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Tilly Hargreaves has a fun, spunky personality. When she is in charge of her sisters kids, she feels like she will never live up to her sisters expectation (as usual). When she is put into a life or death situation she must depend on the standoffish, yet handsome station manager.
Nolan West is fine in an abandoned town, yet when he is put to the test he will protect Tilly and her nieces at any cost. Nolan and Tilly must work together, despite their complete opposite personalities.
This novel is full of excitement, mystery, suspense and more. I enjoyed getting to know both Nolan and Tilly better. They each have much to learn about themselves and each other, all while trying to keep a group of outlaws at bay.
If you like mystery, suspense, historical romance books you will enjoy this one.

This western historical is full of suspense and danger throughout the entire book as Tilly and Nolan endure the occupation of the station by villainous outlaws intent on stealing a pending shipment of gold. It seems that nothing goes right for these two as they face obstacle after obstacle. I liked Tilly's cheerful spirit and how it contrasted sharply with Nolan's discouraged attitude, yet over time she helped him lighten the darkness that's plaguing him through her hope and faith. He helps her put things in perspective as well, and that kind of symbiotic friendship was lovely. Their romance is hesitant and full of doubts, and I appreciated that their friendship and support of each other stood strong in spite of that. I was quickly turning pages to see what would happen next and how they would manage to come out on top of such a rough and dangerous situation!

(I received a complimentary copy of the book; all opinions in this review are my own)

With deep, intriguing characters and story full of action and suspense, A Temporary Family was a fast and fun read. The setting was challenging with the ghost town as with the limited resources the suspense and danger intensified. The characters were not only fighting against the outlaws but also the elements around them, the unpredictable weather, and their own inner demons, their own defectiveness.
Both main characters, Tilly Hargreaves and Nolan West, considered themselves as flawed, imperfect. Tilly had grown in the shadow of her older sister. She felt nothing she did or didn't do was satisfying to her family. She had a short attention span, but she had a joyful heart, kind spirit, and generous mind. Nolan looked for solitude to heal the inner wounds the civil war had left in him. His OCD made him feel like an abnormal person, his ways seen as odd to those around him. The nightmares, the pain, the claustrophobia from being a prisoner of the war for over two years had molded him to be the person he was today, and keeping others at the arm's length suited him perfectly until he met Tilly.
I loved the suspense, how it was built into the story and escalated as the story went on. The plot was well crafted, the struggle to stay alive, to keep the girls safe, the action, the budding romantic feelings building between Nolan and Tilly, the uncertainty of the elements around them, it was all well put together, it was original, and the story had a natural flow in it. There were many historical references in the story, both real and made up, giving the tale, even more, depth.
As the Love Inspired series are the Christian faith based books with Harlequin, I missed that element in this story. I think with the increased drama and trouble the characters were in, the inner growth they faced, the struggles they endured, there were many ample opportunities to show their faith and trust in God and His guidance, but that was omitted from the story, and even though the tale as it was was satisfying and entertaining, I think a great opportunity was missed here.
Battles of mind and body, sweet romance, healing from deep inner wounds, accepting imperfections and learning to celebrate them, the story touched the emotions and delivered a poignant tale
~ Four Spoons with a teaspoon on the side

Thoughts:

Inside A TEMPORARY FAMILY by Sherri Shackelford, we travel back to the end of the civil war. Where the Gold Rush blends into the Western way of life and pioneers build towns or leave them abandoned, a stagecoach brings weary travelers toward their destination as trouble lurks around the corner.

However, when criminals plow into the lives of law-abiding folk any day becomes even more dangerous!

Tilly Hargreaves should be happy this war ended, but with the end of these horrid conflicts, the end of her employment arrives. The men returning from war are back at their jobs casting Tilly out of the office and into the home. Tilly is far from her peers inside the domestic affairs as sewing, baking, and cooking, but she found her niche working in her father's law firm. Her job provided no pay, but she was not doing other homemaker chores either.

Her life is taking on more changes and not all are good.

Her sister, Eleanor, will be closer in location due to the death of her husband. While she loves her sister, her insistent critiques are not a thing to love, but for now, she's traveling with just her three nieces. Although the stagecoach travel is rough, Tilly enjoys time with the children. Everything is going just fine until one of her nieces becomes ill.

This sickness begins a chain of events that will not leave everyone secure. In fact, she's hard-pressed to believe they will make it out alive.

Meanwhile, Nolan West's quest for solitude brings him to work for a stagecoach line at a remote relay station in an abandoned town. He deals with people just briefly enough to attend to their needs before they're off to their next stop.

With an empty town around him, Nolan hopes to heal from his time as a prisoner. He was on the wrong side, of course, and was not far into the war when captured. Watching others around him die and his remaining alive facing the various afflictions of his confinement left him different, but Nolan is beginning to believe he may never change back to the man he once had been. His new idiosyncrasies drove him away from his father and away from civilization.

Today proceeds as any other day would have until a little girl becomes too ill to travel, but the stagecoach still must make it to the next stop. One woman and three children can be hard on his need for peace and quiet, but the empty town has more than enough quiet space until this situation passes.

However, three armed men on horseback bring even more trouble.

A gold shipment is to come through his town, and these criminals will intercept it without any fear of using Nolan and his charges as hostages. Nolan sees a chance to help keep this family safe. Posing as Tilly's husband enables him to constantly be with them, but this makes him fight to keep his own nightmares away. All too soon, he goes from needing to be alone to never being able to leave Tilly and the children while these men up the ante with menacing and threats.

Will they survive these days before the even shipment arrives? What will happen to them once the gold is here?

***This opinion is my own.***

Preview:

A TEMPORARY FAMILY by Sherri Shackelford begins at a stagecoach relay station and feeding stop inside an abandoned town where guests quickly come and go.

Nolan West relishes this quiet as he copes with being a former prisoner of the Civil War, but a sick girl, her siblings along with their aunt is about to change everything. Clearly, this couldn't get more uncomfortable for him, but he cannot change the course of events.

However, some things have a way of changing all by themselves once the unexpected looms.

Tilly Hargreaves is grateful for the place to stay through this child's illness, but the standoffish stagecoach man is not at all happy. She can understand why a man would feel so, and she tries to lessen the awkwardness through conversation. However, this seems to make him even more distant. Content with his stance, she tends to these children best as she can.

Mr. West seems more on edge the minute more men show up.

It does not take her long to see their exchange unfold and understand these men aren't friends and in fact, they're outlaws. One mistakes Tilly as Nolan's wife, and he sticks to the claim. This distant man just puts himself with her and the girls to save them and keep himself as their protector.

Meanwhile, this bargain is sure to have a higher cost for all involved.

The more these two are together the more they realize all they do not have. Will their goals change or will they never live to see any of them through?

Nolan West runs the stagecoach station in a near ghost town, Pyrite, Nebraska. He spent most of the Civil War as a prisoner of war, and he likes the solitude and order of his home. He certainly doesn't want overnight guest in the form of a woman and her three children.

Tilly Hargreaves is escorting her nieces to Omaha when Caroline get's sick and they have to stop in Pyrite, they plan to catch the next stage out, but when outlaws show up in town after the gold shipment she finds herself in for an extended stay.

I like how the outlaw assume Tilly to be Nolan's wife, and he doesn't correct them. They work together to keep the girls safe, and find themselves telling each other things that they've never told anyone before.

Tilly is my favorite character, and she like Nolan despite of his idiosyncrasies. She is a woman of faith, and knows that Nolan doesn't think that he is worthy of her, but she holds to hope that he will come to his senses.

There is almost non-stop action throughout, with Captain Ronald and the girls' mother showing up in Pyrite as well. I liked Tilly's nieces, especially Elizabeth who quickly wraps "No-wan" around her little finger.

Nolan is honest man, who sees Tilly's beauty and intelligence right away and admires her for it. He struggles with his past and the man that he is.

This was a great read, with lots of action and surprises throughout. Highly enjoyable read!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and testimonials in Advertising."

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. (hide spoiler)]

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.

I used to read Love Inspired and Love Inspired Historicals constantly. I have a whole bookshelf dedicated to them. However, I stopped because the stories were becoming to recycled and loosing all the things I loved about them.

Until this book. I LOVED A Temporary Family. It was beautiful, well paced, and I loved the setting. What I loved the most about this book is BOTH characters had flaws. They did not try to hide that or change for the other person but they worked together to support one another. So so so beautiful and refreshing, PLEASE READ.

Sherri Shackelford is one of the best authors writing for Harlequin’s Love Inspired lines. Her historical romances set on the 19th century US frontier all have original ideas and original characters, and the Christian aspects of her stories are so subtle you might not even notice they’re there.
I will say that it took me a little while to get into this one. The characters are guarded and so a tad hard to get to know, and then they (and the three girls the heroine is caring for) are thrown into immediate danger – before we’ve had a chance to care about them.
On the other hand, A Temporary Family gets better as it goes on, which is definitely better than the book slowing down near the end!
Even though most Love Inspired Historical reads come across as overly similar to each other at the moment (I’m dying to read a few without children in them!), if you’re going to try one of these, this is probably the author you should gravitate to.
But if only the hero fought for the Union in the war!