Friday, July 27, 2012

Leaving (Bailey Flanigan, #1)Leaving by Karen Kingsbury
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal to read all the Karen Kingsbury books I have accumulated over the years. A huge fan of her writing, especially of her stand alone books, I knew I had to tackle the Baxter series, so I could subsequently get caught up with all the series that spun off that series. So I find myself in The Bailey Flannigan series even though I realize I skipped Unlocked, and The Above the Line Series. And while I still appreciate Kingsbury’s love of family and devotion, I am beginning to feel that her writing is starting to recycle previous story lines. The Bailey-Brandon connection is this book is reminiscent of the Katy-Dayne storyline. The Bailey-Cody back and forth is very similar to the Ashley-Landon storyline. One character perfect, the other feeling unfit of the other’s love.

That being said, I also feel this series would appeal more to teen girls than the adult market. Sure, we are stilling following Ashley and Landon, but since most of the plotting surrounds Bailey, Cody and Brandon, it seems a bit young for me.

Overall, I still appreciate Karen’s writing, but I almost feel as if I have outgrown her stories. The situations that bring drama to her books are always so heart breaking, where as I would rather get my drama from a suspense-thriller-romance book. So, I guess it isn’t so much Karen’s writing that I don’t appreciate, I have just changed the genre I would prefer to read.


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