Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

This book has been on my to-read list since the day it was published. Due to my slow reading over the past 3 years, I only picked it up this year. I had quite an expectation for it due to the good ratings and reviews from readers worldwide.

A captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.

The story travelled between Year 2011 and 1929 to 1943. In Year 2011, we have Molly who was having issue with her foster family and she met Vivian, an orphan who had experience the Orphan Train back in 1929 and going through various foster family too.

I enjoyed Vivian’s story about her experience on the Orphan Train and the tough times she went through with each foster family. My heart aches for her at times and when things got better, I felt happy for her. The Orphan Train chapters were interesting and I found myself flipping through the 2011 chapters just so that I can continue to read what's going happened next on the train back in 1929.

The story however slowed down when Vivian's story moved into her foster home experience that were predictable. It was still a good read though as she had portrayed a strong character despite the hardship, never giving up her passion for an education.

I found myself having a hard time getting into Molly's part of the story. Her story was like a predictable YA novel about problematic teenagers who behaved badly with a sad story attached to her.

The chemistry between Vivian and Molly was almost non existence. I can see that the author tried to weaved the two stories together into one but I just cannot connect the two.

I would have enjoyed the book better if the whole novel is on Vivian and there were more about the Orphan Train rather than only 5 out of the many chapters in the book.

Overall, the book is an okay read but it did not lived up to my expectation based on the book description and the hype about it from other reviewers.