Sunday, March 29th:

(streaming in primetime): Saturday Night Live UK (Peacock, "Jamie Dornan, Wolf Alice")

(original made-for-TV movies): "Love Comes Softly" (UPtv, Davis family saga, marathon, all day), "Love's Enduring Promise" (UPtv, from 2004, 2hrs, earlier), "Love's Long Journey" (UPtv, from 2005, 2hrs), "Picture Perfect Sister-in-Law" (LIFE, 2hrs+), "Love's Unending Legacy" (UPtv, from 2007, 2hrs, later), "The Ten Commandments" (UPtv, 2006 remake, 4hrs)

(earlier - hour 0): 60 Minutes (CBS), America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC)

(hour 1): Marshals (CBS), Call the Midwife (PBS), Crossroad Springs (GAFam, season 1B finale), Tournament of Champions (FOOD, 2hrs), "The Faithful: Women of the Bible" (FOX, 2hrs)

(hour 2): Tracker (CBS), The Forsytes (PBS), Dark Winds (AMC), American Classic (MGM+), DTF St.Louis (HBO), "Standoff: The FBI, Power, and Paranoia" (CNN, 2hrs), Tournament of Champions (FOOD, contd), "The Faithful: Women of the Bible" (FOX, contd)

(hour 3): Watson (CBS), The Count of Monte Cristo (PBS), Rooster (HBO, 35mins) / . / The Comeback (HBO), Dreaming Whilst Black (SHO, season 2 finale), "Betrayal: Secrets & Lies" (ABC, true-crime docuseries opener), "Standoff: The FBI, Power, and Paranoia" (CNN, docuseries finale)

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.

2006 HC 24

Mystery Woman: At First Sight

Jane Doe: Yes, I Remember It Well

Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door

Mystery Woman: Wild West Murder

The Curse of King Tut's Tomb

In from the Night

Though None Go with Me

Blackbeard

Mystery Woman: Oh Baby

Merlin's Apprentice

Mystery Woman: Redemption

The Christmas Card

What I Did for Love

Love's Abiding Joy

2005 HC 33

Mystery Woman: Mystery Weekend

Jane Doe: Vanishing Act

Mystery Woman: Snapshot

Family Plan

Annie's Point

Jane Doe: Now You See It, Now You Don't

Mystery Woman: Sing Me a Murder

Jane Doe: Til Death Do Us Part

Thicker than Water

Out of the Woods

Ordinary Miracles

Icon

Mystery Woman: Vision of a Murder

Jane Doe: The Wrong Face

Mystery Woman: Game Time

Supernova

Love's Long Journey

Back to You and Me

The Colt

The Reading Room

Mysterious Island