Janette Oke - Love Comes Softly

Clark an' Marty. Ben an' Ma Graham. Missie an' Clare an' Arnie an' Nandry an' Clae an' Ellie an' Luke an' Belinda.

These are all characters that seem like old friends to me. They all are found in Janette Oke's Love Comes Softly series, which I have read so many times over the years the Davis family feels like my own.

Clark and Marty Davis, both widowed, are a couple who join together in a marriage of convenience, to provide a Mama for Clark's young daughter Missie and provide a home for Marty. Marty is just a few weeks pregnant with baby Clare when they marry, and has to fight feelings of resentment that another man will be raising her deceased husband's child. It's interesting to watch Marty's journey towards acceptance and maturity as she learns more and more about love and forgiveness through a growing understanding and belief in Clark's God.

Clark and Marty slowly begin to fall in love as they live and work together side by side in the first book in the series, titled Love Comes Softly. By the second book, Love's Enduring Promise, their family, as well as their love for each other, has grown immensely. The third and fourth books, Love's Long Journey and Love's Abiding Joy focus more on an adult Missie, her husband Willie, and eventually their children Nathan, Josiah, and Melissa.

The second set of books in the series - Love's Unending Legacy, Love's Unfolding Dream, Love Takes Wing, and Love Finds a Home deal with Clark and Marty's "surprise baby" Belinda, born after the other children are grown. Marty is shocked, fearful, and embarrassed when she first realizes she, a grandmother many times over, is expecting another baby of her own. However, Belinda is every bit as sweet and caring as the other children and her life is an inspiration to all who know her.

This beautiful series, set in "pioneer America" is sweet, romantic, and inspirational. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good love story and/or inspirational fiction.