Together Forever by Jody Hedlund

Publisher: Bethany House
On Sale Date: May 1st 2018
Pages: 384
Series: Orphan Train book #2

It's the year 1858 and Marianne Hedlund has just become a placing agent for the Children's Aid Society. She is assigned to go on a travel with a train to place orphan children from New York to find them new parents in the state of Illinois. The so called Orphan Trains. She has another goal in mind though, to find her lost sister Sophie who went along with one of the earlier Orphan Trains years ago.

She is assigned on the orphan train travel with Andrew Brady, a former schoolteacher with a good influence on especially the more rough boys who have a history on the streets of New York. It is their job to find them a new home, after they hold a meeting for potential parents in every townhall they cross, where the orphans are picked and chosen, or sometimes not. Some kids land in nice places with  parents who treat them well, others find themselves in even worse situations then they escaped in New York. Drew and Marianne are soon very drawn to each other, which is not very suitable for placing agents during that time. But what happens between them is just to hard to ignore. But during their stay in one of the towns where they are meeting new potential parents for the orphans, two boys get lost. Later on in another town, Andrew is arrested all of a sudden, and held responsible for the death of a boy, one of the orphans they had in tow. He lands in jail while Marianne has to go further on her travel through the West alone, and she gets caught between her growing love for Andrew and for the children and her loyalty to her family and friends.

I have read one book about this topic earlier, Orphan Train by Kristina Baker Kline, so I was very interested in this book when I read the synopsis. The book has some similarities but there it stops. This story was just brilliant and very moving. From the moment Marianne and Drew board the orphan train, the bond between them and the bond between them and the children that develop slowly but steadily, it all was very entertaining and well written. Andrew's arrest though came as a thunderclap in sunny weather, you totally didn't see that moment coming as a reader. The events that follow are just gripping and as a reader I couldn't wait till there was some kind of happy ending for the both of them, as they where so likeable both and they made the perfect couple. I will leave it in the middle if there is a happy end though. What I would have liked though if there was some more development and better wrap up of the little sidestory that Marianne wanted to find her sister. It is mentioned often in the beginning and through the middle part, but I missed anything happening on that part later on in the book. Well maybe it is nice material for a sequel? This book was a sequel to an earlier book, which I haven't read (though I hope to do so!) but this very good book can easily be read as a standalone, I recommend it!!