Beyond the Gathering Storm

July 3, 2000
Oke, whose evangelical Christian romances have sold 19 million copies worldwide, here presents the romantic lives of an adopted brother and sister in pre-WWI western Canada. Duty calls Henry, a sensitive and kind Mountie, to inform a young logger's wife that her husband has been killed in an accident. The woman's tragic loss haunts Henry, who wonders for years afterward what became of her and her infant son. Assigned to a new beat five years later, he rediscovers Amber and gains her trust--and eventually her heart--by offering his calm and steady assistance as she copes with another near-tragedy. Meanwhile, Henry's younger sister, Christine, off to work as a secretary in the big city of Edmonton, experiences her own loves and losses. Courted by the boss's temperamental, randy son, the saintly Christine has to fend off the traditional temptations of her suitor's fast friends, late evenings and penchant for alcohol. She and the boss's son become engaged, but his mercurial outbursts only worsen, occasionally erupting in violence (the novel anachronistically refers to Christine as "physically abused"). A heartbroken Christine breaks off the engagement, sadder but wiser. Oke covers little new ground in this latest historical Christian romance, though she paints a fairly realistic portrait of a controlling, abusive man, and refrains from tidying up the novel by having Christine fall for someone more suitable.

June 1, 2000
Oke's legions of fans will be delighted with her new stand-alone romance, set in her favorite Canadian province of Alberta a little before World War I, complementing her ongoing Prairie Legacy series and her recent collaborations with T. Davis Bunn. It's a quiet story about brother and sister Christine and Henry Delaney, adopted children who strike out from their parents on new courses. Christine finds a clerical job in Edmonton, while Henry, a Mountie like his father, assumes his first command at a small post in the far north. Christine's tale develops into the familiar one of a Christian woman who falls in love with an unbeliever. In this case, the unbeliever happens also to be the boss' son, and when Christine reaffirms her faith, the romance, not to mention the job, heads south. Henry's less instructional story may be more satisfying: in his lonely outpost, he connects again with a widow to whom several years before, as a rookie, he delivered the news of her husband's death. The young woman's sorrow and her plight as a single mother have haunted him, and his sympathy quickly turns to love. After some initial distrust, the woman comes to understand what a good man Henry is, and loves him, too. ((Reviewed June 1 & 15, 2000))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)