1. 

   Bonnie McKinzie
   July 26th, 2010 - 08:10

   Marty is a young pioneer woman, recently widowed and pregnant with no place to live and no means to go home. Clark Davis asks her to be his wife of “convenience” since he needs a caretaker for his young daughter, Missie, and Marty needs food and shelter. Not at all interested, but desperately in need, she accepts. This first book explains the first 6-8 months of this strange marriage. Marty is determined to pull her weight and do her time until Spring when Clark has agreed to pay her way home. The book is wholesome, funny, suspense filled and holds the reader’s interest from cover to cover. After watching a recent movie made from this book, I am reading the series for the third time and would still recommend it to others.
   Rating: 5 / 5
2. 

   Anonymous
   July 26th, 2010 - 09:49

   Imagine you1re living in the midst of the 19th century. You1re 19, far from friends and family, and to top it all off, your husband dies and you are two months pregnant with his child………

   Love Comes Softly is an eight book series written by Christian author Jannette Oke. I thought when my mother-in-law tried to get me to read her books, that I was in for another mushy Harlequin Romance novel, filled with people involved with three, four or five men, and definitely no sign of God in their lives. Boy, was I in for a VERY pleasant surprise. Mrs. Oke leads us through the life of a very young Marty Davis, who has just left her family in the east, to travel west with her new husband , Clem. Clem and Marty had been living out of their wagon, eating pancakes and drinking coffee EVERY day, because that1s all that Marty knew how to make. Unexpectedly, though, Clem dies, and Marty is left alone with child and no home, no money, and just what she has in her wagon.

   The Love Comes Softly series then begins to take us through the struggles Marty has to overcome and Mrs. Oke guides us so beautifully, that we feel like we are right there with Marty. The eight books lead us through 40 years in Marty and her family1s lives. I enjoyed every minute of the readings. Never has a book so captured me like Mrs. Oke1s did.

   I try to count my blessings every day, but after reading this group of books, I found more to be thankful for. I never stopped to realize what the generations before us went through. With Marty, I learned what is was like to bear a child with no husband and no doctor around–just a local lady that had delivered many babies. I learned what it was like to leave family behind, knowing that you will probably never see them again–or even hear from them again.

   The funniest part of the series was in the very first book. Marty decides she will try to make her new husband a chicken and dumpling meal. Well……..she goes to the chicken pen to try and catch one. After tearing apart then pen, she finally catches one of only two roosters (she didn1t know she was supposed to only kill the female). Once she gets him, she has no idea as to how to kill him, so she decides to tie him up and kill him–that didn1t work, and she wound up cutting off the beak of the prize rooster. When her husband, Clark comes home, he finds the pen in disarray, and sees his rooster with no beak and he comes to find out that Marty was just trying to cook him his first real meal. This part cracked me up, along with the part where she tries to fix biscuits and they turn out as hard as rocks.

   You have to read the books in order. They just keep continuing with this saga. The best book in the series was book four. I can1t tell you why, for it would give the ending for the rest of the series, but it was the book that kept me the most fascinated. The hardest part about the series was the way she wrote it. She wrote it with the accents as they would have said things. It was hard at first, but I got used to it by the second book.
   I highly recommend her books, and am looking forward to the next series I am about to read. The new series is from the Canadian West. It involves new characters, and therefore new lives.

   I would really appreciate hearing from others who have read her books–especially the Love Comes Softly series. It would be enjoyable to talk with others about Jannette Oke1s books. You can find her work at any Christian bookstore or even the library. They are expensive, between $9-13.00, but they are worth their price. I found twelve of her books at the library, though. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. It is definitely a series I would read again and again, and I look forward to my two daughters growing up and wanting to read them as well. They are written in the same manner as the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. ENJOY!!!!!!
   Rating: 5 / 5
3. 

   Lisa Langerman
   July 26th, 2010 - 10:36

   These books are great! I have read 6 out of this series and hope to start book 7 this weekend. Book 5 had me crying my eyes out when Ellie helped Nandry come to terms with Clarks leg. The way the Davis family looks to God for help in everyday living not just in crisis is very cool. I myself am somewhat like how Marty was when she first met Clark. Just seeing how they grow spiritually through the years and can always see something good no matter what. I wish I was that forgiving and understanding. These books have made me look at my own life and relize I have alot of spiritual growing to do and it also let me go into a world that the values and love of a family can get you through almost anything. I wish our fast paced society would stop and look at simple things as the Davis’s did. I tell everyone I know that reads to pick up this series, it will always be a lifetime favorite of mine. Must have in your collection.
   Rating: 5 / 5
4. 

   Cyndi Stahl
   July 26th, 2010 - 11:33

   I had read all the love come softly books. I first saw the movie from the hallmark channel, and decide to read the book. I really don’t care for reading, but these books were easy to read and enjoyable. I enjoyed it better then the movie. I was worried that it wouldnt be as good, but it was. The movie was good, but the books are better. I was reading the book in less then two days. I would recomend this book to anyone. Its just the start to the rest of there journey.
   Rating: 5 / 5
5. 

   SereneNight
   July 26th, 2010 - 14:09

   I listened to the unabridged audio edition of Love Comes softly available through Audible, Amazon’s digital book partner, and at first I found the narrator’s 5-pack-a-day voice irritating. However, Soon I was so entranced by the story of Marty and Clark and their lives on the prairie that I forgot my initial annoyance with the narrator.

   This is a wonderful book full of great values and with endearing characters. While it *is* an Inspirational book, Oke’s writing lacks the ‘heavy-handed’ preaching of some Christian Inspirational fiction. As someone who reads a wide variety of literature I found “Love Comes Softly” to be quite restful and entertaining without being bombastic in ‘spreading the word.’

   Two things about this book grated. I found it completely unbelievable that as a woman of her era Marty would not know how to bake anything but pancakes… Um… She’d been married how long before she meets Clark? What exactly did this girl expect to cook for her husband when they were married?I *know* there were published cookbooks at the time. Second. I would’ve liked more background on Marty and her family. She doesn’t send any letters, or communicate with them at all. It seemed a bit simplistic. A bit more backstory would’ve added depth to her character.

   Overall, an excellent book, sure to delight those longing for a good read in the vein of Anne of Green Gables or Little House on the Prairie.
   Rating: 5 / 5

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