Author: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White
Publisher: William Morrow (Harper Collins)
Year: 2018
Genre(s):historical fiction, historical romance, contemporary romance
Part of a Series: No
Rating:
Why I read it: Once Upon a Book Club pick
Summary: Sarah is desperate. The royalties from her best selling debut novel have dried up and she struggles to pay for the medical care her mother needs. She also struggles to find an idea for her second novel and finally finds one when she goes through some family belongings, finding a message in the items that belonged to her great-grandfather who worked and died on the Lusitania. Sarah goes to England to get information about Robert Langford, the British aristocrat who her great-grandfather was the valet for on that fateful voyage. His grandson, John, agrees to help her figure out what the message meant, uncovering a mystery almost a century old.
On board the Lusitania, Robert Langford is caught between two women. The first is Caroline Hochstetter, who he has loved since they were teenagers. She, though, is married to a successful German businessman and is accompanying him to Europe so he can sell a rare waltz. The other is Tess Fairweather, a small time con artist who is on board to steal the waltz for her sister’s mysterious buyers. As the ship steams toward Europe, questions arise about why so many people want the waltz as rumors of espionage spread amongst the passengers. Who is loyal to who and who will survive the doomed voyage?
Review: Three authors contributed to this book but you would never be able to tell. Each part flows naturally and shares one voice, as if written by just one author. I give major praise to the three authors for doing that and for working so well together to create such a great novel. Not even the fact it changes POVs between chapters (Sarah’s chapters are written in first person while Caroline’s and Tess’ are written in third person) annoyed me or lessened my enjoyment of the book.
Let’s handle this by each character’s story (and romance)…
Sarah (and John): Sarah is an intriguing leading lady. I could’ve spent the entire book with her, watching the story unfold from her eyes, and with John. They had an easy banter and a natural friendship, both working well together to figure out what happened on board the Lusitania—even if it means possibly creating even more of a scandal for John.
I did enjoy their romance but felt it was a bit rushed. They just seemed to warm up with each other and then John was talking about forever with her. Maybe an entire novel dedicated to them would’ve spaced that out more but that’s just a quibble.
Caroline (and Gilbert): I liked Caroline well enough as a character but I wasn’t really rooting for either of her romances. We’ll focus first on the one with her husband, Gilbert. I wasn’t too sure what his feelings were for her because he was hard to read but I ultimately think that was because he was a gentleman operating within the rules set by their class, probably also a bit squeamish about sex after the Victorian period. For a while, I worried that he didn’t really love Caroline and that he was setting her up to be a patsy.
Since we got Caroline’s perspective rather than Gilbert, it did seem like she loved him more than he loved her. Yet even then that love was questioned as she believed she also loved another man. In the end, she knew where her heart was and I believe it was with the right man.
Caroline (and Robert): What I do like about their relationship is that they are a great depiction of first love—namely how we can idealize our first loves to be something so perfect, nothing can ever top it. Robert certainly has put Caroline on a pedestal while it appears that she may be in a “the grass is greener on the other side” situation since she’s hit a rough patch with her own husband. I love how poetic Robert tends to get when talking to or about Caroline, showing how much he might just idolize her rather than love her.
Tess (and Robert): I think Tess was my favorite character and I loved her dynamic with Robert, rooting for these two crazy kids to get together. They met on the Lusitania and kept running into each other, developing an odd friendship. Where he tended to be poetic around Caroline, he was blunt and more real around Tess. He also easily confided with her, unafraid to reveal the parts he usually kept hidden to her.
Tess herself is a small time conman along with her sister Ginny, both raised to be that way by their conman father. Their cons involve forgeries as Tess is a talented artist but she was almost caught prior to the start of the book. It makes her want to get out of the game for good and go live a quiet life somewhere after the last job her sister has arranged. But as the Lusitania sails toward England and Tess gets to know Robert, she realizes that Ginny may have gotten them in over their heads—and they could pay with their lives.
As I said, Tess was probably my favorite character and I found myself rooting for her most of all. I probably could’ve read a whole book about her, just like I could’ve about Sarah. (Not sure about Caroline. She was a great character but I’m not sure I would’ve wanted an entire book about her). I wanted her to go straight and to do the right thing.
Robert was a great foil for her and they worked well together, especially as he worked through his own secret mission and dealt with a family scandal that had lasting implications for John almost a century later.
Bottom line: A wonderful read with romance, mystery and intrigue.
Sex: Described after the fact but nothing too graphic
Moonlight Musing
Do you prefer idealized romances or real ones?
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