Together Forever ~ Review

Together Forever
Orphan Train #2
By Jody Hedlund

Marianne Neumann is determined to fix the mistake she made - the one that cost her her sister Sophie. But Marianne has no idea where her younger sister could have disappeared to when Olivia and Nicholas were sent to the orphanage but she's determined to find her. And her plan is to work with the Children's Aid Society as an agent helping to place children through the orphan train. Using her position to try to find information about Sophie seems perfect - she just has to be sure no one discovers what she is doing.

Andrew Brady is a veteran when it comes to orphan train placing trips. He's determined to help the children under his care find the best homes they can. Always ready to have a good time with the children he is firm in his expectations of how they behave and their adherence to the rules. Drew has a secret of his own that he is keeping one that has left its mark on his soul. 

Working together Marianne and Drew make a formidable and caring team. And when a special orphan touches their hearts they just might come up with a plan to keep him with them. But all too soon the secrets from the past come out and Drew is faced with yet another tragedy on his watch. Will his heavy heart break him and turn Marianne to Reinhold?  Or will Marianne finally become the woman she has always wished to be?

This is the second book in the Orphan Train series and where the first focused on the unemployed woman seeking employment this book focuses on the plight of orphans in need of a home.  Now not all of these children were orphans in the true sense of the word - some were so classified by abandonment, poverty, or abuse. These children were often stigmatized because of their situation - a situation that was through no fault of their own. This prejudice often makes me wonder how these people expected their own children to be treated if something happened to them.

I was provided a review copy of this book by the publisher with no expectations of a positive review ~ all opinions expressed are my own.

About the Book:
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.