I've been a bit of a Titanic geek for as long as I can remember--my dad was fascinated by the story, and I was too after the wreckage was found when I was in high school. I'm still intrigued by new and different spins on the disaster, so when I saw this book I knew I had to read it. You don't hear much about the *families* of Titanic victims--what it was like to say goodbye or prepare for arrivals, hearing the first reports of the sinking, waiting for the final list of survivors, etc. I enjoyed that part of this fictional account of the event. I appreciated the glossary of Irish terms/expressions, and that it was necessary--dialogue seemed genuine. As for the rest, I say "meh." The book reads like a first draft in some ways; there is a lot of repetition that a good editor would have cut. With little exception, the characters were not very interesting, but they could've been with a bit more development and better details about the immigrant culture of that era. Readers unfamiliar with Titanic facts will be left wanting more, as this book is pretty much "the ship shook, people panicked, first class was full of dumb jerks, lots of people didn't make it to a lifeboat, sad sad sad." I certainly wouldn't expect a minute-by-minute account of the sinking, which has obviously been written about extensively elsewhere, but it was definitely not given the pages it deserved. Overall, the fictional parts all seemed a bit too tidy in an effort to give the book a happy ending. ( )

Another good book by Hazel Gaynor ( )

I enjoyed this novel based on an actual group of Irish young people from the same village who sailed on the Titanic. Be sure to read the author's information regarding this at the end of the novel. I knew much about the sinking of the ship since I have read a great deal about it, but this novel put a human aspect on it that made it more real and more horrifying. I would recommend reading the book rather than listening to it to see the Marconigrams and other pictures of interest scattered throughout the book. ( )

When Maggie leaves Ireland to begin a new life in New York, she never dreamed her passage in third class on the Titanic would take the turn it did. She left behind her boyfriend, Seamus, as well as her friends and relatives. Told through the time of 1912 and 1982, this beautiful story is haunting and captures everlasting love. I cried...the first book since PRINCE OF TIDES to leave me in tears. ( )

This is the story of Maggie Murphy, a young Irish girl of seventeen, who together with 13 others from her village, embarks on the maiden voyage of Titanic from Ireland to New York. Although a tale of fiction, the narrative is based on the journey of a real group of villagers who embarked on the ill-fated voyage. It is a truly moving and poignant story of adventure, love, loss, and moving on. A great-granddaughter of Maggie, Grace Butler, discovers Maggie's survival story and through her own research and writing, shares Maggie's life, some seventy years later, beginning in 1982. ( )