This book is the second in the Firstborn series. Unfortunately, the writing didn’t improve over the first book, the story didn’t advance, and I wasted a good part of my Thanksgiving weekend skimming through this book. In the back of the book, Kingsbury promises (threatens?) the release of the next 3 books in this series, coming in Summer ’06, Fall ’06 and Winter ’07. So I have a plan. Come Winter ’07, I’ll read the last chapter in the last book, and find out if the guy finally gets the girl. Until then, I’m done with this series.

If you asked me why I kept reading Karen Kingsbury books, I really couldn’t tell you. I find myself sighing disgustedly and rolling my eyes throughout them, and yet, I have the next book in this series on hold at the library as we speak. One of these years, her books will get so bad, that I will just quit reading them. Until then, I’ll half-heartedly follow the lives of Katy-the children’s theater director with a sorrowful past and a hidden acting talent; Dayne Matthews-the adpoted Hollywood superstar whose deepest desire is to reunited with his lost biological family; and the Baxter family-they lost their mother to cancer, and now are slowly uncovering secrets from the past. Are you hooked yet?

Cody and Ally fall in love, in spite of their resolve to stay focused on their work. The problem is that Ally has cystic fibrosis, and the prognosis isn’t good.

This was a very typical romance book — nothing too special, and probably not worth my time. There was one point of interest for me though. I’ve read all of Kingsbury’s previous books, and they’ve all been very “Christian” — to the point of being nauseating. The main characters all have this vibrant relationship with God, and he always speaks to them in plain, audible English. This book didn’t use that particular literary device, which was fine with me. But the main characters also weren’t overtly Christian. There were the themes of trust, forgiveness, sacrifice, etc., and God was mentioned a few times very casually, but that’s all. No salvation plan. No conversions. No church services. No long talks about faith. I’m not saying that in order for a book to be Christian, those elements need to be there. But it’s such a noticeable switch from Kingsbury’s other books, it makes me wonder what’s going on.