Orphan Train

I can't say I didn't like this book. I read it in less than 12 hours with few breaks. But, after some digesting, I feel the book was a little to neat and pretty. Everyone got their happy ending. Literally, everyone. (Well, except one person). But, anyway, for a book that seemed to harp that bad things happen to good people and sometimes people just get the worst in life, its pretty hard to believe that every character would have ended up with a happy ever after.

I REALLY enjoyed this book. I had never heard of the orphan train program before reading this, and I was in turn fascinated and appalled. The resiliency of the children who were part of it and their focus on the good really came through. I feel so fortunate to have grown up with a family and parents who cared about me.

I normally don't love books that hop between story lines or time periods, but this was very well done. I looked forward to finding out more of each of the story lines, and the ties between them.

I think the main reason why it took me so long to get into the story is the fact that the two books I read directly before this one were comical. It was really hard transferring myself back into drama, heartache, and pain. Nevertheless, it was a lovely book, and such a lovely story. A book I would definitely recommend.
I really liked the historical re-tellings mostly. I never knew that much about Irish history in the United States, but of course I knew that they faced a lot of heartache. And then the Native American's tales. I knew it was so full of tragedies but the picture became clearer and much more pronounced in my head.
Thank you, Christina!