Elizabeth Thatcher is young, pretty, cultured, and educated. But when she journeys west to teach school in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, she's completely unprepared for the conditions she encounters. Still, she's determined to succeed at the formidable task of fitting in with the locals and shaping the hearts and minds of the schoolchildren in her care. She's just as determined not to give her heart to any of the local frontiersmen until she meets Wynn Delaney, a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.—Nat Zee