A review by weyheyitsrachel
Orphans of the Storm by Celia Imrie

dark emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Wow wow WOW.

For most of this book I was set on rating it 4 stars, but after reading the research notes, 5 stars it is!

This is a chilling tale of Marcella's terrible marriage to Michael Navratil and what happens when she tries to divorce him in 1911. It's tragic. It's heartbreaking. It will make you angry.
Some parts of this book I found to be particularly slow. However, once I was finished with the "flashback" parts describing how Marcella and Michael met - which set up the story - I found this book to be so much more enjoyable.
Once we're on the Titanic, everything starts moving quickly and I didn't want to put the book down! We end up meeting Margaret, an American traveler who is aboard the ship, and the characters' paths cross in a very unexpected way. I was weary of it fitting together with the rest of the book, but I found it to be done well.

My mind was BLOWN when I read the research notes. These were real people! The whole book I thought they were characters placed in the 1900s and I was going to learn about life back then with made up characters, but I ended up learning about REAL PEOPLE. I did my own googling and everything in this book is accurate. 

I will 100% be reading more historical fiction novels. If you're intrigued by European life in the early 1900s and the tragedy that is the Titanic, definitely read this one! Especially because it tells the stories of real people and real events.