Author: Shana Abe
Publisher: 31st August 2021 by Kensington Books
Pages: 352 pages
How I Read It: ARC book
Genre: historical fiction, Titanic
My Rating: 5 cups
Synopsis:
Perfect for fans of Jennifer Chiaverini and Marie Benedict, this riveting novel takes you inside the scandalous courtship and catastrophic honeymoon aboard the Titanic of the most famous couple of their time—John Jacob Astor and Madeleine Force. Told in rich detail, this novel of sweeping historical fiction will stay with readers long after turning the last page.
Madeleine Talmage Force is just seventeen when she attracts the attention of John Jacob “Jack” Astor. Madeleine is beautiful, intelligent, and solidly upper-class, but the Astors are in a league apart. Jack’s mother was the Mrs. Astor, American royalty and New York’s most formidable socialite. Jack is dashing and industrious—a hero of the Spanish-American war, an inventor, and a canny businessman. Despite their twenty-nine-year age difference, and the scandal of Jack’s recent divorce, Madeleine falls headlong into love—and becomes the press’s favorite target.
On their extended honeymoon in Egypt, the newlyweds finally find a measure of peace from photographers and journalists. Madeleine feels truly alive for the first time—and is happily pregnant. The couple plans to return home in the spring of 1912, aboard an opulent new ocean liner. When the ship hits an iceberg close to midnight on April 14th, there is no immediate panic. The swift, state-of-the-art RMS Titanic seems unsinkable. As Jack helps Madeleine into a lifeboat, he assures her that he’ll see her soon in New York…
Four months later, at the Astors’ Fifth Avenue mansion, a widowed Madeleine gives birth to their son. In the wake of the disaster, the press has elevated her to the status of virtuous, tragic heroine. But Madeleine’s most important decision still lies ahead: whether to accept the role assigned to her, or carve out her own remarkable path…
My Thoughts
‘Marriage especially is more than just hope and luck and a handshake. Marriage is work, enormous work, because it’s a living entity that needs everlasting attention. It will push you and bend you and test you, and if you’re not prepared for any of that, it will shatter you.’
This book was such an incredibly surprising read. It was fabulous! I am a fan of historical fiction as you well know but such tales become even richer when it revolves around true stories tied to unforgettable moments in history. Yes, the events surrounding the Titanic are here but it is not the focus of this story. This is the story of Madeline Astor (the second Mrs Astor) who married the famous John Astor, 29 years her senior. This is a story of their whirlwind romance and marriage, a story of the Gilded Age and the prejudices she was subjected to and we all know how the story ends aboard that fateful trip. Yet, my heart was weeping for Madeline and credit to Shana for writing such a heartfelt tale.
‘It came at them as a fortress, as a castle, as a painted feverscape towering above the ocean. It was the tallest, scariest thing Madeleine had ever seen, bearing down on them in a crest of freshly slaughtered salt water. Titanic arrived eating up the flat horizon.’
Shana’s writing and research is such that it gave what I felt to be a true insight into this love story of the early 1900s. She shone a light on all the established families and expectations, on the socialites and their hurtful gossip and those last frantic moments before the ship went down. I loved this book so much and felt that it was both an accurate and tasteful account of the times. I knew of the famous American Astor family but not of this infamous and controversial second marriage. Madeline was just a teenager and writing in the first person through a letter to her son, Shana sheds light on not only her personality but also the tale of her time spent with Jack Astor - brief as it was.
“They’ll come around,” he said. “They must.” But I didn’t see why they should. They were his set, not my own. I had nothing to offer them beyond myself, and they had already made their feelings about that resoundingly clear.’
Shana is also to be commended on bringing to life the sheer opulence of everything from the majestic New York homes, to the rugged beauty along the Nile, to all the glitter and glamour of those fateful few days aboard the remarkable Titanic. I became a part of Madeline’s world and I was mesmerised and ultimately heartbroken by all that occurred. I found the Reading Guide questions wonderfully reflective at the conclusion. Google was my friend as I looked up key figures such as Vincent from Jack’s first marriage, or Madeline’s sister Katherine, the homes they frequented and of course how their lives played out after I had turned the final page.
“You left him behind to die.” “I didn’t leave him behind! They wouldn’t let him on the lifeboat! They were only letting on women and children ...” “There are men everywhere out there,” he roared. “Men from Titanic all over this ship!”
The Titanic, as I stated, is not the sole focus here. It was, however, a striking way to conclude the book and to think it was all based on fact. I was aboard that lifeboat with Madeline that fateful night and wondered how anyone - especially someone so young, pregnant and alone - would ever truly recover. Shana has written this in such a way that I invested in the magic that was the love Madeline and Jack shared and how it was tragically cut so short. I highly recommend this story, remarkable in its truth and strength to the story of Madeline Astor.
‘The nature of hope is curious to me. It can sustain us through the darkest of times. It can buoy us above every reasonable expectation of despair. Yet hope can shatter us just as readily as the darkness can. People refer to it as false hope, but I think that’s misleading, because the feeling itself is painfully true. It is a treacherous hope, more precisely. A dangerous one.’
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
No comments:
Post a Comment