Sunset (Sunrise Series-Baxter 3, Book 4)

Wow! That is the first word that comes to mind after reading this fourth and final book in the Sunrise Series by Karen Kingsbury. Karen Kingsbury writes so that you feel like you are a part of each and every book! I felt like I was a Baxter or a very close friend of the family anyway. This series, as well as every book that Karen Kingsbury has written, is a must read! I have yet to read just an "okay" book written by this author. I highly recommended this author and this book.

I absolutely love this series. It is just a compelling storyline about a family who has all kinds of things happen to it and the only way they all get through it is with God's help. I cried while reading everyone of the books in this series. I recommend though that you start at the beginning of the series. This is actually the third series about this family.

Sunset is the fourth book in the Sunrise Series and the last of 14 books about the Baxter family. I immensely enjoyed the first 13 books and had looked forward to this final book with much anticipation and even a little sadness. After finishing it, however, I only felt disappointment.

Knowing that this was to be the "end" of the Baxter story, Kingsbury tries to wrap up ALL of the loose ends from the previous books...many of which did not need wrapping up. Happy endings are enjoyable, but when every single ending is picture perfect, the story loses a lot of the realism that makes the rest of the series so easy to relate to. There was less depth in this book, and too many easy answers.

Finally, the thing that bothered me most in this book was the way that Angela Manning (from the very first Baxter book, Redemption) is reintroduced. How would she not have recognized Kari?!? They spoke face-to-face in Redemption! And under the circumstances, neither would ever forget the other. The fact that the author forgot -- as well as her editors and the many other people who read her books before they go to print -- is hard to comprehend. That entire storyline felt forced and untrue.

The series is an excellent one, and Kingsbury is one of my favorite authors, but Sunset left much to be desired.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful as always when Karen Kingsbury writes a book. I love the inspriational writings and I have enjoyed reading about the Baxter's. I always buy her books and many are waiting to borrow when I am through reading. Again this is, as always, very good reading.

The Baxter family saga concludes with this fourth book of the Sunrise Series although the author promises to use them as background characters in future novels. This is a stand-alone novel, but if the reader has kept up through the Redemption Series and then the Firstborn Series, this book brings back all of the characters and ties up all loose ends in a satisfying conclusion. There's a good bit of repeating, but perhaps this comes with the fourteenth book in a series.

Kingsbury has a way of telling a good story while allowing her readers to know the people who live in her books. Though varied personalities, they all are believable. Children's voices are especially well written such that I can see his head nod as he explains about dinosaurs or hear her plaintive wail when she wants her pacifier.

Warning: read it with tissues close at hand. Any Kingsbury fan will love this one. Discussion questions are included.