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Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | FICTION OKE | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Kyle grows into a sweet but headstrong young woman, somewhat uncomfortable in the "high society" trappings of her family's estate. But when the secret of her adoption is accidentally divulged, Kyle sets out to discover who she is, finding heartbreak and romance, despair and faith along the way. Are her birth parents, even a brother or a sister, somewhere waiting for her?
Copyright (c) Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.Author Notes
Janette Oke (pronounced "oak") was born in Champion, Alberta, Canada, during the depression years. She graduated from Mountain View Bible College in Didsbury, Alberta where she met her husband, Edward. She and Edward married in 1957 and went on to serve churches in Calgary and Edmonton, Canada, and Indiana.
Oke published her first book, Love Comes Softly, in 1979. The book experienced immediate success because works of fiction were a virtually unknown genre in the Christian publishing industry. Oke has gone on to publish some 36 romance novels, earning her the 1992 President's Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. She is the author of the "Love Comes Softly" and the "Prairie Legacy" series of books.
Oke enjoys a large reading audience primarily comprised of teenagers, homemakers and working women. She recently started writing for young children.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Booklist Review
The prayer journal of Zoe Lang, which was the least successful element of Bush's harrowing novel of domestic abuse, Wings of a Dove [BKL Je 1 & 15 96], pops up again in Evidence of Things Unseen. In the first novel, Zoe's daughter was the central character; here, it's her daughter-in-law, Andrea Lang, married to Zoe's son, Peter. The prayer journal intrudes upon Bush's otherwise suspenseful narrative of a busy, highly successful public relations expert whose young daughter, Joy, is kidnapped. At first, Andrea's grief draws her closer to God, but as time wears on without good news, she dabbles in the occult, hoping witchcraft will locate Joy when conventional means cannot. Eventually, she recovers her faith and daughter, too. Bush writes powerfully, in large part because she can portray white witches, detectives, and nasty media people evenhandedly, and she has a knack for suspense. But Zoe should go. More nasty media folk people former TV reporter Culea's Light the Night, a first novel featuring Los Angeles anchorman Paul Thomas. Paul is a sort of wild man, who, sickened by drive-by shootings and the like, calls for a citizen campaign to "light the night." Ordinary people turn on their porch lights and begin talking to one another, as well as patrolling the streets, and, sure enough, violent crime drops. Thomas is an interesting character and would have been more so had Culea taken him further on his ego trip and provided him with a better foil than his boob of a boss. Instead, Culea has written a novel marooned between character study and propaganda, portraying quite an interesting relationship between Thomas and his wife, for instance, while at the same time singing the praises of militia groups. For those who didn't get enough in Return to Harmony [BKL S 1 96], Oke and Bunn string together still more cliches in Another Homecoming, about a girl, Kyle, given up for adoption when her mother learns that her husband has died in North Africa during World War II. Kyle's a poor little rich girl forsworn to a nasty rich boy by her wicked stepmother; meanwhile, her angelic brother grows up unappreciated by Kyle's real mother and father (he didn't die, after all). Both Oke and Bunn do better work on their own. Veteran Christian YA writer Roper begins her Amhearst mystery series with Caught in the Middle, about a lonely reporter, Merrileigh Kramer, who takes a job with the paper in Amhearst to escape a bad relationship. She's caught up in a murder investigation, and the story she hopes will make her career, when a body turns up in the trunk of her car. Then romance beckons when her investigation widens to include a local artist. Predictable, very domestic, and yet likable because Merrileigh is so self-effacing and droll. Should be a hit. Schaap's Secrets of Barneveld Calvary and first-novelist Trobaugh's Praise Jerusalem! are both literary efforts first of all, with realistic, subtle characterizations and no sermonizing whatever. In a series of polished, linked short stories not unlike those in Winesburg, Ohio, Schaap uses a small-town pastor's recollections of the informal testimony of his congregation to frame various characters, each of whom undergoes a moral crisis. Trobaugh brings to mind the stubborn characters of Light in August in her portraits of an impoverished old woman forced to sell her house and take refuge on a rundown farm near the town of Jerusalem, Georgia, and the illiterate hairdresser whom God has sent both to help and annoy her. Both writers have won grants and prizes in their respective home states of Iowa and Georgia, and both, in different modes, are fine stylists. Schaap is extremely serious; Trobaugh, like Eudora Welty, is quite funny. Modest work, perhaps, but universally appealing and uplifting. Finally, Charles Colson's longtime collaborator Vaughn goes solo with a polished mystery set in Washington, D.C., The Strand. A repressed and protected suburban woman, Anne Lorelli, is suddenly confronted with W
Library Journal Review
Christian fiction powerhouses Oke and Bunn team up again (after Return to Harmony, Bethany, 1996) with a story of wartime romance and its tragic consequences. Martha and Harry Grimes were married for only nine weeks when he was sent overseas during World War II. When Harry is declared "missing and presumed dead," 18-year-old Martha panics at the thought of raising their expected child alone. When the baby girl is born, Martha gives it up for adoption. When Harry is found to be alive, though gravely wounded, it is too late for Martha to get their baby back. Returning home from war, Harry is bitter over his wounds and refuses to forgive Martha for her action. Though they have other children, the couple is never truly happy; their children grow up incomplete and eventually become Christians, which allows them to bring Harry and Martha back together. This is a truly unique and touching view of the effects of Christian belief on ordinary lives. It is beautifully written and should satisfy the authors' many fans. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
