First sentence: Marianne Neumann's fingers were shaking so hard she could barely pry open the first record book.
Premise/plot: Marianne Neumann was first introduced in Jody Hedlund's With You Always. She was the younger sister of Elise, our heroine. She was head over heels--or so she thought--with Reinhold Weiss. (Reinhold meanwhile was head over heels--or so he thought--with Elise.)
While Elise was away--working--Marianne was left in charge of her younger sister, Sophie, and the two orphans they'd taken in. When all seemed lost, Sophie took those two little ones and ran away--or at least that is the assumption. Marianne returned one day to find them GONE.
Now Marianne is on a quest to find them. She's working as a placing agent traveling west with orphans on a campaign to find them all homes. She's got a partner, Andrew Brady, by her side. He's the more experienced of the two. This will be her first trip.
Andrew Brady has believed for years that he was NOT a marrying man. That chapter of his life--being in love, wanting to settle down--is OVER and done with. But that was before he met Marianne. It wasn't meeting her that was dangerous, not really, it was spending time with her over several weeks as they journey across the country together.
Does Marianne feel the same way about Andrew? Or is she still "in love" with Reinhold?
My thoughts: I enjoyed this one. If I'm being honest, I did love the first book more even if just by a slight margin. I think I happened to like Elise more than Marianne. Though Marianne did grow on me a good deal as I kept reading. (I didn't care for Marianne's sections in the first book. I thought she was quite silly and irresponsible.)
The same warning is in place for this one as with With You Always. There is a good deal of kissing--graphic descriptions of kissing. Both Andrew and Marianne want more, more, more of each other. (Though nothing happens before the two are wed.) I mention this because it can be easy to hand Christian romances to tweens without a second thought. It's just automatic to assume that the content will always be super-appropriate even if you're eleven or twelve.
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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