Love Comes Softly
By Janette Oake
5 million stars
Have you ever gone back to read one of your most formative books - books from when you were 9-10, books you RE-read until you could quote them out loud? Periodically I’ve been doing that over the past 5 years - Lloyd Alexander’s series, Robin McKinley’s ya books, Mara, and all of them were amazing to reread - absolutely magical.
Some of my rereads continued into my 20s, like the Tolkien books and the classics (Austen and Brontë- both)… but for some reason, I stopped rereading Janette Oake. Ok, maybe it was because I had gotten rid of the series that I had painstakingly bought with my money (or my parents’ money) over the years - don’t ask me why, big mistake. BUT! This book!
I remember a huge wooden built in shelf in the fellowship area outside the sanctuary over by the coffee at church. Must have been 9 or 10 at the time, had read all of the little house books… and the cover reminded me of it, so I borrowed it. That book, that was my first real romance - and it’s heartache and tenderness and faith was everything to me. As I was rereading it this month after over 25 years of forgetting it? Passages felt like revisiting core memories of myself, words that are embedded deeply in my soul, feelings coming out as tears remembering these characters as real to me when I was a child. I loved Clark - he was Pa from little house, but a hot man of faith. And Marty meant the world to me, struggling through so much and coming to faith and love despite it all. Seeing her with adult eyes, I still found so much in her to love.
This book, more than anything, set me up. Marriage of convenience- I had no idea that was where this trope fixation came from! Slow burn, emotional, inspirational, all of these deeply impacted me. Strong female friendships, children in romance, I love them.
I don’t think people really understand the power of this simple book. Yes, there is a sense of judgementalism, continuing on with the western mythology, and sweeping ugliness under the rug. But, one simple woman learning to trust and love - Marty and Clark forever 💜
