An Unexpected Family

Orphan Train Romance, Book 1

De: Zoe Matthews

Narrado por: Melinda Jarmulak

Between 1850 and 1930, around 250,000 abandoned and orphaned children traveled from the East Coast of the US to various cities and towns throughout the nation on what would be known as the orphan trains. Most came from New York City.

Posters were placed around town advertising "Homes Wanted for Orphans"; usually a committee was formed to help facilitate the adoption. These children were supposed to be adopted and treated as family members, but this was not always the case however, and sometimes they were placed in less than ideal circumstances. Despite this loosely structured plan, many children did find loving homes and people who cared for their needs.

©2014 Zoe Matthews (P)2018 Zoe Matthews

Sweet

Short story about orphans and the orphan train systems that operated in early America. Well-written with good characters. The audio version was narrated well.

A Nice Relaxing Listen

An unexpected story is a sweet story about orphan trains and a family formed by adoption. it isn't totally realistic. Nice relaxing listen.

Was too much like a Hallmark movie

The narration was not the best. The story seemed a bit too simple and I was very glad that the book was short. I will not be reading/listening to any more books in this series.

Exceptional & Wholesome

Love it before I finished I bought the 2 sequels Very heart warming & touching

Spoilers - Unsympathetic

Despite being a story about likable orphans finding nice homes, this story was painfully simplistic. The narrator reads slowly, which emphasized the simple sentences and inane thoughts of the characters. Everything is over explained and actually repeated. The narrator struggles to enunciate words like “looked” which turned into lookt and “didn’t” which turned into din. The female protagonist takes pains to justify her new marriage to the male protagonist, but he teases her constantly and refuses basic, accessible medical care for an orphan because of his pride. While he eventually, mostly sorts himself out, I am left feeling the female protagonist would be a much happier single mom.

Super short and about third grade level

Super short and about third grade level. What else can I say? That’s all folks.