Searching Heart » (Reprint)

Janette Oke (pronounced "oak") pioneered inspirational fiction and is the leading author in the category today. Love Comes Softly, her first novel, has sold over one million copies. Janette is now the bestselling author of over 70 books, 32 of which have been translated into fourteen languages. Her books have sold over 22 million copies.

Janette receives fan mail from all over the world and answers each letter personally. She received the 1992 President's Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association for her significant contribution to Christian fiction, the 1999 CBA Life Impact Award and has been awarded the Gold Medallion Award for fiction.

Janette and her husband, Edward, have four grown children and enjoy their many grandchildren. They make their home in Canada.

The Yearning Deep Inside Her—to Go Somewhere, Discover Something, Be a Part of the World About Her in a New Way—Would Not Go Away. But What Would Satisfy It?

In The Tender Years, Virginia Simpson managed to struggle through adolescence and was looking forward to stepping into adulthood. When her graduation day arrives, she walks to the podium as the class valedictorian to the proud grins of her grandparents, Marty and Clark Davis. College beckoned, and life seemed to be well in hand.

She thought she would feel different. Like an adult, with an inner knowledge that she was on the edge of the nest, ready to try her own wings. And then circumstances began swirling around her, making her rethink her plans and reevaluate her priorities.

If She Only Knew What the Future Held…

VOYA

When readers first met Virginia, protagonist of Oke's Prairie Legacy series, she was fourteen and struggling with peer pressure. It is now four years later, and Virginia is a high school graduate preparing to leave for college. Her sweetheart Jamison is already a quarterback for the college team and Virginia looks forward to her role as his girlfriend. Family obligations, however, intervene. A sickly elder sister who has difficulty recovering from childbirth requires that Virginia postpone her plans. After initial resistance, Virginia embraces small town life-her new nephew, her job in the post office, the comfort of her church. When Jamison's faith is challenged and he breaks up with her, Virginia is brokenhearted but able to cope due to her strong faith and family ties. She continues to try to find her place in the universe while helping her family and neighbors. As with the first in the series, The Tender Years (Bethany, 1997/VOYA February 1998), the elements for a "wholesome" read are here: strong family values, the natural integration of Christianity into the story line, and a plot that is easy to follow. The content is dialogue driven, with minimal action. There are loose ends (a possible suitor for Virginia, an obviously ill-fated marriage for Jenny, the wayward best friend, and so on), indicating that there will be a third entry in the series. The setting continues to be nebulous-there really is no sense of time or place other than references to small towns and trains as the basic mode of transportation. A few more details putting the setting into a historical context would be helpful. VOYA Codes: 3Q 3P M J S (Readable without serious defects, Will appeal with pushing, Middle School-defined as grades 6 to 8, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9 and Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).