From the moment I became a fan of Christian Fiction I have been hearing about Karen Kingsbury and the Baxter Family. I have heard fans rave about these characters and I've heard fans tell of the way this family changed their lives. I just knew I had to jump in.
One of my reading goals for 2017 is to get through the entire Baxter Family series. This family is actually spread out across five series and three books from Kingsbury, so I am going to review each individual series as I conquer it. I started at the very beginning - THE REDEMPTION SERIES.
In THE REDEMPTION SERIES, we meet the Baxters - John & Elizabeth, Erin, Brooke, Kari, Ashley, and Luke. Although the books are laid out so that each kid is the focus of each book, the entire family is intertwined into these stories in a way I have never experienced with a book series. And this family, they have their issues. But they also have a solid foundation in their faith in God, and John & Elizabeth do an amazing job of continuing to guide their adult children in their faith while also allowing them to be the individuals they have grown to be.
In this series we follow the family through an affair, murder, September 11, unexpected pregnancies, health scares, tragedy, broken hearts, and death. We watch this family pull away from each other, and we watch them come back together to give the kind of support you can only receive from your family. I fell head-over-heels in love with each member of the Baxter Family and found myself wide awake at night wondering how they were doing!
But this series does so much more than simply provide reading entertainment. From this series, I learned better strategies for working through life in my marriage, interacting with my children, being a friend to those in need, and growing my faith in God. While these books are full of fictional characters and their fictional issues, they are also some of the most amazing self-help books I've ever had in my hands.
I cried through most of this series - both sad and happy tears. When Elizabeth writes a poem to one of her children on their wedding day, I cried so hard it took me 20 minutes to read the poem! It is gut wrenching and will make you a better parent.
So overall - YES! If you have never heard of the Baxter Family, if you read it a long time ago, or if you have ever just considered it - find a copy of this series and get to it. I can tell this journey is going to be amazing.