April 3, 2011

Karen Kingsbury and Leaving

I'll just start off by saying Karen Kingsbury is one of my favorite authors. I tend to get bogged down and annoyed by a number of Christian fiction authors who give the "having faith means nothing bad will ever happen" outlook in their books. I've read my fair share of Karen Kingsbury's books and I have yet to read a book where there wasn't someone who made a mistake or wrong decision even when they knew better.

That's why I love her books. They show weakness and vulnerability. Sure some of the characters live a little more glamorous lifestyle (movie stars, famous painters, etc.) than most people but she turns even those characters into people I can relate to. I think of the Baxter family and company as my own personal friends that I get to hear an update about once every couple of months. I keep hoping she'll turn it into a TV series someday because I'd love to see what these people really look like. Maybe a mini-series.

The newest book of hers, Leaving, just came out at the end of March. I pre-ordered the book and read it the night I got it. Leaving is the first book of a four part Bailey Flanigan series, but that series comes at the end of 16 other books (Baxter Family Series) that lead up to where Leaving begins. If you haven't read any of her other books, I wouldn't start with Leaving. I would start at the very beginning with Redemption and prepare for a month full of laughter and tears as you journey through what I tend to think of as my book equivalent to the show Friends - quick books that get you so involved in the characters you never want them to end.

If you have read her other books, Leaving begins where Take Four left off. Bailey Flanigan is still in college, still wondering if she'll ever hear from Cody again, and still making decisions based on her faith that God is watching out for her. In Leaving she finally gets the chance of a lifetime but it means that she'll also have to leave her family and Bloomington for a while and Cody maybe forever.  It definitely left me excited to read the next book in the series, Learning, which comes out in June. 5 stars.

You can check out my other reviews of Karen Kingsbury's novels here.



1 comment:

  1. I love to switch up my reading by adding in a bit of religious fiction. I am a huge fan of the Amish series as well by Beverly Lewis. I like the difference among these and fiction. Just something soft and pleasing about them.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for joining our discussion of this book!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...