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Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Review: Together Forever (Orphan Train #2) by Jody Hedlund

Marianne Neumann has one goal in life: to find her lost younger sister, Sophie. When Marianne takes a job as a placing agent with the Children's Aid Society in 1858 New York, she not only hopes to give children a better life but seeks to discover whether Sophie ended up leaving the city on an orphan train.

 Andrew Brady, her fellow agent on her first placing trip, is a former schoolteacher who has an easy way with the children--firm but tender and funny. Underneath his handsome charm, though, seems to linger a grief that won't go away--and a secret from his past that he keeps hidden. As the two team up placing orphans amid small railroad towns in Illinois, they find themselves growing ever closer . . . until a shocking tragedy threatens to upend all their work and change one of their lives forever.

Kindle Edition, 352 pages
Published May 1st 2018
by Bethany House Publishers
*** 1/2

Together Forever is book 2 in the Orphan Train Series involving sisters Elise, Marianne and Sophie. With You Always is the first one and I highly recommend starting there to get a better sense of the history of these sisters.

As Marianne boards the train bound for Illinois she gets more than she bargained for. Her goal was to find her sister, Sophie, but rather she bonds with the kids and the distant Andrew who is also hiding secrets from his past. When tragedy strikes so much changes.

Together Forever is a story of self discovery, forgiving oneself and of letting go. I enjoyed the history aspect here, how scared those kids must have been traveling and then placed with complete strangers. The romance part played out somewhat as I expected. Faith is a big part of the story especially with 2 characters carrying a lot of guilt.

This was an enjoyable story highlighting the early life of The Children's Aid Society, how it operated and the struggles of the children and workers.

This series continues with Searching For You scheduled to be released in Dec. 2018.


Thank you to Bethany House for an advanced copy in exchange for honest review.

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