I'm continuing my way through the Baxter Family series, so naturally, my next books are the Firstborn Series. This series also contains five books, Fame, Forgiven, Found, Family, and Forever.
We learned in the first series that Elizabeth and John had a baby, a son before they were married and were forced to give it up for adoption. Although they rarely discussed the boy, and never once mentioned the child to their five children they raised, Elizabeth and John thought of the boy often. They had once tried to find him but met dead ends. We also know that Elizabeth's dying wish was to find and meet, her firstborn son. Right before Elizabeth passes away, she gets to meet her son, and learns he is none other than the most famous movie star in the country, Dayne Matthews.
Where The Redemption series focused on the Baxter children and their very real-life issues with marriage and life, The Firstborn series focuses on Dayne and his life as one of the most famous people alive. Dayne obviously knows the Baxters are his biological family, but his desire to protect them from the paparazzi keeps him from coming forward as their son. However, John Baxter decides to fulfill his wife's last wishes and hires his own investigator to find his firstborn son.
Soon John learns Dayne's identity and must tell the other five children of their missing brother. Although he keeps Dayne's identity a secret, the children now know all about the secret their parents shared all throughout their marriage. The children all have various reactions and must process this information in their own way.
Another key character in this series is Katy Hart. Katy is the children's theater director in Bloomington, and best friend to Ashley Baxter. Through a series of only-God-can-do-this events, she and Dayne have met, and Dayne has fallen head-over-hills in love. But the obstacles of his status, Hollywood, the tabloids, and distance make it difficult for their relationship to go anywhere.
As this series progresses through the five books, we see God work in relationships in ways only he can. We see love, heartache, tragedy, and hurt. But most of all, we see God at work in the lives of is children. This series seemed to start fairly slow for me. I though the first two books spent more time building characters than necessary, but when the story really started moving it was impossible to put these books down.
By the final book, I was up all night just waiting to see if everyone was going to get the happy ending I hoped for them. When the final book was over, I could look back and say I really enjoyed the series as a whole. I cannot wait to dive into the next series!