The “Love Saga” film franchise has been a remarkably successful one for the Hallmark channel. There are a total of 11 movies (so far) in the series, ten of which have been collected in the Love Comes Softly 10th Anniversary Collection.
The ten-DVD set features (in chronological order), Love Comes Softly (2003), Love’s Enduring Promise (2004), Love’s Long Journey (2005), Love’s Abiding Joy (2006), Love’s Unending Legacy (2007), Love’s Unfolding Dream (2007), Love Takes Wing (2009), Love Finds a Home (2009), Love Begins (2011), and Love’s Everlasting Courage (2011). The only one not included is Love’s Christmas Journey (2011). I am a little surprised that they did not include the Christmas movie as well, but they stopped at ten, and devoted a full DVD to each one.
As noted above, Love Comes Softly was the first entry, and it originally aired in 2003. The series is based on the novels of Janette Oke, which are set on the American Frontier of the 19th century. The film stars Katherine Heigl as Marty Claridge, who has moved West with her husband Aaron.
Shortly after they arrive, Aaron is killed in a riding accident, and the pregnant Marty is completely on her own. With no real options, she accepts an offer from a widower by the name of Clark Davis (Dale Midkiff) to stay with him through the winter, and go back East in the spring. The arrangement is to be a platonic marriage, which she accepts. This being a Hallmark Channel movie, it is none too surprising that during the dark winter months, the two fall in love.
Love Comes Softly proved to be so popular that a sequel, Love’s Enduring Promise was ordered for the following year. And so the series continued, all the way up to the Love’s Christmas Journey, which as mentioned, is the only film in the series that is not included in the collection. It is available separately however, for those who must have the complete set.
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