Review: Together Forever

Book Review: Together Forever, by Jody Hedlund, 5 stars

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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.

Genre: historical romance

Publication date: May 2018

Mature content: no

Review: Together Forever is a beautiful book, just the way Jody Hedlund has gotten us used to.

In terms of romance, I found Drew and Marianne's story terribly sweet, even more than Elise and Thornton's, from book one in this series (With You Always). We know Marianne from book one, and we know she's made some terrible mistakes in the past, but she's trying to act as an adult now. The way she interacts with the children is amazing. Drew, on the other hand, is one of those characters that makes you smile every step of the way.

The end of Together Forever, however, was too messy for my taste. How Marianne could find herself engaged to one man and about to marry another (just when she's been trying throughout all the book to avoid making the same mistakes all over again) was beyond me. While she seems to be a specialist in getting herself entangled in difficult situations, I expected more of her after all. That mess did create a bit of suspense, but it irked me at the same time.

Still, Together Forever is a lovely historical book that will make you laugh, cry and smile, and I totally recommend it.



While it is book two in the Orphan Train series, it can be perfectly read as a stand alone. If you love the genre, though, you don't want yo miss With You Always anyway.


Have a wonderful weekend,

the book worm, book blog



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