Bound By Hope

Kaitlyn O’Connel is a woman alone, or at least mostly alone. She scrubs floors by day and tries to avoid her boss’ unwanted advances at every turn. Then, one day, while cleaning out one of the hotel’s guest rooms, she finds a precious newspaper advertising a job traveling with the Orphan Train. Gambling everything she has and giving up a much-loved heirloom, she leaves her needy friend MaryBeth and travels from Minnesota to New York.

Calum Banagher is an Irishman with a healthy aversion to farming. He’s educated and interested in making a living and a life in America, so he sells his father’s farm and, along with his brother, Lucas, makes his way to the land of opportunity. Once there, he flits from business to business, never really settling in, but making money.

And somehow, somewhere along life’s journey, Katy and Calum connect.

Bound By Hope is a tale about the horrific plight of orphans in New York City around the turn of the 1900s; many children were abandoned and left to fend for themselves on the decidedly unfriendly streets of the big city – some through negligence and some through cold-bloodedness. The orphans were then taken by train westward to waiting families wanting children. Or at least that was the plan...

I’ve never read a book that breaks your heart one minute and then rebuilds it the next, but Bound By Hope does just that. Kally Jo Surbeck shines in this novel with a moral, but not in a preachy or “hammer it home” manner. It takes real talent to so beautifully wrap a social statement in a story that entices readers in; I was simply mesmerized. From Katy’s wrenching past to Calum’s quiet strength, the characters, both leading and supporting, will touch you in a tangible and lasting way. Bound By Hope is an excellent story, well-written and powerful.

Reviewed by: Michelle