A Canadian pioneer herself, Janette Oke portrays life during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries on the Prairies in an incredibly realistic fashion with her debut series. Reading the Love Comes Softly series in order will introduce you to three generations of pioneers as they navigate life on the land and love.
An Evangelical Christian, Oke’s faith plays a large part in her books which she describes as being about lasting values, real life, and honest love. Her faith was paramount when she began writing these historical romances and is what she credits for her success. Keep reading to find out how you should read the Love Comes Softly series in order.
Jump to:
- Love Comes Softly Series in Order
- A Prairie Legacy Series in Order
- Love Comes Softly Movies in Order
- Who is Janette Oke?
- What is the Love Comes Softly Series About?
Love Comes Softly Series in Order
Reading the Love Comes Softly series in order of publication is important. While you could read one of these books out of order and still understand Janette Oke’s uplifting message of faith, hope, and love, you will miss out on much of the nuance.
The books greatly build upon one another as the chronological timeline passes from one generation to the next, so reading the books in publication order will offer you the best reading experience.
- Love Comes Softly (1979)
- Love’s Enduring Promise (1980)
- Love’s Long Journey (1982)
- Love’s Abiding Joy (1983)
- Love’s Unending Legacy (1984)
- Love’s Unfolding Dream (1987)
- Love Takes Wing (1988)
- Love Finds a Home (1989)
A Prairie Legacy Series in Order
Next, Janette Oke did return to the Davis family with this series about their beloved granddaughter Virginia. This series follows its own sequence of events and is often categorized as its own separate series, but the two are inextricably linked. A Prairie Legacy is a follow-up series to Love Comes Softly and the original pioneer couple, Marty and Clark, feature in this series.
A Prairie Legacy follows Virginia as she navigates the difficult time of transition from childhood to adulthood and reconciles with her faith. Again, the publication order is the same as the chronological order and you should read this spin-off of the Love Comes Softly series in order.
- The Tender Years (1997)
- A Searching Heart (1998)
- A Quiet Strength (1999)
- Like Gold Refined (2000)
Love Comes Softly Movies in Order
There are quite a few Love Comes Softly movies. Hallmark adapted the Love Comes Softly world into a long-running TV movie franchise, and the titles are often watched in either release order or story chronology. For most people, release order is the easiest place to start, especially if you want to follow how the series was originally introduced to audiences.
All eight books in the original series have TV movie adaptations, and there are an additional three movies which pull inspiration from the books.
Here are the Love Comes Softly movie adaptations in release order with their original Hallmark Channel air dates:
- Love Comes Softly (April 13, 2003)
- Love’s Enduring Promise (November 20, 2004)
- Love’s Long Journey (December 3, 2005)
- Love’s Abiding Joy (October 6, 2006)
- Love’s Unending Legacy (April 7, 2007)
- Love’s Unfolding Dream (December 15, 2007)
- Love Takes Wing (April 4, 2009)
- Love Finds a Home (April 11, 2009)
- Love Begins (September 17, 2011)
- Love’s Everlasting Courage (October 1, 2011)
- Love’s Christmas Journey (November 5, 2011)
Who is Janette Oke?
The bestselling author of the Love Comes Softly series, Janette Oke has written more than 75 novels during her career as an author, which has spanned more than 40 years.
Oke was born in Champion, Alberta during the Great Depression to Canadian pioneers. Her upbringing in the Canadian Prairies and her faith of Evangelical Christianity forms a large part of her novels.
She always had a large interest in reading and writing, but never had enough time to dedicate to the interest. As a teenager Oke had to drop out of high school and get a job at a local bank after an illness in her family. However, she graduated from Mountain View Bible College in 1957; that same year, she married her husband, Edward Oke.
It was in the summer of 1977 that she began to draft her first novel whenever she had a spare moment. By this point her children were teenagers, so Oke wrote in the morning, during lunch breaks, and in the car. Her intention was to write a clean and entertaining story that embodied her faith through lasting values, real life, and honest love.
The manuscript was first rejected, but after six months of research Oke sent out query letters and received an invitation to submit a manuscript from Bethany Fellowship Inc. Her debut novel, Love Comes Softly, was then published in 1979. The publisher is now known as Bethany House, and Love Comes Softly was the first fictional title they published.
Love Comes Softly has gone on to sell more than one million copies on its own. Collectively, Oke’s books have sold more than 30 million copies.
What is the Love Comes Softly Series About?
Love Comes Softly is a series that follows three generations living in the Prairies during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is Christian fiction within the historical romance genre.
The original intention was for Love Comes Softly to be a standalone, but early demand from readers and the gentle urging of her editor at Bethany House led Oke to write seven more books. Then, even more reader demand led Oke to return to this pioneering family a decade later with a spin-off series: A Prairie Legacy.
The publication order of both series is the same as the chronological order; therefore, reading the Love Comes Softly series in order is recommended. As it spans multiple generations of the same family, this reading order is important to best understand the influences which have shaped the characters. There will also be appearances in later books by characters from the very beginning.
Looking for more books in order?
If you want more authors and reading-order guides like this one, start with my Books in Order index.