I enjoyed all 4 stories in the novella about teachers in one room schoolhouses:

Dear Teacher by Wanda Brunstetter: All about Judith King who teaches at a schoolhouse along the Lehigh Canal. She has the children write questions and put in a box for her to answer. Suddenly she is getting notes that are more personal. Ernie Snyder is a widower with 2 children in her school and who makes a living running goods on the Lehigh Canal. He is a man of few words, so the "Dear Teacher" box comes in handy for him.

Prairie Schoolmarm by JoAnn Grote: I liked this story even more than the 1st. Marin is a Swedish immigrant school teacher who doesn't have time for love. But she wasn't counting on the persistence of farmer Talif Diversion, who insists upon joining her students so he too can learn more English. His help and devotion was very heartwarming and I enjoyed the ending.

Reluctant Schoolmarm by Yvonne Lehman: This was a fun and unique story line. When Christa Walsh steps off the train in the remote Blue Ridge Mountains to find people to make crafts to sell, she finds herself being helped by a gentleman, who she will later learn is the doctor in the town where she will be staying with her uncle. The people believe her to be the new schoolteacher/fiancee of the doctor, who doesn't seem willing to correct the mistake. How this plays out, and how Christa ends up teaching the children was very heartwarming and I liked the whole story plot and ending.

School Bells and Wedding Bells by Colleen Reece: Another good take on the whole one room schoolteacher idea. Meredith Macrae finds herself in a remote Idaho village called "Last Chance". Here she will run into Brit Farley, the rugged head of the school board, and the two will clash at first, but love is in the air in the town of Last Chance.

Enjoyed all the stories and thought this was a very well done novella. Would recommend to anyone who enjoys that time in history when one-room school houses were how the children were taught. ( )

My rating: 4.5

This is the second time that I read a Christian romance book and I am happy with the four novellas included here. This is how I can rank the novellas and why:
1. The Reluctant Schoolmarm
- This is the third novella in the book and I could definitely say that I love this story from start till the end. The unexpected situation that brought Grant and Christa together made it really special. It was like God made a joke in the beginning of their story but it ends happily.

2. Prairie Schoolmarm
- This is the 2nd novella and number 2 also in my rank. The story of Talif and Marin is an inspiration because of how patient and persevering Talif was on helping Marin's dreams come true. All his hard work paid in the end because not only they built the Church/School but they end up together.

3. School Bells and Wedding Bells
- This is the last novella in this book and ranks 3rd on my list. Haughty Meredith Rose aka Mercy was changed when she finally met Brit when she and her twin brother Marcus settled in Last Chance, Idaho. I just find the novella too short and the phasing of the story near the end is fast so their friendship was not able to be shown clearly. I felt that their relationship as acquaintances shifted abruptly to being in love. If the author could have just written more about the story of their friendship, I could have ranked this higher.

4. Dear Teacher
- This is the first novella and sadly to say that this is my least favorite among 4 novellas in the book. I liked the idea of Ernie and Judith's story grew because of Ernie's unsigned letters that his son Andy stealthily put in the mailbox at school. But the ending is meh. Imagine that Judith will gave up her teaching career just to live with Ernie's family, once they married, in the canal. Then it struck me that the setting was on 1890 so perhaps women should sacrificed for their husband/family. But when I read the succeeding novellas after this, the other women from those novellas didn't have to sacrificed their careers as teachers instead they, I reckon, will still be teaching even after they married. So I guess the ending for this is really not that good. ( )

Great book with four short love stories set in the mid west.... True romance. ( )

Prairie Schoolmarm/
Reluctant Schoolmarm/
School Bells and Wedding Bells/ ( )