This is what overlayfs is designed for. You can turn it on in the raspi-config tool under performance. While the overlayfs is on, all writes will just happen in memory. You should also have an update-motd script which will let you know when overlayfs is on.
$ cat /etc/update-motd.d/80-overlay
#!/bin/sh
str=$(mount | grep ' on / ')
if echo $str | grep -q 'overlay'; then
printf "\n\e[5m\e[1;31m------ INFO: / MOUNTED WITH OVERLAY ------\e[0m\n\n"
elif echo $str | grep -q 'rw'; then
printf "\n\e[1;32m++++++ INFO: / MOUNTED READ-WRITE ++++++\e[0m\n\n"
else
printf "\n\e[5m\e[1;31m!!!!!! WARNING: / UNKNOWN STATE !!!!!!\e[0m\n\n"
fi