On April 15, 1912, three women climbed into Lifeboat 21 and watched in horror as the Titanic sank into the icy depths. They were strangers then… affair and fears that everything beautiful is slipping from her grasp. And Anna Halversson, a Swedish farm girl in search of a fresh start in America, is tormented by the screams that ring out from the water. Is one of them calling her name?
Twenty years later, a sudden death brings the three women back together, forcing them to face the impossible choices they made, the inconceivable loss, and the secrets they have kept for far too long.
more
I liked how the book started out as we got background on the three main characters- Charlotte, Esme, and Anna – who ultimately end up in a lifeboat together when the Titanic begins to sink. Throughout the book, the various chapters alternated between the three women, giving an idea of how events unfolded from their perspective. We got to read about how the women’s lives turned out after the tragedy and the events that unfolded that lead them to one another again. Given how the women were before the Titanic, some of their lives turned out quite different than might have been expected. I enjoyed Anna the most as she was the most honest of the three. I received an ARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley – my opinions are my own.
I’ve always been fascinated by stories about the Titanic so I was excited to read On A Cold Dark Sea. The story is told from the alternating viewpoints of three very different women. We learn a bit about each woman’s past, her experience with the tragedy and in her life after. On A Cold Dark Sea was a captivating tale of survival and starting over. I have read other books by Elizabeth Blackwell and enjoyed them but she outdid herself with this book!
When I found out that this book was about the Titanic, I almost didn’t read it. I’ve read books about the Titanic and seen the movie a dozen times so what could possibly be new that would interest me in another book on the subject. I will tell you strongly – I was wrong, very very wrong. This is another look at the story told in a unique and interesting way and based on deep research by the author. I loved this book!
The book is told in four parts about three main characters so in each section, we read the viewpoint of each of the characters. The four sections of the book are Before, After, On the Life raft and Aftermath. In before, we meet the three main characters and find out how they ended up on the Titanic. The aftermath takes place twenty years after the tragedy where we find out how these characters lived their lives after the tragedy. The characters are all from vastly different socio-economic levels – Charlotte is a con artist, Esme is a member of the very rich and Anna is a Swedish farm girl. Three women who never would have met, end up on life raft 21 together and it changes their lives.
Overall, this was a wonderful, well told novel and I highly recommend it.
Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
I really enjoyed On a Cold Dark Sea by Elizabeth Blackwell. Finding out my book club was reading something about Titanic peaked my interest, and I surely wasn’t disappointed by this book. From the pacing, to the weaving of the three characters, Elizabeth Blackwell certainly is an author I’ll keep my eye on.
This story is told by three women. A con artist–Charlotte Digby, a wealthy American–Esme Harper and a Swedish farm girl in search of a fresh start in America–Anna Halversson. The first section of the book introduces the three women in their own chapters that tell the stories of what led them to eventually board the Titanic. The second part follows the women in their lives twenty years after they survived the sinking. As fate goes, the three were placed in the same lifeboat despite their vastly different backgrounds. While on the lifeboat the reader gets glimpses at what transpired on the lifeboat before reaching New York safely. The third section, however is where the good stuff takes place, where Blackwell takes a closer look at the night of the sinking and what transpired on the lifeboat. The final part, well, I don’t want to spoil it.
I found Blackwell’s writing of each of the three characters to be so rich in detail and multifaceted that it kept me wanting to delve deeper into the book to find out how each of them end up. Even with their flaws and quirks, it was easy to see myself in each of the characters and try to relate to how they would handle themselves in their situations.
I found Blackwell’s description of how the characters saw the sinking of the Titanic from the lifeboat so mesmerizing, like I was right there with them watching it slowly disappear into the cold, icy waters:
“There is a hypnotic quality to the ship’s leisurely descent. Esme imagines describing the scene to her friends, sometime in the future. The words ‘tragically magnificent’ come to mind, and she is swept up in the self-important gratification that comes from witnessing history.”
While some would argue the pace of the book was slow, I found that it gave it the necessary breath of fresh air which was needed when you take in the context of what the author is writing about. The sections allow for the reader to move through the timing of the three character’s lives and how this event impacted not only their own lives, but the people who cared and loved for them too.
While I normally stay away from historical fiction novels, I found this book to be captivating, haunting with the historical details and full of phenomenal writing by Blackwell. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves riveting time pieces.
Read more of my review here: https://bit.ly/2UqHSAI
A realistic fictional tale of three women who shared the same lifeboat as the Titanic sunk into the cold dark sea. Told from alternating viewpoints, we get a before, during and after look into the lives of a con artist, a first class passenger having an adulterous affair, and a Swedish immigrant whose lives become linked on that fateful night, to resurface years later. The story of the Titanic is haunting. Regardless of how many articles and books I’ve read, not to mention that I’ve seen all the movies, I am still riveted – and enjoyed this book.
On a Cold Dark Sea by Elizabeth Blackwell is a story of the impossible choices we made when faced with tragedy. On April 15, 1912, three women were among survivors in Lifeboat 21 and watched in horror as the unsinkable Titanic sank into the icy depths of the Atlantic ocean. Con artist Charlotte Digby lied her way through London and onto the Titanic. The disaster provided the chance at a new life and she is determined to keep her past a secret. Esme Harper is a newlywed, returning to America from her honeymoon. On the night of the sinking, she makes a sudden choice that would change her life forever. Anna Halversson, a Swedish farm girl, is tormented by the screams that rang out from the water. Did one of them call her name? After the tragedy, the three women went their separate ways, never speaking about the events of that night. Twenty years later, a sudden death brings them back together, forcing them to face the choices they made that night, the inconceivable loss and the secrets they kept all those years.
I have been fascinated by the Titanic sinking since high school. On a Cold Dark Sea is a different story featuring the famous tragedy. It didn’t rehash why the sinking happened but told what happened from three different perspectives, from the different classes aboard the ship. It is a story of three very different women from very different backgrounds brought together by a series of events. I enjoyed the story as there was no clear hero/heroine or villain. Each of the three women had reasons to carry a guilty conscience. Did their actions that night cause the death of someone they knew on the ship? The characters were written as real people with real decisions and real consequences. The secrets that publicly would have ruined them as well as ate away at their souls. One character laments that her decision for one man over another was “her greatest love and her greatest disappointment.” Even after 109 years since the tragedy, the events on the Titanic and the aftermath still captures our attention. I highly, highly recommend On a Cold, Dark Sea.
On a Cold Dark Sea is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook.
The book sounded like an interesting read – three women of different backgrounds surviving the Titanic, and their lives afterward. The author did do an adequate job of research and combining the facts alongside the fictional characters in the storyline. But… the first half of the book was very flat. Then, about midway through, the story did pick up and become interesting. The plot thickened as the survivor’s secrets, grief and psychological wounds were revealed bringing the characters back together years later.
Overall, it was an easy read with the most interesting part being the Author’s Notes at the end.
Author Elizabeth Blackwell often says that before she started this novel, she spent quite some time wondering whether the world really needed another Titanic novel. Well, if the story is this, I’d say: definitely yes!
In its essence, On a Cold Dark Sea is a simple enough story. And it is indeed about the Titanic. It isn’t a story just set on the liner or a plot involved with the events of the sinking. That faithful night and what happened on Lifeboat 21 casts its shadow on the entire book and the lives of the characters. Facing those events finally unlock all the characters’ personalities.
What I find particularly fascinating is the structure of the story, which is what creates the meaning of the story. The basic idea is that what happened on Lifeboat 21 (and it is nothing spectacular in terms of storytelling) interrupts the course of the lives of all the people on that boat and pushes them in a different, unexpected direction, but also creates secrets that are buried with the memories of that night.
Instead of following the events in a linear way, the plot twists and turns around them, going up and down the timeline. This creates mystery but also meaning, because events are connected not by the neutral link of time, but by that of relations and causes and effects.
I really really liked it.
We follow the three main characters – Esme, an American wealthy woman; Charlotte, a British journalist who used to be a swindler; and Anna, a Swedish immigrant – basically from their childhood and it’s very easy to become attached to them as we see their expectations bloom up to the night of the sinking. They illustrate the diversity of the people who historically were on the Titanic and give the story a sense of universality. But they are also their own characters and we care about them and what happens to them.
I found Charlotte the most relatable, and maybe it’s also the author’s favourite. It’s true that an equal time is devote to all three women, but the story does start and end with Charlotte who’s also the one that gets the change in motion in the middle of the novel. She’s unconventional and spunky, truly a fantastic character.
A good read.
This book was not exactly what I had expected, but it was so good that I spent a day doing nothing but reading, something I haven’t done in a long time!
Three very different women survive the Titanic disaster, their lives coming together, finally, in a measure of purpose, understanding and forgiveness. Don’t miss this great read!
Fascinating characters and truly haunting world-building. I could not put it down.
Favorite Quotes:
…for the rest of his life, the pitiful tableau they formed was the first image that sprang to mind when he thought of the Titanic. The handsome young man in his evening dress, eyes haunted, one hand pressed protectively against his companion’s back. There was a girl hovering nervously behind them—a maid, by her cowed bearing and black dress. And then there was the lady, swathed in a fur coat over a shimmering green gown, a vision of ruined elegance.
Mr. Harper looked as if he hadn’t enjoyed himself since the last century. He offered Esme a wan smile, his cheek muscles straining with the effort.
She’d seen statues with more spirit than Mr. Harper.
Anna had never had new clothes of her own; she had always worn her sisters’ castoffs. Now, she would have a hand-me-down husband. Perhaps that was the best she could hope for.
There is a hypnotic quality to the ship’s leisurely descent. Esme imagines describing the scene to her friends, sometime in the future. The words “tragically magnificent ” come to mind, and she is swept up in the self-important gratification that comes from witnessing history.
…all those men who did their duty and went down with the ship. It sounds like a noble sort of death, but it isn’t: it’s loud and painful and terrifying.
One large picture window downstairs, two smaller windows on top, the sort of stolidly respectable dwelling the poor aspire to and the rich dismiss.
My Review:
I rarely read historical fiction and am undeniably choosy when I do. And I don’t mean to be self-aggrandizing or boastful when say I chose exceedingly well when I picked up this unexpected jewel. I quickly fell into Ms. Blackwell’s well-crafted vortex and effortlessly assimilated into the world of these fascinating and well-drawn characters. I was essentially held captive, willingly that is, as I was enthralled and entranced by Ms. Blackwell’s emotive and powerful word voodoo. Her writing was high evocative and vividly descriptive, I held strong visuals in my head and could almost feel the damp chill while the characters were in the lifeboat and bobbing in the frigid arctic waters. This was a heart squeezing and thoughtfully written story, this talented scribe has mad skills!
On a Cold Dark Sea by author Elizabeth Blackwell is a historical fiction which I thoroughly enjoyed! On the night of April 15, 1912, three different women have a lifesaving encounter on lifeboat 21, which has been let down from the sinking Titanic in the cold dark Atlantic.
Mischievous Charlotte boards the newest ship of the White Star Lines, the Titanic, with her husband Reggie, and his brother Georgie. Anyone watching would think what a nice little family, but sometimes things are not as they seem.
Esme Harper is with her husband Hiram on the Titanic as they make their way back to America after their honeymoon. Esme has a secret affair while on the ship with a young man she had met during her time in Paris. As lifeboat 21 is being dropped away from the sinking ship, Esme looks up and sees Hiram standing at the rail and then Charlie Van Hausen drops into the little boat.
Anna Halversson is a Swedish farm girl who has a chance to accompany her friends Emil and Sonja to the United States in the third class steerage on the Titanic. Sonja is going to America to be married to Joseph, Emil’s brother. As the ship sinks further into the icy water Anna, Sonja, and Emil drop into the dark depths of the Atlantic and try to reach a lifeboat.
I won’t post spoilers, but more of the complete details of the tragic night unfold as the story progresses. Maybe there could have been more survivors in lifeboat 21. Read the story, it is haunting!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book
I’m always intrigued with stories about the Titanic. I’ve read In the Shadow of Lakecrest by the author and enjoy her writing style. I thought the author did a great job providing the reader a historic fictional account of 3 women who’s lives were in different social classes all end up on the Titanic and eventually in the same life boat. I really enjoyed the stories of each woman prior to their journey to America and also after they were rescued. I look forward to reading more by this author.
On A Cold Dark Sea is a well written novel chronicling the lives of three young women and how the tragedy of the Titanic intertwined their lives together forever. Elizabeth Blackwell has written a fast paced, sometimes choppy, yet well thought out story line. She did an excellent job making the reader feel connected to the characters lives and their emotions that fateful night.
I would recommend this novel to those with a love for historical fiction or the Titanic.
I have read several books with the Titanic as the setting and On a Cold Dark Sea is one I couldn’t stop reading. The Titanic tragedy draws me and so I was eager to read this book. The story was so well written and I really liked the way it was told from the perspectives of the three main characters. The story was developed beginning with their separate lives before they found themselves on the Titanic, then on the Titanic and the sinking with them on a lifeboat, and then the afterward story of what happened to them years later and how the tragedy made their lives different than they planned. The fate that put them all on the Titanic and how they became connected was traumatic. I felt the anguish, the horror, the shock, the loss as each character experienced the sinking. There were surprises in their stories I never expected at all. I felt the emotions of healing and putting their lives together as the story came to it conclusion. Elizabeth Blackwell did amazing writing this book and I would recommend it. TY!
I enjoyed this book. This is the first time I’ve read a fictional story of the Titanic.
This story follows the lives of 3 women who survived the sinking and managed to go on with their lives. Overall this was an enjoyable read and the storyline easy to follow.
I voluntarily read an advanced copy of this book.