Leaving by Karen Kingsbury

Synopsis from Amazon.comThe Bailey Flanigan series begins with Bailey leaving Bloomington for the adventure of a lifetime. She has won an audition for the ensemble of a Broadway musical in New York City. She's determined to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but is she really ready to leave family and friends for the loneliness of the city? And what of Cody? His disappearance has her worried about their future and praying that their love can survive. In order to be closer to his mother in jail, Cody takes a coaching job in a small community outside Indianapolis. New friends, distance, and circumstances expose cracks in his relationship with Bailey Flanigan.


My review:
This book traces the lives of Bailey and Cody both trying to establish careers and lives for themselves. Whilst it is not all bad, there were a few things that did irritate me a bit and impacted on my enjoyment.
1. This is my first Karen Kingsbury book and it states that it is Book 1 in the Bailey Flannagan series. However, there is obviously a lot that has happened in the past to these characters in another series. It was quite hard to work out what was going on at times, which made it difficult to understand. I feel that it should be linked to another series, or some sort of recommendation made that you read those books first, rather than having it stand alone.

2. The characters are just too perfect. There lives are perfect, they always do the right thing, everything seems easy for them. It seems to almost come across that if you are a CHristian your life will work out perfectly and you will be perfect. This made it hard for me to identify with any of the characters. I didn't feel that the characters or the plot were developed enough during the book.
3. Lastly, I felt that there were a bit too many bible references etc. I am a Christian, although I dont really read much Christian fiction. What I have read in the past I have enjoyed. But this just seemed to go over the top which made it seem more like a sermon or devotional book, than a fictional story.

Although I have been fairly negative up to now, it is not all bad. The basics of the story are good, I enjoyed the plot. It is a very sweet story, very easy to read and it is certainly refreshing to have no sex or violence in the beook, just normal people enjoying a normal life. I also feel that if I knew a bit more of the background, I would probably have enjoyed it a bit more. I own the second book in the series and will definitely read it to see how things progress.

Rating: I gave it 2 out of 5 on Goodreads.