Author: Clinton, Hillary Rodham & Penny, Louise

Pat picked up this book on our recent Saskatchewan trip. I’d heard of the novel but until we had it in hand I wasn’t terribly interested.

It was slow to get going and there was no escaping the parallels between the fiction and the reality of today’s world. I managed to get over that and into the book but lost it again at the end when Three Pines and Inspector Armand Gamache were added to the plot. I understand why they were added but felt it was unnecessary.

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Author: Follett, Ken

On our Saskatchewan trip the book I planned to continue reading was finished before we left and I didn’t want to take a “real” book with me so I downloaded the last book of the Kingsbridge series.

Two centuries have passed since the end of the previous story and the links to the characters from the first two novels are mentioned but not obvious. I wasn’t very familiar with the history of this time period – the tensions between the Protestants and the Catholics in England, France and Spain.

This was my least favourite book of the series but there were still plenty of characters to like and dislike.

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Author: Follett, Ken

After reading a couple of tomes from this author I thought I was done but on our last trip to Texada I needed a book to read and this one was on the shelf. The technicality of reading the book was unique. I had the paperback edition but I didn’t want to carry such a large book with me on my trip so I downloaded it onto my iPad. Then I loaded Libby onto my phone so I could read while I waited on appointments. I always tried to finish reading at the end of a chapter so that I could synch the electronics with the paper. As it turned out I finished the book before we left.

I was into the story in the first couple of pages. It takes place 200 years after the first book in the Kingsbridge series so I didn’t need to remember much about the first book. Many of the names were familiar and one of the main characters Merthin is a builder; the love of his life seems unreachable after being accused of witchcraft and forced to become a nun. There are several despicable characters and I was so mad at them until they met their ends.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Author: McClung, Nellie L.

I was waiting downstairs for Pat one day and saw this book on the shelf; I thought must have come from Mum and Dad’s library. However, the inscription inside has a name that I don’t recognize and a Fergus, Ontario inscription. Could it have been one of Grandma McKnight’s?

Pearl Watson has been in love with Dr. Clay, the rural doctor, since she was 15; he returned her feelings but said they must wait three years. The three years have passed. Pearl has attended “Normal” school and is ready to start her first teaching job. It is a time when women didn’t have the right to vote and, in fact, they had very few rights. Both Pearl and the doctor get involved in the politics of the day in order to change that.

The story takes place in the Souris Valley in Saskatchewan, although the author is from Alberta. I was very interested when one of the characters had ties to the North; she lived for a time at the Hudson’s Bay post in Fort Resolution and was married in Hay River. That character turns out to have a surprising part in the story.

If you like old-fashioned stories with a happy ending you’ll enjoy this one.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *