The Second Mrs. Astor

As someone who loves 20th Century history, I've read so little about the Titanic. This is possibly the first book I've read where the sinking was so heavily involved. It was a great place to start.

Shana Abé's writing is beautiful. She captured Madeline's voice wonderfully and I liked how the narration was set up with her addressing her son. It made the story feel so much more personal. It did take me a little while to get into it, but the book's second half picks up nicely.

The Titanic wasn't involved as much as I'd assumed and hoped. The focus is more on Madeleine and Jack's relationship which leads up to them boarding the ship. From there, the story takes on a lot of emotions and tragedy. Though it was devastating reading through the shipwreck, this was my favorite part of the book and the slow beginning ended up adding so much to this portion of the story.