Below is the complete list of Karen Kingsbury’s Redemption books in publication order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Redemption Books in Publication Order
with Gary Smalley
- Redemption (2002)
Redemption was published in 2002 and is listed as book #1 in the Redemption series. - Remember (2003)
Published in 2003, Remember is listed as book #2 in the Redemption series. - Return (2003)
Return is a 2003 release and appears as book #3 in the Redemption series. - Rejoice (2004)
In the Redemption series, Rejoice is book #4 and was published in 2004. - Reunion (2004)
Reunion was first published in 2004; within the Redemption series, it is listed as book #5.
About Redemption
Karen Kingsbury’s Redemption series is the opening chapter of the Baxter family saga and one of the most important foundations of her inspirational fiction. Co-written with Gary Smalley, the five-book series begins with Redemption and continues through Remember, Return, Rejoice, and Reunion. These books introduce John and Elizabeth Baxter, their adult children, and the faith-centered family world that Kingsbury would continue developing across many later series.
The first novel, Redemption, centers strongly on Kari Baxter Jacobs, whose marriage is shaken by betrayal and heartbreak. Kari’s story establishes the emotional and spiritual tone of the series: love is not treated as easy sentiment, forgiveness is not treated as quick relief, and faith is presented as something tested under real pressure. Kingsbury and Smalley use the Baxters to explore marriage, family loyalty, personal failure, and the possibility of restoration when human strength is not enough.
The Baxter parents, John and Elizabeth, are central to the series’ identity. John is a doctor and a steady patriarch, while Elizabeth provides much of the family’s warmth, memory, and spiritual tenderness. Their home in Bloomington, Indiana, becomes the emotional center of the books. It is a place where the adult Baxter children return in crisis, celebration, confusion, and grief. The family is loving, but not untouched by conflict. That balance is part of what made the series resonate with readers who wanted Christian fiction that acknowledged pain while still moving toward hope.
Remember widens the family story while carrying the Baxters through grief and national trauma in the aftermath of September 11. Kingsbury uses the novel to connect private sorrow with public tragedy, showing how faith and family are tested when the world feels unstable. Return then shifts attention toward Luke Baxter, whose choices pull him away from the faith and values that shaped his upbringing. His arc gives the series one of its clearest prodigal-son patterns, built around rebellion, pride, longing, and the possibility of coming home.
Rejoice focuses heavily on Brooke and Peter West, whose marriage and family are placed under devastating strain after a terrible accident involving one of their daughters. The book is one of the series’ most emotionally intense installments because it deals with fear, blame, and the fragile line between love and resentment when suffering enters a home. Reunion brings the first Baxter sequence to a deeply reflective close, gathering the family around celebration, illness, memory, and the legacy of love that Elizabeth has built into her children’s lives.
The Redemption series works because it gives the Baxter family a strong emotional and spiritual foundation before the later books expand into Hollywood, young adulthood, filmmaking, and the next generation. Its focus is domestic rather than glamorous: marriages, parenting, faith, illness, betrayal, forgiveness, and family identity. The books are direct, emotional, and openly Christian, with relationship themes shaped by Gary Smalley’s background in marriage and family counseling.
Within Karen Kingsbury’s bibliography, Redemption is the natural starting point for understanding the Baxters. It introduces the people, values, wounds, and hopes that echo through the Firstborn, Sunrise, Above the Line, Bailey Flanigan, and later Baxter Family books. The series’ lasting strength is its belief that redemption is not abstract. It happens in kitchens, hospital rooms, courtships, marriages, arguments, prayers, and the hard daily choice to keep loving when life has become painful.