The Tender Years (A Prairie Legacy, Book 1)

This is a really good book, I got the whole series from the library and I have the first one on my kindle, I have read the whole series and I like it,…but this first book can be a bit annoying at times. Virginia is a very good Christian girl, and she shows her religious faith and strength through the various trials in her life. Although, sometimes Virginia can be a little annoying or inconsiderate. When her friend Jenny comes over for her hand treatments (Jenny’s mom died, she has no siblings and her father drinks and drunk a lot of the time) she is saying how she wishes she had a big, busy family. Virginia tells her how “lucky” she is for not having a large family and chores, then suddenly stops, thinking “maybe that was inconsiderate” and I’m like “y’think?” She is also really selfish and bratty when Jenny is going to tag along to her grandparents house and starts crying super hard because Jenny is coming. I understand that Virginia just felt that Jenny was taking her place but Jenny was a really lonely girl and wanted to go. Overall, though, this was a good book. I am Catholic, so I like how they go to church and youth group and Sunday School. The only reason I say 4 stars for this is because at times Virginia annoyed me, but through the book she does make the right decision. When Jenny steals candy Virginia tells her this was wrong and refuses to help “borrow” (steal then put back before adults notice) a raft to go rowing. Virginia walked away and did not do it, which was the right thing to do, she told them all they were wrong. She prays a lot and tries to be good. I think Virginia is a really good person, she just sometimes is inconsiderate. However, I lived this series. I think my favorite was “a quiet strength”. I suggest reading the whole series, because as Virginia gets older her story gets more and more interesting. Great read!

Let me start off by admitting that I don't read Janette Oke very often. My exposure has been reading Love Comes Softly, When Calls the Heart (many, MANY years ago), and watching some of the Love Comes Softly series movies on Hallmark channel. After saying that, I have to admit the prologue of this book had me feeling a bit overwhelmed.I have no idea how many characters from how many series were talked about, but I felt like my head was going to explode halfway through the prologue. Eventually, I got to the information I needed: Virginia is Marty and Clark's granddaughter.She's 13 and dealing with all the trouble that brings. She wants to be friends with Jenny, but Jenny is a troublemaker and Virginia feels like she's more along for the ride than getting to be a real friend. Jenny's had it rough, but she's pretty harsh on Virginia. Her parent's solution? Invite the girl over and pray for her.When an accident occurs, it splits the two girls apart. Jenny's been injured and rumors are spreading around town about what really happened down at the river. Virginia's mother continues to reach out to Jenny, while Virginia starts to feel jealous of the attention the girl gets.This was a decent book, but I couldn't help but wish poor Virginia would get a little more help from her folks. They're more than willing to look for why others act the way they do (Jenny, the Crells) but when Virginia has issues, they just punish her without getting to the root of the problem.This covers about two years of Virginia's life. Virginia then gets some time to grow up before her story continues in A Searching Heart, A Quiet Strength and then the series finishes out with Like Gold Refined. This is Oke's style, developing characters over multiple books. It wasn't bad, just not my style.

After loving the Love Comes Softly movie series, I was delighted to be offered to read one of Ms Oke's books, The Tender Years, to see if her writing was truly translated in the movie series. Ms Oke's writing does not disappoint. Reading the story of Virginia during her growing teen years, brought back the emotions a young girl struggles through in being accepted and going into young adulthood, finding their way. Ms Oke's style provokes relating emotions with the character and satisfaction with the loving guidance of faith loving parents and family to help one along the way. The story is refreshing, leaving one content and encouraged, with doing the right thing, rewarding and content with following ones faith.Ms Oke's books would be ones that anyone would want to hand down through the generations.

I truly enjoyed the story, though I didn't understand the prologue very well and thought it wasn't truly needed. But, other than that, the story flowed well. The characters were very well developed and interesting. The story was relevant even today. It tells about the struggle for kids to fit in and find there place as they are growing up. It shows how hard it is for Christians for find others Christians to interact and be friends with. The only problem I had was it needed a bit of tweaking in the punctuation. Another thing, and I think that has to be with being converted to ebook, was that a ? popped up in inappropriate places throughout the book. Mostly in the middle of words but sometimes at the end and it confused me to why the sentence ended there and in a question form. I would go back and re-read it and realize it was another mistake.

I loved this book!! Couldn't put it down! I love these books set in history. I love to read the details of how people lived and survived. This author does an excellent job of transporting you right into the lives of the characters. I depend greatly on reviews that are posted on Amazon. Even when I am left purchasing an item elsewhere, I read what the reviewers here have to say. I want to assist others by providing reviews that give detailed personal experience about the products that I buy on Amazon. I received no compensation for my review and state my honest and unbiased opinion of the product. My words and the rating I provide are mine and are based on my own personal experience with this book.

Really enjoy Janette Oke books. Like all of her books this was a good read. Looking forward to the next one in the series.

Rett is the main character in this story, along with Jenny. One is accused of theft, the other is an angry girl. And so, the story continues for the folks we all met in the Love books.

I found this book very difficult to get into. I read to the end because I don't like to leave a book unfinished but just could not get into the storyline. The editing in the kindle version is also poor with many words split by random question marks in the wrong place. Disappointing.

Great little story

Very enjoyable to read