This is at least the third time I've read this novel since I first discovered it in the '90s. I remember enjoying it back then, enough to buy my own copy after first borrowing one from the library. But unfortunately, this book has turned out to be my least favorite revisit to the Women of the West series in recent years.

At this stage of my adult life, it was more difficult for me, in a way, to read about Sarah's plight. Not because her situation is hard but because she makes it even harder on herself than it has to be. She refuses help from others more than is necessary.

Also, it's one thing if you're an introvert and prefer to be alone. Not everyone who's alone is lonely. But the way Sarah takes to self-isolating and turns down offers of friendship and company from kind people, choosing loneliness for herself, makes her plight even more...miserable. It didn't feel great for me to watch a grown-up woman character sitting around on a day off with her hours empty. No interests or pursuits to fill her time. When she isn't hauling freight to earn money to take care of her daughter, Sarah pretty much has no life of her own.

As for Rebecca, the story eventually shows some glimpses of her girlhood years. However, those glimpses are really too brief and simplistic to make her much of an interesting character, I think. And the ending of her story, the ending of the novel, is rushed, poorly developed.

Also, as it is in a number of this author's earlier works, the heroine is frequently in tears, perhaps even more than is usual for this series. With references to Sarah, and then later Rebecca too, either crying or trying not to cry or breaking down and sobbing in what seems to be a third or more of the scenes throughout the book, the tears were just too repetitive for me.

On a more technical note, also like others of these earlier works, much of the characters' dialogue (and sometimes the narration as well) is so choppy, with numerous dashes breaking up the flow of words every few beats. What was distracting for me even when I was younger was more distracting for me now as a retired editor.

Granted, my copy of this book is the first paperback edition. I don't know if any of the later editions have been reedited.

Yet, with all that said, something in me still found the overall read to be relaxing. Woven with good intentions, and easy to digest. While I doubt I'll make any more visits to this particular novel in the future, I still consider a few of the books in this series to be some of my best "comfort reads" to go back to whenever my mood for them cycles back around. ( )

"A captivating mother-daughter story in the best Janet Oke tradition. When Sarah Perry loses her husband, she resolves that the best thing she can do for her young daughter Rebecca is send her off to a "proper" boarding school. And, years later, when Rebecca returns home, the distance between the two women can no longer be measured just in miles."

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The frontier life had required their parting. What could bridge the chasm between their two different worlds?

This was a very good story that took me from being really frustrated with one person, to being really upset with another and in the end it brought me to tears. A story that shows the depth of love a mother will go for her child (even if you don't agree with her idea; I know I didn't!).

Sarah Perry finds herself alone with her baby Rebecca when her husband suddenly dies. All she has left is their home and her husband's freight-hauling business. She decides to run his business and haul freight in order to keep her and her little girl from having nothing. But hauling freight is a hard business for a woman and demands a lot of hours being away from home.

Sarah will eventually decide to send little Rebecca away to boarding school so she can get taught all the things she won't learn on the frontier town they are living in. From here you will watch Rebecca grow up in a far different standard of living than her mother and you will watch Sarah work more than she should to keep her daughter in school, miles away from home. (And yes other people try to help Sarah, but she was a little too proud to accept heartfelt help from others).

Finally the day arrives and Rebecca now returns home having graduated from school, with very little memory of home. What she finds will be hard for her to understand; a mother who looks more like a man, than a respectable lady, and a town with very little going for it. These two ladies will view each other from two different worlds and you wait for the day when they can truly be mother and daughter again (and a few town people will step up and help Rebecca see who her mother truly is and how much love she truly has for her daughter).

I liked the lesson Sarah finally learned in this story when she told God finally: " I was blind in assuming that I had the whole responsibility on my own shoulders. I should have learned to lean on You". And I also liked how the author wrapped this story up in a nice happy ending. This was one of my favorites in this series. ( )