Love's Enduring Promise

Love's Enduring Promise (#2 Love Comes Softly series) by Janette Oke


This is the sequel to Love Comes Softly. Marty and Clark are settled in their marriage and in their small frontier community. Their children are thriving and the settlement has decided to build a school and find a teacher. The family continues to grow. This includes Marty taking in two neighbor girls after their mother dies and their father feels that they will slow him as he continues with his life.
The school is completed, a teacher procured and a parson found. Land is cleared for a new cemetery. Marty's children grow quickly. Marty tries to help Tommy the neighbor boy after he falls in love with an Indian squaw. Marty's older girls marry. Marty and Clark build a new house.

The tale is sweet and gentle. I wish that Tommy and his love ended up together, it would have made for a better story with more depth. The fact that he ran off and found a white girl was a let down. I had a hard time telling how much time had passed at the beginning of the chapters. Sometimes it was days, or months, or years. By the end of the book time began flying and Marty's daughter Missy had grown up and moved away. There were endearing parts that brought a tear to the eye. I wasn't wildly entertained.
Rating 3 But this is a low 3. It was clean and sweet but not spectacular. It didn't have anything I hated about it so I hesitate to rate it lower.
Rating G

Love Comes Softly

Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke


I am learning that this author and these books are quite popular and from the picture I assume they are also movies. This series was recommended to me and so I thought I would give it a whirl.

Marty (Martha) is a young bride, in love with her husband Clem and pregnant with his child. They have moved west to settle and make their way. They have no land or home, just a wagon. Clem is killed in an accident with his horse, leaving Marty alone on the frontier. As the neighboring homesteaders come to help bury her husband, Marty sits in shock.

Clark, one of her new neighbors, bashfully and with great price, asks Marty if she will marry him. He knows she is all alone and he cannot offer her shelter if they are not married. Clark as a one year old daughter that he needs a mother for. If Marty agrees they will be married by the visiting preacher before he leaves the settlement. She will be the mother to Missy. Clark will move from the house into a lean-to. He will let Marty leave in the spring and take Missy when the time comes, if she decides not to stay.

Marty of course struggles with the loss of Clem and becoming an instant mother and wife to a stranger. Clark is a good and kind man that is supportive and positive. He is soft spoken and gentle with Marty as she learns about running a home and farm. He teaches her about God, whom she comes to love.

Marty meets the neighbors and learns to love and rely on them. Clark finally realizes that Marty is pregnant with Clem's baby and makes arrangements for her to be cared for when her time comes. Clark takes the baby as his own just as Marty did for Missy. Clark and Marty become increasingly comfortable with each other as they struggle on the western front. They make it through the destruction of their barn and much of their grain. They see through the death of a dear neighbor. Clark and Marty plant a garden and care for their children, adding more rooms onto their home. Finally when their new son nearly dies by accident, the two realize that love has finally come to them.

Sweet story. I can see why they are popular. I sometimes felt like Marty didn't give Clark a chance and thought poorly of him when he was trying to be supportive of their predicament. My biggest complaint is the speech. I'm not saying Oke made a mistake in the way she chose to have her characters talk, but it was very distracting for me to read.

Would be very interested to see the movie version.

Rating 3.5 Sweet
Rating G Great clean read