Christmas Hope
inspirational fiction
Series · inspirational fiction
Love Comes Softly
The Love Comes Softly series by Janette Oke has 8 known books (8 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Love Comes Softly (1979).
- Books
- 8 known books (8 novels)
- Published
- 8
- First published
- 1979
- Status
- completed
- Shelved under
- Literary Fiction
- Last checked
Start here: Love Comes Softly (1979) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
Love Comes Softly
Dated 1979, Love Comes Softly is the first entry in Janette Oke's series and launched the modern inspirational prairie-romance genre. It follows young widow Marty Davis, stranded and pregnant on the 1860s American frontier, entering a marriage of convenience with widowed farmer Clark Davis so each can survive a winter neither could face alone. It spans 237 pages.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Love Comes Softly - Book 2:
Love's Enduring Promise
The second book in the Love Comes Softly series, Love's Enduring Promise was dated 1980, continuing Marty and Clark Davis's marriage of convenience as it grows, book by book, into a lifelong love story on the frontier.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Love's Enduring Promise - Book 3:
Love's Long Journey
Love's Long Journey, written by Janette Oke, is number 3 in the Love Comes Softly series, dated 1982 at 240 pages, the last of the three books to follow Marty and Clark most closely before the series' focus widens to their children.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Love's Long Journey - Book 4:
Love's Abiding Joy
Love's Abiding Joy, written by Janette Oke, is the fourth book in the Love Comes Softly series, released in 1983. It runs just 217 pages, the shortest entry in the series, and marks the point where the focus begins shifting from Marty and Clark to their children.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Love's Abiding Joy - Book 5:
Love's Unending Legacy
Released in 1984, Love's Unending Legacy is the fifth book in the Love Comes Softly series at 239 pages, continuing the widening focus onto Marty and Clark Davis's children and grandchildren as the frontier settlement around them grows.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Love's Unending Legacy - Book 6:
Love's Unfolding Dream
Love's Unfolding Dream is the sixth book in the Love Comes Softly series, released in 1987, a 3-year gap after Love's Unending Legacy. Written by Janette Oke, it continues the saga's shift toward the next generation of the Davis family.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Love's Unfolding Dream - Book 7:
Love Takes Wing
Love Takes Wing is number 7 in the Love Comes Softly series, dated 1988 at 232 pages, written by Janette Oke as the series continues following Marty and Clark Davis's children and grandchildren on the frontier.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Love Takes Wing - Book 8:
Love Finds a Home
Released in 1989, Love Finds a Home is number 8 in the Love Comes Softly series and the longest book in the series at 268 pages, closing out Janette Oke's saga of the Davis family that began with Marty and Clark's marriage of convenience.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Love Finds a Home
About the Love Comes Softly series
Love Comes Softly is the series that launched Janette Oke's career and, with it, the modern inspirational prairie-romance genre. It opens with young widow Marty Davis, stranded and pregnant on the 1860s American frontier after her husband dies in a wagon accident, entering a marriage of convenience with widowed farmer Clark Davis so that each can survive a winter neither could face alone. What begins as a practical arrangement becomes, over the following volumes, a lifelong love story, and the series widens outward from Marty and Clark to their children and grandchildren as the settlement around them grows into a true community.
Across its eight books, the series follows three generations of the same family through courtship, marriage, child-rearing, loss, and faith, always against the backdrop of the practical, physically demanding work of homesteading. Oke wrote the books with a gentleness that avoids melodrama even while covering real hardship -- death, hard winters, and the slow work of building trust -- and the series' commercial success (millions of copies sold, and a long-running Hallmark Channel film franchise loosely adapted from it) established the template Oke and many later inspirational novelists would return to.
Frequently asked questions
How many books are in the Love Comes Softly series?
Eight, published between 1979 and 1989.
What order should I read Love Comes Softly in?
Publication order -- the series follows three generations of one family in sequence, and later books assume you know how earlier books ended.
Is the Love Comes Softly TV series the same as the books?
No. The Hallmark Channel film series borrows the premise and character names of the first book but tells largely original stories from there.
If you like the Love Comes Softly series
Reading order last verified .