Christian

57450

******SPOILERS*******

First and foremost, I have to say that I absolutely adore Karen Kingsbury and I have been reading her books for years. As I'm getting ready to start a family, and as I myself am an aspiring Christian writer, Karen has shown me through her writing the standards that I desire to raise my family in. She is incredibly inspiring and I truly look up to her as a Christian woman, writer, wife, and parent.

I, like many others, have grown with the Baxters and Flanigans since the beginning. And I, like many others, went through the series hoping for a happily ever after for Bailey and Cody. When I went to purchase this book for my kindle, I was still believing that there was going to be some miracle of a turnaround for Bailey and Cody and everything was going to be "okay." But as I got to the Amazon page and saw that there were over 100 people that rated this book as 1 star, my heart sank. No. It couldn't be. Bailey and Cody HAD to find a way! ...right????

I began to scroll down and read the reviews. This wasn't going to end the way I had hope it would all these years. I actually debated whether or not I should even purchase it because I was so upset about it. But, I couldn't do that to Karen. She had her reasons, and I was going to show my support either way.

Normally, I read through a Karen Kingsbury book in a day. A day and a half at most. Knowing how this was going to end, it seriously took me over a month to get through this book. I would lay my kindle down on my lap, look at my husband in desperation and say, "this isn't how it's supposed to be! I just don't know if I can finish it!" Yes, I am one of those that feel like these are real people.

I'm glad that I knew the ending beforehand, because although it took time, eventually I started becoming more accepting of the fact that Bailey was going to choose Brandon. And because Karen decided to minimize the character of Cody and maximize the character of Brandon, it became more bearable.

The thing is, with everything Cody had gone through between almost losing his life overseas, losing Cheyenne, and even losing Bailey for a while...you would think he would've had some epiphany that life was too short, keep those you love close....fight for them and never let go, especially Bailey. He wouldn't just shrug his shoulders and move on with his life...that's not the Cody Coleman we all knew! Andi was a bit random, but even making her and Brandon a couple would've made more sense.

I'm still really torn about this series...by the end of it I was able to like the character of Brandon a lot more, but if I didn't know she was going to pick him the whole time, I probably would've been a lot more devastated.

I give three stars because I still think that Karen wrote within the same context we all love her for: Faith, Family, and Love. However, I think the storyline throughout the Bailey Flanigan series started off strong, but slowly became weaker as Karen was trying to decide which direction to take Bailey. I feel like it became too much like a repeat of Katy and Dayne's story. Although it worked for them...and although I know you don't always end up with your first love, I think Bailey Flanigan and Cody Coleman could have easily had a successful "first love" story that could've been one of the sweetest of them all. ( )

Bailey Flanigan is making dicisions that will lead to a wedding not one saw coming. New career and new husband are the future plans. Did she make the right choices?

The final installment in the Bailey Flanagan series, with an ending that meets everyone's expectations. For some reason this particular book seemed a little bit "preachy" to me compared to Karen Kingsbury's other books - but I enjoyed it immensely and look forward to buying a copy for my daughter. ( )