Review: The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig & Karen White

Title: The Glass Ocean

Author: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig & Karen White

Published: September 2018, William Morrow

Format: ARC Paperback, 416 pages

Source: Publisher

Summary:

From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Forgotten Room
comes a captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that
links the lives of three women across a century—two deep in the past,
one in the present—to the doomed passenger liner, RMS Lusitania.

May 2013
Her
finances are in dire straits and bestselling author Sarah Blake is
struggling to find a big idea for her next book. Desperate, she breaks
the one promise she made to her Alzheimer’s-stricken mother and opens an
old chest that belonged to her great-grandfather, who died when the RMS
Lusitania was sunk by a German U-Boat in 1915. What she discovers there
could change history. Sarah embarks on an ambitious journey to England
to enlist the help of John Langford, a recently disgraced Member of
Parliament whose family archives might contain the only key to the
long-ago catastrophe. . . .

April 1915
Southern belle Caroline
Telfair Hochstetter’s marriage is in crisis. Her formerly attentive
industrialist husband, Gilbert, has become remote, pre-occupied with
business . . . and something else that she can’t quite put a finger on.
She’s hoping a trip to London in Lusitania’s lavish first-class
accommodations will help them reconnect—but she can’t ignore the spark
she feels for her old friend, Robert Langford, who turns out to be on
the same voyage. Feeling restless and longing for a different existence,
Caroline is determined to stop being a bystander, and take charge of
her own life. . . .

Tessa Fairweather is traveling second-class
on the Lusitania, returning home to Devon. Or at least, that’s her
story. Tessa has never left the United States and her English accent is a
hasty fake. She’s really Tennessee Schaff, the daughter of a roving con
man, and she can steal and forge just about anything. But she’s had
enough. Her partner has promised that if they can pull off this one last
heist aboard the Lusitania, they’ll finally leave the game behind. Tess
desperately wants to believe that, but Tess has the uneasy feeling
there’s something about this job that isn’t as it seems. . . .

As
the Lusitania steams toward its fate, three women work against time to
unravel a plot that will change the course of their own lives . . . and
history itself.

My thoughts: Is there anything better than reading a book by three of your favorite authors? I love that these three gals have written yet another stellar book together…and one that is impossible to tell who wrote what part. I adored their first adventure as a writing team – The Forgotten Room, so I couldn’t wait to see what came next…and I definitely was not disappointed. 

 This book is such a beautifully written story about the fateful voyage of the Lusitania – a voyage I am ashamed to admit I didn’t know much about. I loved the way the story was told – this time with one of the characters, Sarah, being in the present day (2013), and two of the characters, Caroline and Tessa, being in the past (1915) in the same time period. I haven’t seen that before and found it very interesting. 

All three women are very strong, well-developed characters and I was equally invested in all their story lines…each time the book would switch to another section, I was disappointed to leave the one we were just with, but looking forward to catching up with whoever we were now joining up with, if that makes sense. The characters just beg you to want to follow them and care about them.

The mystery that is set up will keep you engaged and is quite intricate and well thought out. It slowly unravels and there are some unexpected little twists and turns to keep you on your toes. And of course, it wouldn’t be a 3W book without some romance thrown in. There are love triangles that will keep you guessing all the way through, and might not go the way you expect!

I loved this book – it has a little bit of everything and as much as I devoured it, I had to pace myself so as to not read it too fast because I didn’t want it to end too soon. I definitely recommend this book to fans of historical fiction – you won’t be disappointed!