Showing results by author "Janette Oke" in All Categories

Ariana loves her life as a schoolteacher in a little frontier town. But one evening after classes are done and she prepares to hurry home, her life changes in an instant when a band of rough outlaws abduct her and take her far away from all she has ever known. Trapped in a small shack, Ariana prays and waits, her emotions swinging between terror and boredom as days stretch into weeks. Still, the outlaws refuse to tell her why they've taken her or what they plan to do. Then the boss' son appears in the doorway of her cabin.

Running Fawn loves the rugged mountains and lush green forests of the Northwest where her Blackfoot tribe lives. She dreams that someday she will share a teepee with the chief’s handsome son, Silver Fox. But pale-faced people are moving into the surrounding prairies, bringing strange ideas, and depleting the life-sustaining buffalo. When Silver Fox learns to farm like the white men, and embraces their beliefs, Running Fawn suddenly finds herself alone - clinging to the traditions of her people.

After years of schooling, Beth Thatcher has graduated and is determined to become a teacher. But when she's assigned the position no one else wants - in the tiny mining town of Coal Valley, located in the rugged foothills of western Canada - she worries she doesn't have the courage to accept. Inspired by the diary of her aunt Elizabeth, who went west to teach school several years earlier, as well as her father's encouragement, Beth eventually decides to put her trust in God and leave behind all she's ever known.

Elizabeth Thatcher is young, pretty, cultured, and educated. But when she journeys west to teach school in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, she's completely unprepared for the conditions she encounters. Still, she's determined to succeed at the formidable task of fitting in with the locals and shaping the hearts and minds of the schoolchildren in her care. 

Twenty years have passed since youngest daughter Belinda's story in Love Finds a Home. Marty and Clark's spiritual heritage has been lovingly passed on to their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And now, beloved granddaughter Virginia faces the test of her young life. Caught in that difficult period between childhood and adulthood, feeling that she really doesn't fit anywhere, Virginia struggles against what she considers to be unreasonable restrictions and expectations.

Elizabeth, the cultured young schoolteacher from the East, has braved the Western frontier and spent a year teaching in a one-room schoolhouse. Now, she and Wynn are planning their wedding and their new life together at his outpost in the far North. While Wynn is accustomed to life in the North, Elizabeth is not. Can their love for each other sustain them through a harsh winter, loneliness, and rigors of life without any of the conveniences they're used to?

Having survived the harshness of their first year in the far Northwest, Elizabeth and Wynn, her Royal Canadian Mountie, now face new challenges. Just when they've made new friends and started a new school, they are presented with a new posting. It seems Elizabeth's dreams for a family and home of her own are not to be. Will their love for each other, hope for the future, and their faith in God carry them through the crushing disappointments?

Happily married with four children, Virginia Lewis is perfectly content with her peaceful existence on the family farm. But change looms on the horizon. Grandma Marty and Grandpa Clark have always been a source of emotional strength, but their health is failing. And Virginia's adopted daughter, who has long been a blessing, may be torn from the family when her absentee birth mother resurfaces and pursues custody. Virginia may fear the unknown, but her unshakable convictions will help her embrace it.

Through the years, Virginia Simpson had learned that Grandma Marty's wisdom was right. When God allows something to be taken from you, He replaces it with something better. The long-awaited return of Jonathan and their renewed courtship, with a wedding soon to follow, are proof of God's loving ways. But the inner strength that God has been forming in Virginia's life through trials and disappointments is far from complete.

As a young girl, Lillian Walsh lost both her parents and a younger sister. Now in her 20s, after enduring the death of her adoptive mother, Lillian must find her place in the world. Just as her adoptive father is leaving for an extended trip to his native Wales, a lawyer appears at the door to inform Lillian that she has inherited a small estate from her birth parents - and that the sister she had long believed dead is likely alive. 

In the 18th century, the residents of Acadia live in a fragile truce. The settlers of this rough Canadian island are either French or British, and the two nationalities do not mix, no matter how close their villages are. One day in a meadow, two women begin a friendship.

Beth Thatcher returns home from her first year as a schoolteacher in the mining town of Coal Valley and steps into a whole different world. Her life back among her wealthy Eastern family is a stark contrast to her primitive life in the West, and Beth isn't sure where she belongs anymore. She barely has time to settle in before her mother announces plans for a family holiday - a luxurious steamship tour along the eastern coast of Canada and the U.S.

In first-century Judea, the followers of the Way have burgeoned into a vibrant, growing community that cannot be ignored. Jerusalem is in turmoil as its religious leaders on one side, and its Roman rulers on the other, conspire to stamp out the fledgling Church. And Abigail, who thought she had finally found home and safety, is caught between the opposing forces. Two suitors desire the lovely Abigail's hand in marriage.

When her husband dies, leaving Sarah Perry and her infant daughter destitute and alone in the rough frontier town, the determined widow takes over his freight-hauling business. As her baby grows into a young girl, Sarah sends her to the safety and refinement of a boarding school. But when they are reunited, Sarah realizes that they now live in two different, incompatible worlds. Too Long a Stranger follows this courageous widow as she tries to regain a loving relationship with her estranged daughter.

Leaving behind their dear friends in Beaver Creek, Elizabeth and Wynn take over an even more primitive RCMP outpost in the Canadian Northwest. Elizabeth finds herself totally isolated when the local Indian women are afraid to even communicate with her. The Delaney's thought they had already faced the most crushing disappointment of their lives when they saw little Sammy disappear from view in the arms of his father. Would they be able to survive the challenges ahead? Book four of the best-selling Canadian West series.

Christine and her older brother, Henry, grew up in the Delaney family as loved and nurtured as if they had been born to Elizabeth and Wynn. Now adults, they are ready to make new lives for themselves. Henry has found love and is planning a wedding. Christine is delighted for her brother, but she is still carrying scars from a broken relationship. And the war in Europe causes uncertainties at every turn, while the Northland still calls to her heart.

Caught up in the maelstrom following the death of an obscure rabbi in the Roman backwater of first-century Palestine, Leah finds herself also engulfed in her own turmoil - facing the prospect of an arranged marriage to a Roman soldier, Alban, who seems to care for nothing but his own ambitions. Head of the garrison near Galilee, he has been assigned by Palestine's governor to ferret out the truth behind the rumors of a political execution gone awry.

Three-time Christy Award winner Davis Bunn collaborates with Janette Oke to evoke the tumult of first-century Judea in the wake of Christ’s crucifixion. Although she prefers service in Pontius Pilate’s palace to a loveless marriage, Leah is betrothed to a Roman centurion. Before he can have Leah, however, he must go on a secret mission. But when a rabbi’s missing body sends Leah and Alban after the same answers, what they discover could change all they hold dear.

Three-time Christy Award winner Davis Bunn collaborates with the beloved Janette Oke to evoke the spirit of the original followers of the Way. In a first century Jerusalem seething with turmoil, religious and political leaders eye the burgeoning Christian community with suspicion. While a Hebrew merchant and a Roman soldier vie for the hand of a lovely follower of Christ, she finds her heart drawn to another whose tireless care and unflinching faith shine daily.

As a youth, Henry had been rescued from terrible circumstances by the Delaneys, whose loving care helped to heal his painful memories. Now, as a young man of character and deep faith working as a representative of the law, his duties include some that leave him with haunting memories, particularly of the young widow and baby boy whom he longs to help.