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writingromanova's review against another edition
1.0
this is the third book i’ve tried by gill paul and the second one i didn’t finish, so i’m thinking maybe her writing might just not be for me. it’s a shame, because i’m terribly interested in so much of what she writes about.
i made it to chapter 43 before i gave up after realizing i felt zero connection to any of the characters, other than irritation at reg for the way he handled losing finbarr. i kept waiting for him to be more upset about it and he just...never was. why would you not ask a ten year old if they could swim before telling them to jump in the water?
i made it to chapter 43 before i gave up after realizing i felt zero connection to any of the characters, other than irritation at reg for the way he handled losing finbarr. i kept waiting for him to be more upset about it and he just...never was. why would you not ask a ten year old if they could swim before telling them to jump in the water?
fergusoncarissa1996's review
5.0
I loved the story and thought it was very well written. I didn't enjoy the Irish mother as much after the first half of the book but I still enjoyed it.
jeanz's review against another edition
5.0
INFORMATION ON THE BOOK DIRECT FROM HARPERCOLLINS
An extraordinary saga about life before and after the sinking of the most famous ship of all time. Women and Children First will be published to coincide with centenary of the sinking of the Titanic and Julian Fellowes' mini series of 2012.
The Titanic was the most magnificent ship ever built, offering every possible luxury to her passengers - yet on the night on the 14th of April 1912, she sank in the North Atlantic, leaving the lucky ones floating in wooden rowing boats, and the rest struggling for their lives in the icy water.
Women and Children First follows the fortunes of Reg, a handsome young first-class steward: Annie, an Irishwoman who is travelling to America with her four children to join her husband and start a new life: Juliette, a titled English lady who is pregnant and unmarried: an american millionaire and his wife who are trapped in a poisoned marriage: and a mystery passenger who never shows her face in public. All but one survive the sinking but each has to learn just how they can possibly carry on when they finally reach New York.
The sinking of the Titanic not only stole hundreds of lives, it blew apart the futures of those who survived. Coming to terms with the shocking events, the survivors form new attachments, make decisions with tragic consequences, and watch all their old certainties crumble. How can life ever be the same again when you have heard fifteen hundred people dying in the freezing water around you?
MY REVIEW
I truly loved this book, it came from the angle/perspective of what the survivors did after the sinking of the Titanic rather than just being about the incident itself, which was in itself different to most other books I have read.
I enjoyed learning about the ship, and its crew and their backgrounds and back stories too. Then we learnt about all classes of passengers, so there was someone in the book that all could identify with. which mother could fail to identify with the horrific decision that faced Annie? Should she get into a lifeboat with her youngsters or look for her eldest child who had gone missing in all the mayhem that ensued after the iceberg struck. I was initially a little shocked and disappointed in Reg, and the decision he made after the Titanic sank. I could understand him not wanting to ever get on a ship again. I honestly don't know how anyone of the survivors managed that task at all. I loved the mystery of the kind and generous Mrs Grayling and how eventually the reader hears the total truth of what tragically happened to her when Titanic sunk.
Obviously the actual true facts feature in this book, but the characters are of course fictional, you can believe there are truths within the fiction.
Gill Paul is very knowledgeable about the Titanic, and you can tell this lady author cared about the people on that ship and there stories even though this is a fictional creation. Gill must have done a lot of research into things like the food served on the ship, to the crew members individual duties as well as the facts of the protocols that would have been followed that fateful night out on the ocean.
I have to admit I had tears in my eyes when reading about the third class passenger Annie and of course Finbarr, though I also had a heavy heart and lump in my throat when we finally discover the truth of what happened to Mrs Grayling that night too.
This book makes you wonder How would you have behaved during the chaos and mayhem aboard the ship? What class would you have been in? Would you have survived? How would you have gone on? Would you have made the same, similar or totally different decisions than the characters in the book?
I think this book will appeal to those who love romance touched with tragedy as well as those fascinated by all things Titanic.
Did I enjoy the book? Yes Loved it. Would I recommend it? Yes its on my mums to read list already!
Would I read more by this author? Yes I would I already have plans to try and find a copy of the other Titanic related book written by Gill Paul. Would I read more about the Titanic? Yes, it may sound odd but it is something I feel myself strangely drawn to, and I have more fictional and factual books to be read and reviewed.
Available on 29th of March RRP £6.99 in paperback and ebook.
Available Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk £5.11 paperback or £0.99 on Kindle (an excellent price for a beautifully written extremely interesting, thought provoking book!)
An extraordinary saga about life before and after the sinking of the most famous ship of all time. Women and Children First will be published to coincide with centenary of the sinking of the Titanic and Julian Fellowes' mini series of 2012.
The Titanic was the most magnificent ship ever built, offering every possible luxury to her passengers - yet on the night on the 14th of April 1912, she sank in the North Atlantic, leaving the lucky ones floating in wooden rowing boats, and the rest struggling for their lives in the icy water.
Women and Children First follows the fortunes of Reg, a handsome young first-class steward: Annie, an Irishwoman who is travelling to America with her four children to join her husband and start a new life: Juliette, a titled English lady who is pregnant and unmarried: an american millionaire and his wife who are trapped in a poisoned marriage: and a mystery passenger who never shows her face in public. All but one survive the sinking but each has to learn just how they can possibly carry on when they finally reach New York.
The sinking of the Titanic not only stole hundreds of lives, it blew apart the futures of those who survived. Coming to terms with the shocking events, the survivors form new attachments, make decisions with tragic consequences, and watch all their old certainties crumble. How can life ever be the same again when you have heard fifteen hundred people dying in the freezing water around you?
MY REVIEW
I truly loved this book, it came from the angle/perspective of what the survivors did after the sinking of the Titanic rather than just being about the incident itself, which was in itself different to most other books I have read.
I enjoyed learning about the ship, and its crew and their backgrounds and back stories too. Then we learnt about all classes of passengers, so there was someone in the book that all could identify with. which mother could fail to identify with the horrific decision that faced Annie? Should she get into a lifeboat with her youngsters or look for her eldest child who had gone missing in all the mayhem that ensued after the iceberg struck. I was initially a little shocked and disappointed in Reg, and the decision he made after the Titanic sank. I could understand him not wanting to ever get on a ship again. I honestly don't know how anyone of the survivors managed that task at all. I loved the mystery of the kind and generous Mrs Grayling and how eventually the reader hears the total truth of what tragically happened to her when Titanic sunk.
Obviously the actual true facts feature in this book, but the characters are of course fictional, you can believe there are truths within the fiction.
Gill Paul is very knowledgeable about the Titanic, and you can tell this lady author cared about the people on that ship and there stories even though this is a fictional creation. Gill must have done a lot of research into things like the food served on the ship, to the crew members individual duties as well as the facts of the protocols that would have been followed that fateful night out on the ocean.
I have to admit I had tears in my eyes when reading about the third class passenger Annie and of course Finbarr, though I also had a heavy heart and lump in my throat when we finally discover the truth of what happened to Mrs Grayling that night too.
This book makes you wonder How would you have behaved during the chaos and mayhem aboard the ship? What class would you have been in? Would you have survived? How would you have gone on? Would you have made the same, similar or totally different decisions than the characters in the book?
I think this book will appeal to those who love romance touched with tragedy as well as those fascinated by all things Titanic.
Did I enjoy the book? Yes Loved it. Would I recommend it? Yes its on my mums to read list already!
Would I read more by this author? Yes I would I already have plans to try and find a copy of the other Titanic related book written by Gill Paul. Would I read more about the Titanic? Yes, it may sound odd but it is something I feel myself strangely drawn to, and I have more fictional and factual books to be read and reviewed.
Available on 29th of March RRP £6.99 in paperback and ebook.
Available Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk £5.11 paperback or £0.99 on Kindle (an excellent price for a beautifully written extremely interesting, thought provoking book!)
bookishbrownsbooks's review against another edition
5.0
A great book that I didn't want to put down. I love the way the characters are portrayed and how you really feel for them and their lives after the sinking. I don't normally enjoy 'historical' books but their is something about the Titanic story that compels and interests me.
hannahhaunts's review
4.0
I enjoyed the first half of this book much more than the second half. I found it hard to sympathize with most of the survivors that the story focused on, and even the main character, Reg, really began to bother me. In the end I liked the book well enough.
martha_sammut's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
casachess's review
1.0
This book has such a high rating, and now having read it, I'm really surprised. It's not the worst book I've ever read, and on the positive side, I did think the author captured captures nicely the chaos of the sinking while still sticking to the facts and not sensationalizing or demonizing people (looking at you, James Cameron). But that was about it as far as the good goes.
The characters all rotate POVs throughout the book, and for the most part, they seem pretty one dimensional. The dialogue is ridiculous - it sounds like these are people living in 2012, not 1912, and so that was annoying. There wasn't much of a time when I felt like I had really been transported to the setting, whether it was the Titanic, the Carpathia, or 1912 New York.
Then there was what happened to the characters afterwards. It was all so ridiculous, sometimes over-the-top, or overly sentimental and schlocky. These included a murder mystery, an attempted murder, a woman with the "second sight" who begins practicing spiritualism, and a romance and marriage. Everything at the end got wrapped up a little too neatly for me too, and then there was the epilogue. Dear God, the epilogue. These were fictional characters, but the epilogue was written as though they were real and the author was describing historical events. It was short, rushed, and some of what was described was simply not believable based on what had been written before.
I was looking forward to reading this book, because not many books or movies delve into the idea of what it would be like AFTER surviving something like the Titanic. But this one was a miss, for me.
The characters all rotate POVs throughout the book, and for the most part, they seem pretty one dimensional. The dialogue is ridiculous - it sounds like these are people living in 2012, not 1912, and so that was annoying. There wasn't much of a time when I felt like I had really been transported to the setting, whether it was the Titanic, the Carpathia, or 1912 New York.
Then there was what happened to the characters afterwards. It was all so ridiculous, sometimes over-the-top, or overly sentimental and schlocky. These included a murder mystery, an attempted murder, a woman with the "second sight" who begins practicing spiritualism, and a romance and marriage. Everything at the end got wrapped up a little too neatly for me too, and then there was the epilogue. Dear God, the epilogue. These were fictional characters, but the epilogue was written as though they were real and the author was describing historical events. It was short, rushed, and some of what was described was simply not believable based on what had been written before.
I was looking forward to reading this book, because not many books or movies delve into the idea of what it would be like AFTER surviving something like the Titanic. But this one was a miss, for me.
alisonfrenzel's review
4.0
I picked up this book after enjoying Gill Paul's The Secret Wife (although this one was much better), and unknowingly started reading it on the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. This story explores not only the terror of the sinking, but what the lives of the survivors may have looked like afterward. Gil Paul is a meticulous historian and her books reveal that. At the end of each book, she generously points out the facts and those she look liberty with--which I love. A great book to get lost in!
thesincoucher's review against another edition
3.0
I found the story fascinating and the characters were discernible one from the other, which is not easy because in a ship like the Titanic there are plenty. I was glued to the page for the most part and I think the suspense is really well maintained throughout the book. However, I did find that the female characters didn't have as much good will from the author as the male characters did. They are vilified for doing less bad things or just equally bad than the male characters while the latter are forgiven by the narrative in one way or another.