by
This fast moving historical romance has more to it than one would first observe. On the surface it is an exciting story about a young woman who flees the servitude of a maid's life and boards The Titanic. She manages to survive the sinking ship while in the process obtains two male admirers. Once arriving in New York she finds herself making more life choices. The story line is attention getting and it is a good book from that standpoint. Romance is not my genre but historical fiction is and this book appeals to me from the historical fiction standpoint. What really hooked me on this book was the moral questions that were brought up about those surviving The Titanic disaster. I had never thought about the fact that the people who got into the life boats left others behind to drown in ice cold water. This novel uses testimony from the actual government inquiry hearings to tackle questions like why the rich people got to get in the life boats and the poor people had to drown. The question of why there were not enough lifeboats was always the question that I had heard in the past but not the issue of who got into the life boats. Another challenge was why life boats with room for another passenger did not go back into the waters toward the ship to get someone out of the water. Was it worth the risk of the lifeboat being grabbed by so many that it was tipped thereby causing the people in it be lost to take the chance of saving another life? And did people shove people off and away from the edges of lifeboats out in the water thereby actually killing people to save the people in their particular lifeboat? Even when there was room for one or two more? This book is the February book selection for my library reading group and it promises a lively discussion. Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the book trailer video that follows.
