Together Forever by Jody Hedlund

Will the mistakes of their past cost them a chance at love?

Determined to find her lost younger sister, Marianne Neumann takes a job as a placing agent with the Children's Aid Society in 1858 New York. She not only hopes to offer children a better life, but prays she'll be able to discover whether Sophie ended up leaving the city on an orphan train so they can finally be reunited.

Andrew Brady, her fellow agent on her first placing-out trip, is a former schoolteacher who has an easy way with children, firm but tender and friendly. Underneath his charm and handsome looks, 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 in the small railroad towns of Illinois, they find themselves growing ever closer . . . until a shocking tragedy threatens to upend all their work and change one of their lives forever.

Publisher: Bethany House, 2018

Genre: historical romance

Setting: 1858

My Review

Together Forever is a gripping story set in 1858 during the orphan train migration from New York to Illinois. From the first chapter, the chemistry between the hero and heroine sizzles and propels the story forward with a beautiful and satisfying ending. The orphans tugged at my heart and made me want to adopt them myself. The plot mixed with Ms. Hedlund's strategic writing takes the reader back in time on a journey that is bittersweet and historically accurate. Together Forever is book two in the Orphan Train series, but this novel stands on its own as well. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical romance with a rich history and to anyone who enjoys a strong, yet clean, romance between characters. I give this book five stars. 

A Dangerous Legacy by Elizabeth Camden

Lucy is determined to keep working as a telegraph operator at a news agency, even though the arrival of Sir Colin Beckwith threatens her position. When she discovers Colin's shocking secret, she agrees to assist him if he helps her find her family's stolen inheritance--not realizing that the trail leads into a web of treachery, danger, and conspiracy.


Publisher: Bethany House, 2017
Genre: Historical Romance


My Review

Ms. Camden never fails to captivate me from the first chapter with her strong, complex characters and her gripping historical plots. A Dangerous Legacy is no exception. 

Lucy Drake and Sir Colin Beckwith have an electric attraction from the first moment they meet. Colin's loyalty to his family estate overseas and the decades-long feud surrounding Lucy's family make a romantic relationship between the pair near impossible. But need drives them together in a way that creates a formidable team and soon the two are deeper into the journey than they intended. 

With strong supporting characters and constant twists, A Dangerous Legacy is one I will read again. I give this book five stars!

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Learn more at www.elizabethcamden.com

A Match of Wits by Jen Turano

After his departure from New York two years ago to meet up with his almost-fiancee, Zayne Beckett is the last person Agatha Watson wanted to stumble upon in her travels as a reporter with the New York Tribune. Quite pathetically bedraggled, he clearly needs to be taken in hand and sent back East to his family. Although she no longer has feelings for him, Agatha realizes--by hook or by crook--she'll have to be the one to get the obstinate man home.

Zayne has no desire to be taken anywhere and is prepared to drag his heels all the way home . . . until he finds himself slipping back into the familiar banter of his former friendship with Agatha. Once they arrive in New York, Zayne realizes Agatha's determined nose for news has earned her a few enemies, and he hopes to repay her help with some help of his own. When she rebuffs all his attempts to prove himself a knight in shining armor, the lengths to which they'll go to win this battle of wills lead to some memorable antics.

Everyone else may think them a match, but nothing could be further from the truth--until Agatha finds herself in real trouble. Have these two stubborn, too-smart-for-their-own-good people been meant for each other all along?


Publisher: Bethany House, 2014


My Review
This book was 345 pages of pure fun! In fact, if you're not hooked by the conclusion of the first chapter, you don't have a pulse. Agatha, a strong heroine with a beautiful heart and a destiny for trouble (Anne Shirley on steroids), gets tangled in a wild west adventure with childhood friend, Zayne Beckett--turned reclusive mountain man, a surly bodyguard protecting Agatha from a hitman, a sassy, match-making chaperone, and a pig named Matilda. When disaster strikes--and it usually does when Agatha is involved--the group travels home to New York where more mayhem, and romance, awaits.

I chose this book after reading Gentleman of Her Dreams, a delightful and free ebook introducing this series. The great cover caught my attention but most of all the title. It promised conflict and humor, and, boy, did it deliver!

I gave this book 5 stars!