A Temporary Family

2.5 stars
This story starts off with a bang and is definitely a unique tale. Outlaws and stagecoach outposts, vs. a young woman travelling with her three young nieces? Bring it on.

Characterization started off great, too. The three girls each have a fun quirk or two (my favorite was Elizabeth's “boo-berries”, which are actually blackberries). Tilly has an issue with measuring up to her sister's perfection; Nolan was a POW in the Civil War and has issues with being overly addicted to cleanliness and open space after being shut up in squalor for months. Sadly, over the course of the book, the characters slide away from uniqueness and stagnate. The girls don't show a lot of development after their characters are explained, which leaves them rather flat in the end. The other side characters, introduced later in the book, turn out to be rather wooden and two are afflicted with instalove.

There are two main arcs to this tale. First and foremost is the need to survive the outlaws. Second is the need to overcome their personal character flaws. As to the first, it was getting along nicely until more people got involved. Then I felt it became unrealistic, and it would have been simple to merely jump on the outlaws with superior numbers and lock them in the jail. The second part failed through "love fixes everything/understanding each other will solve all ills." The sister goes from shrew to supportive overnight; the hero suddenly loses his need for control and gets over his OCD and his claustrophobia in one magic instant. In the end, I really didn't feel either MC was really true to the original portrayal of their characters.

Last, I'll say a word about the faith element. As a book published by Love Inspired, publisher guidelines state that the story needs to show some sort of Christian influence. That's one of the reasons I enjoy reading Love Inspired, actually. It begins well with a verse on the front page. Then...wait, what'd I miss? Hmmm. For characters to go through that sort of trauma and that sort of character revolution, you'd think they would be learning a bit about prayer or about God helping them through or changing them in some way. But it's ultimately love that does the trick, love and honesty...so is the message here actually that we don't need God, after all? Interesting concept.

Anyway, bottom line: despite the flaws, it was a fun read and was easy to keep turning pages. It's definitely a novel, and won't be “improving” to your mind in any way, but would be a good bet for a quick beach read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy for review purposes.