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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
I liked it but I didn’t love it. Fun to escape to the gilded age world and their romance but the titanic aspect was bleak. We also recently went to
Newport so easy to imagine the world they existed in! Also I found the main character very likable.
Newport so easy to imagine the world they existed in! Also I found the main character very likable.
Thanks to NetGalley for this advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.
This story is about Madeline Force, who becomes the second Mrs John Jacob Astor, one of the richest men in the world in his day. This is the Gilded Age, when society was brutal in its gossip and appearances, and Americans were hungry for the tidbits in the newspapers. Reporters hunted them and photographers were ruthless, 80 years before the death of Princess Diana. To drive society and the papers even more wild, Madeline was 30 years Astors junior, and had barely debuted when the couple fell in love.
Oh, and by the way, Titanic ended their love story when a pregnant Madeline was put in boat number 4 and Jack stays behind on the ship.
If you are a titanic nerd and cannot get enough, this story is for you. I felt as the story stripped away some of the sensationalism of some of the stories of Titanic, and brought to is the love story of the Astors, the conflict between Madeline and her step son Vincent, and tragedy of the American appetite for gossip, rumor, and celebrity that is still a great problem today.
I would recommend this to my patrons and a clean, romantic, and tragic historical fiction.
4*
This story is about Madeline Force, who becomes the second Mrs John Jacob Astor, one of the richest men in the world in his day. This is the Gilded Age, when society was brutal in its gossip and appearances, and Americans were hungry for the tidbits in the newspapers. Reporters hunted them and photographers were ruthless, 80 years before the death of Princess Diana. To drive society and the papers even more wild, Madeline was 30 years Astors junior, and had barely debuted when the couple fell in love.
Oh, and by the way, Titanic ended their love story when a pregnant Madeline was put in boat number 4 and Jack stays behind on the ship.
If you are a titanic nerd and cannot get enough, this story is for you. I felt as the story stripped away some of the sensationalism of some of the stories of Titanic, and brought to is the love story of the Astors, the conflict between Madeline and her step son Vincent, and tragedy of the American appetite for gossip, rumor, and celebrity that is still a great problem today.
I would recommend this to my patrons and a clean, romantic, and tragic historical fiction.
4*
This book was not for me. It was a socialite's romance with a much older business magnate and I kept waiting for something interesting to happen. The Titanic scenes were good but they were near the end of the book.
I never considered people brought their pets on the Titanic and now I’m inconsolable
3.75 stars?? I love a good historical fiction. The romance was fine- sweet but understated.
The Titanic part was heavily foreshadowed and brief, as other readers have mentioned. I was fine with this, actually. And I enjoyed that a heavier portion of the book focused on aftermath rather than the sinking itself. I personally would have liked more of that rather than the slow, somewhat tedious build up of the romance beforehand that again, for me, was so so. The latter parts of the book were better, in my opinion. The survivorship, guilt, navigating life after. I liked it once they boarded the ship. Lower ratings for the beginning, for me.
The Titanic part was heavily foreshadowed and brief, as other readers have mentioned. I was fine with this, actually. And I enjoyed that a heavier portion of the book focused on aftermath rather than the sinking itself. I personally would have liked more of that rather than the slow, somewhat tedious build up of the romance beforehand that again, for me, was so so. The latter parts of the book were better, in my opinion. The survivorship, guilt, navigating life after. I liked it once they boarded the ship. Lower ratings for the beginning, for me.
Maybe 4 stars is high but I’m feeling generous. This book starts high bc of titanic goodwill and the one line Rose says about her in the movie and then it delivered with characters that I liked, and a sweet love story with a tragic ending (I did pretend she was like 22 though bc … 17 is rough). I did wish it wasn’t written as a letter to her baby bc I wish we got some of her life afterward. Or at least in the epilogue?
I’m so mad that I didn’t like this because I absolutely love the author’s other book An American Beauty!! But this whole entire book was told/spoiled in the two paragraph synopsis on the back cover… plus you were constantly reminded what would happen/how it would end throughout the book so I don’t even understand the point
18-year old debutante Madeleine Force married the world's then richest man, John Jacob Astor, about one year after his divorce (a scandal in 1910), when he was 47. Returning to New York via Cherbourg, France after a honeymoon in Egypt, they were eager to experience the world's biggest, most lavishly detailed ship ever made: Richard Ismay's unsinkable Titanic. Madeleine was five months pregnant.
They had escaped New York, after a small wedding ceremony, because of relentless negative pursuit from the press.
Astor, along with many other of America's wealthiest men, went down with the ship.
This is an imagined tale as narrated by Madeleine shortly after the birth of their son, John Jacob Astor the sixth.
There's a lot of THE movie in this retelling, once again laser-focused on the ultra-rich. Madeleine is exquisitely pampered, especially during her pregnancy, and spends much of her pre-tragedy time in one luxuriously extravagant bed after another.
For this reviewer, who had to work on her feet up until two weeks before giving birth to a first child at 41--and had then to return to work full time six weeks after the birth--Madeleine is just too pampered to be particularly sympathetic, except when her story becomes a redux of Diana and the paparazzi responsible for her death.
Simply stated, this entire work is just too much of too much, especially in a time when a bare handful of people own over 80% of the world's wealth.
They had escaped New York, after a small wedding ceremony, because of relentless negative pursuit from the press.
Astor, along with many other of America's wealthiest men, went down with the ship.
This is an imagined tale as narrated by Madeleine shortly after the birth of their son, John Jacob Astor the sixth.
There's a lot of THE movie in this retelling, once again laser-focused on the ultra-rich. Madeleine is exquisitely pampered, especially during her pregnancy, and spends much of her pre-tragedy time in one luxuriously extravagant bed after another.
For this reviewer, who had to work on her feet up until two weeks before giving birth to a first child at 41--and had then to return to work full time six weeks after the birth--Madeleine is just too pampered to be particularly sympathetic, except when her story becomes a redux of Diana and the paparazzi responsible for her death.
Simply stated, this entire work is just too much of too much, especially in a time when a bare handful of people own over 80% of the world's wealth.
Genre: historical fiction
Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐️
“The nature of hope is curious to me.”
This was basically Downton Abbey/Gilded Age/Titanic and that’s basically comfort media, right? Was it over-fictionalized/romanticized and a little surface-level? Yeah, but that’s fine!
Pros:
- Great subject matter for the hyperfixation girlies! (It’s me, I’m the girlies)
- Not just focused on the voyage, which was nice.
Cons:
- Not a con of the writing, but the age difference feels ICKY (she says as she probably pics up another fantasy book with a 500+ YO fae male love interest, I’M SORRY)!! I know it’s real life and that makes it worse — 17 and roughly 50 when they met? NO NO NO.
Unrelated: I was really hoping for a plausibly deniable call-out to Rose/Jack once they were onboard because of Rose pointing out Mrs. Astor’s “delicate condition” in the movie.
Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐️
“The nature of hope is curious to me.”
This was basically Downton Abbey/Gilded Age/Titanic and that’s basically comfort media, right? Was it over-fictionalized/romanticized and a little surface-level? Yeah, but that’s fine!
Pros:
- Great subject matter for the hyperfixation girlies! (It’s me, I’m the girlies)
- Not just focused on the voyage, which was nice.
Cons:
- Not a con of the writing, but the age difference feels ICKY (she says as she probably pics up another fantasy book with a 500+ YO fae male love interest, I’M SORRY)!! I know it’s real life and that makes it worse — 17 and roughly 50 when they met? NO NO NO.
Unrelated: I was really hoping for a plausibly deniable call-out to Rose/Jack once they were onboard because of Rose pointing out Mrs. Astor’s “delicate condition” in the movie.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No