Book Review

Learning (Bailey Flanigan series; book 2)
by Karen Kingsbury
2011

Reviewed by Diane Busch

Fans of Karen Kingsbury novels are familiar with the Flanigan family and the Baxter and Blake families.  This is another great book in a long line of interwoven stories about these Christian families.  The series starts with book 1 "Leaving", focusing on Bailey Flanigan, whose dream is to perform on Broadway, and on her family, and on her relationships with guys (namely Tim, Cody & Brandon).

In this installment Bailey finally gets to be a part of the Broadway musical "Hairspray" and moves to New York City.  It seems that Brandon and she are falling in love, but she can never really get Cody out of her head.  Cody is falling in love with Cheyenne, but he can never really get Bailey out of his head.  We must all wait for book 3 "Longing" to see how Bailey's love story will turn out.
In New York City, Bailey has trials to deal with, such as the death of her fellow cast member, Chrissy, and feeling like other cast members don't like her and her Christianity.

As Bailey matures and learns life lessons, so do the other characters in the story, including Landon Blake, who learns that he has COPD and cannot fight fires anymore.  Cody learns lessons too, as he helps Cheyenne in her recovery, coaches the Lyle High football team, and relates with his mother, a recovering drug addict.

One theme of this book is that there is a cost to pursuing dreams.  Lessons must always be learned along the way.

This book was provided free by Zondervan in exchange for an unbiased review.