Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I hate to spend any more time on these books to be honest, but I think a quick review is in order. I have found a major character flaw in myself as I've read these... I invest myself in books and their characters as if they're real and have real emotions about them! Crazy!!! However, I know that many other fans and Karen herself do this as well, so I don't think it means that I'm too strange. So I'll share my opinion as an avid fan... I know that for many readers, reading is an investment of our time, especially when you have very young children as I do--three of them! I've read almost all of Karen's stand alone books and the Baxter series and would highly recommend most of them. However, I truly wish I had not invested time in the last two series of Karen's--Above the Line and now Bailey's series. I feel that the time spent reading the 8 of them and the anticipation for each one was a waste. :( I think many of her fans will feel that way. For the last 10-12 of Karen's books, she has led us down a path to see how special Cody and Bailey's relationship is and has been developing the story to bring them together in the end. (The proof is the original book cover for Loving shows Cody as the groom!) She admits that she changed her mind around the end of Longing, which most of us could tell.... after her daughter ended up dating and getting engaged to the actor who played Brandon in the book trailers. What a twist!! Real life made her change her books, and I wish she could have separated the two and made this about Bailey, Cody, and Brandon---not about Kelsey and Kyle. (Congrats to them by the way!) After reading the last book Longing, I held out hope that she was just trying to keep us guessing but in my heart, I knew she was moving us to a Brandon and Bailey ending. My big problem with this is that she committed a big writer's error in the process... she tried to minimize everything she had led us to believe for 10 to 12 books about Cody and Bailey (unsuccessfully) and changed Cody to look like a coward who must not really love Bailey rather than someone who was working through his own issues in life so that he and Bailey would end up together. And instead of Bailey really loving Cody, Karen made it seem like more a teenage crush that was hard to let go of. This was not true at all to what we knew from the previous books. I hate what she did to Cody. I think it was sad how all of the sudden in Longing, everything about Bailey and Cody was made out to be superficial and not real. She had to explain away all of the ways she had indicated in the last 10 books that Cody and Bailey were meant to be, which was awkward and not believable. Big mistake. She never meant it that way in the beginning of their story, and she can't change her conclusions like that without confusing and turning away her audience. There are many more specifics I can give but since I'm not writing a novel, I'll just say that I was supremely disappointed with this book... and now it makes all of the other books I've read developing the characters and their relationship seem like a waste. :( I really wish I had stopped with the Baxter series. On Karen's Facebook, soooo many readers expressed disappointment with the last book Longing and the direction it was heading. THen Karen even went on to ask who everyone wanted Bailey to end up with--to which 75-85% said Cody (maybe more)! I don't know why she even asked. When everyone chose Team Cody, right before Loving was released she tried to convince everyone to be Team Bailey, which I thought was so silly. I would want to know people's true opinions and not tell them what they should be with prizes and incentives to change. If she was listening to the vast majority of her audience, Cody and Bailey would have been together, only because she--as a terrific author--led us that way for so long and made us love Bailey and Cody!! She is a good author who just took a strange turn in the last two books. I don't think anything I have said will surprise her either since she has been hearing it from so many readers ever since Longing was released! I really don't think I will be reading anymore of her books. I don't say that in a mean spirited way at all. I'm being honest. Just as I listen to an artist's music as long as I like their albums and then move to something else when I don't, so is the case with this. There are so many good writers and books out there, and I think she let us down in a big way. :( Now back to real life...