I was very lucky to have been able to procure an advanced copy of Maiden Voyages by Sian Evans from Netgalley and am very grateful for it! Maiden Voyages is such an amazingly written non-fiction book that gives a tremendous amount of detailed information pertaining to Women's History. Maiden Voyages is essentially about women who decided to use ships as a means of employment or to travel in the hopes of being able to reinvent themselves and become successful. It was a very fascinating read and I have come out with about fifty names of women who I want to continue reading and researching about. Violet Jessop, Edith Sowerbutts, Tallulan Bankhead, Mary Macleod Trump, and Victoria Drummond are just a few. I am sorry to say that before reading this book, I have never heard of any of these women which is a downright shame since they all lived extraordinary lives. I am indebted to Sian Evans for obtaining all of this wonderful information that allowed me and fellow readers to get to know these incredible women. I will definitely recommend this book to my library for purchase. It would be a great addition to the books we put on display for Women's History Month. I give this book a five out of five stars!

Maiden Voyage is definitely an interesting collection of stories about women workers and travelers onboard ocean liners during the liners’ “Golden Age.” However, I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would for two reasons: way too much detail at some points and way too much repetition at others. Both of these drawbacks made it difficult for me to keep reading at times.

Nonetheless, the book does have one outstanding virtue: it provides a great glimpse into what it was like to travel by ship during a time in which that was the only real way to travel across the world.

Maiden Voyages sounded so interesting. I thought I was going to get a lot of anecdotes about women traveling. I did to an extent, but that doesn’t really take place until the second half of the book. The first half was so full of unnecessary repetition that it took me a long time to get through all that. The book is very well researched. Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

This author has done her research, and what a gem of a book! A charming anthology of women's travel stories. I especially found the stories of those who worked on the Titanic, survived, and worked on another large ship shortly after quite fascinating. Maiden Voyages is a book to savor and take your time with. I recommend it for history lovers. Thank you St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

The term maiden voyage generally refers to a ship making its inaugural voyage. In this historical account of early 20th century ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean, there is another meaning for the term “maidens”. The stories are about women who traveled aboard large ships during the heyday of ocean travel. There were many female travelers who cruised the Atlantic as high society entertainment, but there were essential female workers aboard the vessels, too.

Overall, the stories about individual workers were fascinating, but the book was also laden with too many details especially in the introduction. My favorite story was about Violet Jessup, a stewardess who survived the sinking of the Titanic and continued to work on other ocean liners. Work was tiring about the ships, but the pay and tips were good enough for these women to support their extended families. Thank you to Net Galley for asking me to read about this unique time in world history.

This was one of the most gripping books I've read in a long time. We often forget how long it took women to be accepted into roles customarily held by men. This was also true in the marine industry.

Although documentary in nature, Maiden Voyages entertains the reader with true life stories of those women who worked on the various ships as stewardesses as well as the celebrities, royalty and intrepid women journalists who would stop at nothing to cross the Atlantic. The detailed descriptions of the ships' designs, menus and activities were also fascinating. It makes one nostalgic for the days when the ship WAS the destination.

Are you interested in the history of women sailing? Then this is the book for you! Maiden Voyages gives us an overview of how the golden age of ocean liners changed the lives of women from those traveling, sailing to a new home, or working aboard the great vessels. We get detailed looks into what it was like for those women who aboard aboard ocean liners and the stories of real women. who worked aboard the ships and in some cases, like the unsinkable stewardess, those who survived sinking ships. And while the ocean liners provided women with new opportunities, the ships also came with issues like trafficking and fighting off dangerous interest from men. The portraits of real stewardesses and their stories helped highlight the atmosphere and challenges the women faced in their careers.

While many of the research was new to me, there were still plenty of names and ships I recognized, like the Titanic and the Lusitania as well as famous women like Wallis Simpson. This book gave me a new perspective on those stories when it came to the women working aboard ships or sailing to new countries and how their jobs evolved as sea travel evolved.

MAIDEN VOYAGES

A glamorous fur and bejeweled movie star making an elegant entrance down a grand mirrored staircase. A stowaway hidden on a munitions ship traveling to England during the war. An Olympian sailing to America to escape from an abusive family. This book was terrific.

Maiden Voyages tells of women’s roles in ocean liner travel, mainly during the heyday of the early 20th century. The author, who’s great great uncle was a Cunard Chief Officer, has a wonderful way of sharing the dreams and fears and excitement of each of these women in their endeavors aboard these magnificent ships. I loved the strength and courage of the women of various ages and social status who took such brave leaps of faith into their future.

Before airplanes, these huge ships were the link between the old world of Europe and the new world of America. This book examines why women traveled; for work, pleasure, immigration, escape, professional ambitions, social ambitions, and to find potential mates. It also takes a look at the variety of positions women held on these ships from maids, hairdressers, swimming instructors, chaperones, housekeepers, cleaning and laundry staff, stewardesses, physiotherapists, masseuses, typists, and to eventually serving as pursers, officers, and captains.

The book also focused on the various roles women played during WWI and WWII both on the ships and within the shipping industry on land. Nursing and war reporting were highly valued skills during this time. Personal stories included those of Josephine Baker, Tallulah Bankhead, Hedy Lamarr, Edith Sowerbutts, and Mary Anne MacLeod.

A great deal of research went into the writing of this book and there are pictures and extensive notes and references.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Siân Evans, and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. I highly recommend it.

This was a fun and educational book about the women who crossed the Atlantic by sea mostly in the 1930’s. There are so many different types of women the book features and tells their stories. I liked hearing about all the different women who were traveling to sometimes better lives. The topic of this book was pretty unique too and I enjoyed learning from it.

Over a month ago, I was asked to read this book and give a review because I enjoy history and learning about all sorts of real facts. Frequently, I am able to spout out facts out of the clear blue and this is why I enjoy historical non-fiction.
This book was not easy reading, but I did learn about how stewardesses were employed with the various cruise lines. I was disappointed that the book did not go into depth about how the famous passengers were treated, and what was involved with the daily schedule. Once the book referred to the fact that the staff was up really early and didn't get off duty until very late. Learning about the life on board of a former olympic swimmer was the best part and really interesting. I just can't believe there weren't any on-board romances either between the staff or even the staff and passengers. None were mentioned.
The only description of the employees' cabins were a few paragraphs on how two roommates would have to get dressed in the mornings because there wasn't any room. Other than that, I had a hard time visualizing what everything looked like with the exception of the grand staircase.
Perhaps the only new event I learned about was when Thelma Furness found a "new friend" when she was traveling to and from the US for a little vacation with her sister and left the Prince of Wales in the care of Wallis Simpson. I thought all of that happened when Thelma had to go to console her sister in the custody battle for Little Gloria. All in all, the book was interesting, but seemed to get a little repetitive during the 1930's. For history lovers who really dislike fiction, this was fine. Interesting, but one I could put down and not be biting my nails to return to to find out what happens next!!!!
Thank you for the honor of being asked to read this book and give an honest review.

This book covers how women, from a variety of backgrounds, came to work or play on ships as cruise ship travel became a way of life for many. The book covers how women lived and worked on ships as well as how female passengers' lives changed because of ships. To me, the most fascinating parts were how these ships were used during and after both world wars. The book goes into details of post war recovery that I hadn't read about before. The author clearly did a great deal of research and uncovered some amazing stories of love, loss, and perseverance.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Maiden Voyages
by Sian Evans
Pub. Date August 10, 2021

What a great book! It was refreshing to read such a wonderful book with subject matter that was so unique.
I will be recommending this book and purchasing it for our library. I had no idea the impact that women had on this topic.
Thank you to NetGalley, Author Siân Evans, and St. Martin's Press for my advanced copy to read and review.
5 star

I really enjoyed this one. It was interesting and so different. Glad I read it. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

This was a fascinating book about the golden age of ocean liners told through the stories of women who traveled or worked on them. I've always been fascinated with ocean liners since I first learned about the Titanic. Combine that interest with my long history of working seasonal positions in Yellowstone and this book instantly caught my interest. I loved being immersed in not only the stories of the women working the ships but of those travelling on them as well. Working such personal stories into the chapters made history come alive and seem much more personal. I so enjoyed this book and am ready for my next ship journey!

Interesting book about women passengers and workers on trans-Atlantic ships. I loved the insight into the times and the stories of women who made the journeys, either for new horizons or for work. It included names that will be recognized, so interesting to see how some families started out in America.

It was an effort for me to finish this book. I enjoy reading women’s history and how previous generations of women paved the way for the rights we women now enjoy. Though it was well-researched, the books failed to capture my interest. There was a plethora of minute details, many of which were repetitive and/or unnecessary to start with, far beyond what was required to make the author’s point. The first few chapters were very repetitive, and the pacing was uniform throughout.

Thanks to NetGally and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Fascinating stories if the pioneering women who worked on the cruise liners in the beginning fo the 20th century- from the era of the Titanic through the end of WW2. Note to Hollywood- some of these women had fascinating stories that would make great movies. The author did a great job of pulling together all of the historic stories and factual tidbits, and bringing it all together into a compelling documentary style novel. Most interesting to me at least, is that there have always been women who wanted to do something more with their lives, than keep house and raise children. As early as 1912, these massive cruise liners made it a possibility for a woman to earn her own money and support herself and sometimes even her family.

I thought this was going to be more like an historical fiction novel or at least engaging nonfiction but unfortunately to me it read like a textbook. I found parts of it to be repetitive and the writing style was choppy. It wasn’t engaging or riveting and I was rather disappointed. That being said, the author did a tremendous job researching and I did learn some interesting facts here and there when my eyes weren’t glazing over. **Thank you to NetGalley for proving me with this free ebook in exchange for an honest review.**

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for sending me an ARC of Maiden Voyages by Sian Evans to read and review.
“Seafaring women tended to be self sufficient and independent characters.”
The evolution of ships for travel and the gradual employment of women is fascinating. Many got their start during the wars as members of the armed forces and showed amazing bravery and courage. Travel before airplanes crossed the Atlantic was as much a social event as well as a means of transportation. Ms Evans tells us about many famous people and the comfort, glamour and safety of ships since the Titanic.
I was privileged to have sailed on Celebrity Edge in early 2020 with Captain Kate Mc Cue, the first American woman to command a mega ship. And to have met her hairless cat, Bug Naked, who travels with her.
Maiden Voyages is non-fiction but the interaction of the women, passengers and crew, almost reads like a collection of short stories. One story is about Marks and Spencer supplying warm clothes for 90 children being sent away to safety from potential bombings on a ship escorted by women employees. Unfortunately the ship was torpedoed and sank.
Look for this book which publishes August 10, 2021.
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Maiden Voyages is a must read story. Full of interesting women and their lives it gave me real Eric Larson Dead Wake Vibes. Fast paced and an easy page Turner, it was a hard book to put down.
I couldn’t recommend it enough!!