaging each of her readers, no matter what background they have. If you want to be left with a happy feeling and you enjoy these kinds of books, you will love "When Calls the Heart."