Jenny read and liked Marni's review of Mrs. Mike:

"It's been several years since I read this and wondered how I would see it as an adult. The story is a good one. Kathy moves from Boston and a life of comfort to Canada to live with her uncle because of her health issues. She marries a mountie, Mik...more It's been several years since I read this and wondered how I would see it as an adult. The story is a good one. Kathy moves from Boston and a life of comfort to Canada to live with her uncle because of her health issues. She marries a mountie, Mike Flannigan, and experiences many terrible hardships because of the harshness of the land and the distance from civilization.

I love how she and the other women support one another, and the strength she gains from them - Sarah, Constance, and Oh-Be-Joyful.

When she first meets Constance, one of the very very few white women she encounters, she views her as an elegant woman who should be wearing fine clothing and jewlery. But after living around her and seeing the kind of woman she is, "I realized now that there was no place for the sapphire rings and golden settings that I had wanted for her. You would not encumber hands with jewels and have them mend and wash and handle babies. Constances's hands had always fascinated me... You would not think there was the strength in them to make such a life, dig it out of nothing."

Kathy returns to Boston for a time. Her health issues had sent her away, and while she was still watched over in Canada because she was delicate, she realized in Boston around her family that she was uncommonly strong compared to the other women at home. She mentions that as a physical attribute, but emotionally and mentally it is true as well. In returning, she realizes why she and Constance are different. "You and I came to this country. We have known other things. The rest were born here, so they live here. But we chose it, you and I, and we are the only ones."

And about the things she's learning? "Katherine Mary, you are like a baby that is so pleased with himself for standing up that he doesn't notice anyone else has learned to stand too." :)

Love, respecting nature, becoming, choices, family.(less) "

Jenny read and liked Shirleen's review of Mrs. Mike:

"
This is a story of a 16-year-old girl, Katherine Mary Fallon, who is from Boston. Her mother sends her to live with her Uncle in Calgary, Canada with hopes that the fresh air will cure her pleurisy. While there, she meets and falls in love w...more
This is a story of a 16-year-old girl, Katherine Mary Fallon, who is from Boston. Her mother sends her to live with her Uncle in Calgary, Canada with hopes that the fresh air will cure her pleurisy. While there, she meets and falls in love with a Mountie, Sergeant Mike Flannigan, and they marry and move to northern Canada where the weather is a never ending challenge and she is one of only two White women in the area. This is a love story packed with adventure, tragedy, challenges, courage, compassion. The final chapters of the book are my very favorite, as Katherine finally comes to realize where her true happiness lies. I love the sweet relationship between Katherine and Mike, and the love that they share.

Some of my favorite quotes in the book:

“It’s strange, but love for a place has to grow in you, the same as any other kind of love.”

“An Indian never knocks on a door, not even the door of a chief”.

“When little things are so important, it’s because there aren’t any big ones.”

This book is worth owning and re-reading.
(less) "

Jenny read and liked Lucy's review of Mrs. Mike:

"This wasn't on my list of scheduled reads but while I was in a bookstore last month to purchase a book for a Christmas exchange, I saw Mrs. Mike on the shelves and felt compelled to buy this much beloved book.

I'm often asked what my favor...more This wasn't on my list of scheduled reads but while I was in a bookstore last month to purchase a book for a Christmas exchange, I saw Mrs. Mike on the shelves and felt compelled to buy this much beloved book.

I'm often asked what my favorite book is. I always answer that I don't have one; there are many books I love but they are too different to say one is superior to another.

I have changed my mind. Mrs. Mike is my favorite book.

A coming of age story set in the Canadian North in the year 1907, Katherine Mary O'Fallon, a young woman of 16, goes to live with her uncle somewhere north of Calgary as treatment for her pleurisy. There she meets Sergeant Mike Flannigan, a Mountie who has "eyes so blue she could swim in them." They are eventually married after a brief (but fantastically romantic) courtship and she follows him by dog sled to the arctic wilderness to live among the fur traders and Indians.

I love this book for many reasons. Most importantly, as a book, it's my first love. Mrs. Mike was the book that made me realized how much a book could move and stick with me for years. I rarely re-read a book, but I believe I've read Mrs. Mike five times now. Each time, my stomach swoons when Kathy and Mike fall in love, I laugh when Kathy covers her daughter and Mike spanks Kathy instead, I cry when the unimaginable happens and I sigh as I close the book, thinking the line at the very end is one of the best ever written.

Another reason I love this book is that it's based on a real woman's life who the authors met before writing the book. I'm sure it's juiced from the reality, but even the skeleton of the story is moving.

I can't claim that it's the best written book. It is simple in structure, dialogue and description, but as I've read more and more over the years, and compare it to other literature, I believe the style matches the story perfectly.

It's the kind of book I can't help but promise that anyone who reads it will love it. But I also know that with our diverse personalities and preferences, it wouldn't be true. Like a biased mother who adores her baby, I don't think I'd enjoy anyone pointing out the flaws of this book. Perhaps its eyes are too close together and the head oddly-shaped, but it's my baby, and I think it's the most beautiful thing in the world.(less) "