I loved the premise of a Titanic heist. I also thought that the character cast was the most diverse I have read, not just in background but in the characters' hobbies as well. It was fun to read about an acrobat, an artist, a thief, and an actress coming together. That being said, while I found these to be interesting, I didn't find myself connected or invested in the storyline. Mostly, I kept reading because I wanted to see how the heist was going to be handled and how the Titanic sinking would be told. In the end, it was ok. There are other books by Adiba Jaigidar books I preferred more.

I really liked the premise, but wonder if listening to this as auto-generated audio might have impacted my reading experience - I found it a bit difficult to differentiate between the characters, their backstories, and their relationships, and therefore difficult to connect with them or feel the emotional arc of the narrative; I do wonder if generally there wasn't quite enough time to really delve into each of the POV characters. I did appreciate how the story was able to keep the momentum of the heist despite knowing that everything was counting inevitably down to the Titanic disaster.

This was a quick fun read.. or in my case listen since I got the audiobook from Netgalley.

This is a sapphic heist story set on the RMS Titanic. The four main characters are a thief, an acrobat, an artist, and an actress who all board the ship for one main goal, to find a jewel encrusted book. But a lot of hi-jinx and pasts come crashing together.

I love a good heist book and this one didn’t disappoint. A high seas adventure that reminded me of All Knives Out, where the characters are all pinned together to make the perfect heist.

A good heist tale with a fun and queer collection of characters! I normally don't lean toward historical fiction, but I enjoyed reading about the girls on the Titantic, which is obviously a very famous event in history. I will say that I thought the author vastly overused ellipses--it began to drive me crazy when there were 4+ on a page.

I liked the blurb of this book and that it was being compared to Ocean's 8. I'm all for a cast of strong girls who don't let society's rules govern them. Unfortunately for me, the heist plot didn't feel developed enough and I wasn't really getting the exciting crime vibes.

There are four main characters in this and I appreciated that there were two women of color and an LGBTQ+ romance. I do wish the book were longer and took the time to dig into the characters more, for the first half of the story I had a difficult time telling the girls apart. I also think the fast pacing and short book made this rush a bit, give me another hundred pages to really dive in.

There is a lot of action and definitely no slow parts, I just wanted more.

‘A Million to One’ by Adiba Jaigirdar was so good! Thrilling, fun, emotional, suspenseful, poignant, sweetly romantic, devastating…this book kept me on the edge of my seat, made me fall in love with all four girls, and made my heart absolutely ache in the most beautifully bittersweet way. And the audiobook just brought it all together, rearing to vivid life, for me. If I loved the ARC audiobook this much, I cannot wait to hear the official narrator, Sohm Kapila, read this when it comes out on December 13th! Highly recommend this one—just make sure you bring tissues.

𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘳𝘤 𝘈𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘣𝘺 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘴 (𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶!). 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯.

3.5
This book has pros and cons depending on the kind of reader you are. If you're a character based reader, you're going to love this one! The characters are so three dimensional and have so much depth. They're all very different, unique and lyou really end up loving all of them by the end.
If youre a plot based reader, this one might bore you a bit. The first 3/4 of the book is mostly learning about the characters and seeing them steal small things from other people. Things don't pick up and get really exciting until the last fourth of the book when they finally go through with the heist and the ship inevitably (obviously sinks). I think it would have been more interesting for the characters to pull off the heist sooner in the book and have them trying to keep from getting caught. I think it would have kept the plot moving a little more before the big finale when the boat sinks.
I saw a lot of similarities between A million To One and the movie Titanic. Just tiny things but it was fun to see! I also appreciated that the author added some much needed diversity to the setting!
Also, I did listen to the ARC audiobook of this. The narrator never changed her voice for any of the characters so I got confused sometimes on who was speaking. That said though, it was and ARC so hopefully it won't be like that in the finished product.
Over all I think this was a good book and would highly recommend it if (like me) you're obsessed with the titanic and it's story/history. And or especially if you like character based books. If that's the case, this one is definitely the book for you!
Big thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

my son and I loved this book. I love that we get to do these books together. he loved the titanic aspect of this book. He loves history.

A Million to One is a quick, easy read. A group of girls come together to con their way onto the Titanic and steal a valuable book with their unique set of skills. They don't all start out as friends, so their dynamic makes for some interesting tension at times, and it's sapphic, of course, which is always fun!

I loved the setting of this, as well as the general tone, which made for a largely enjoyable experience. I have to admit that I had a hard time fully tracking each character, how they're connected to each other, and ultimately, why it's worth caring about them. We are often reminded of why each person has agreed to this heist, and that helps, but I wish we had been following just two characters or that each of the main characters were more evenly developed. I can't help but feel that if each character had been fully developed, we wouldn't need to be reminded every couple of chapters which one misses her brother, which one is from Haiti, etc. Like, should there have been three instead of four, maybe?

In general, I also just had a tough time staying engaged with the story. Even with a built-in countdown to the ship sinking, the stakes felt oddly low. Once we get within a few hours of the Titanic sinking, the action picks up, which helped pull me back in. The end is also satisfying, and it wasn't quite what I expected.

I'm excited for this book to find its audience, because it's definitely out there!

Thank you to the publisher, audio company and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Adiba has a beautiful ease to her writing, and A Million to One was no different. I was so entranced by the story, it was easy to forget what ship they were on. I couldn't get over how fantastic this was! I am usually not the biggest fan of heist books, but when I heard sapphic and on the Titanic, I couldn't say no. I am so glad I gave it a chance!

Josefa, Emilie, Hinnah, and Violet have a variety of differences, but one goal brings them together- stealing a priceless work of art. It was hard to turn the audiobook off! I kept needing to know what happened next. It was thrilling, exciting, yet heartbreaking all the same. It brought such an emotional depth and different approach to the story we all know. It was riveting! This is one book you won't want to pass up on. The pining? On point. The thrills? Heart rate was up. The emotions? Everywhere. But, it was all worth it. This is incredible!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for allowing me to listen to an ALC of A Million to One!

This was book reads exactly how it was marketed. This is for fans of Titanic, who enjoy a band of unlikely comrades banned together to pull off a heist but make it sapphic! The gorgeous cover aided in helping me to envision the distinct characters.

While I choose not to spoil the book for users and will hold off my full review until release. I will share that I cared more about 2 characters more than the others and I choose to believe Adiba did that on purpose!

If you are a fan of Adiba or Titanic pick this one up!

I was SO excited for this one. I really enjoyed Adiba Jaigirdar's other books, and 'sapphic heist on the Titanic' ticks like, ALL the boxes for me.

And for the most part, it lived up to expectations.

The plot progressed smoothly without any hiccups and without stalling, which I appreciated.

The heist itself was a bit underwhelming, and they gave up on the initial objective pretty quickly, making the whole endeavor seem a bit pointless. However, it was written quite well and it kept my interest and had the appropriate amount of things kept back from the reader and reveals and such.

The part after the heist was actually more intense and kept my interest more. At first I didn't pay much attention to the dates and times at the beginning of each chapter, but towards the end the chapters got shorter and the timestamps sped up until it became a pretty intense countdown. Equally intense was the fact that the reader knows first that the Titanic is sinking (not a spoiler - we all knew it going in but we didn't KNOW know it. Or at least I didn't) and the tension builds quickly as we watch the girls separate and each have to discover that fact on their own.

I was confused about which character was which at first, but as the story progressed they each got more time to shine and I grew to appreciate each of them. Violet and Hinnah were maybe not as well-developed as Josefa and Emilie, but I still appreciated getting their POVs.

I liked the romance, and I also liked that it was very mild and was very much not the focus of the book. It was there in the small things if you looked for it, but it didn't overpower the heist storyline.

The ending was a bit of a shock as I didn't know to look up content warnings on the author's website, but upon reflection I feel like it was fitting and more realistic than the ending I was expecting. The final epilogue-like section took away some of the drama and tension of the ending and I'm not sure how I feel about it. On the one had I like it and it feels necessary, but on the other hand it leaves everything feeling a bit anti-climactic.

Some of my issues with the story could have stemmed from the fact that I listened to a 'digital voice galley' which is not the actual audiobook and is not read by a real person. So it is necessarily a bit robotic and it can make it hard to differentiate between characters. In the actual audiobook, I imagine they will have the four main characters either read by different people or read by a skilled voice actor who can give each girl her own 'voice.'

Overall I enjoyed this a lot and I would recommend it to readers who enjoy historical novels and heists and sapphic characters. I would however caution that it does not reach the intricacy or depth of heist novels like Six of Crows (not many do - perhaps it's not the best benchmark by which to judge this genre).

*Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Audio for providing a digital voice galley to review.

I enjoyed this book, as did my 3 year old. It was just interesting from the very start. It has some Tianic History in it, but keeps in interesting!

A high stakes game of theft on the seas! This one was so fun! It starts off fast - you get to know the group as Josefa does - for their talents. A thief. An artist. A acrobat. An actress. It's hard, at first, to see how their talents will go together but you quickly learn their strengths and weaknesses. And as the pieces fit together, I could't help but be completely swept away.

But you are always reminded that this is THE Titanic, as each chapter counts down the time they have to work woth. The countdown to when the Titanic will do what we all know it will do, hit an iceberg and go down. It was hard to know how all the pieces would play out and I wasn't prepared for all the twists and turns! It was a race, heart-pounding and gut-wrenching, to know how it all concluded. And it was so good! I'm so glad I gave this one a try! The mystery, the secrets, the love story - all were so well done.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

I would like to thank Harper Collins and Netgalley for providing me with a Voice Galley.

I have a very hard time finding historical fictions that I enjoy, so I was surprised when I enjoyed this one. I actually finished the voice galley in two days while working on sewing projects. I was not prepared for how this book ended despite having an idea on how it would end. This book is beautiful and tragic all at once. The characters are well written, and I loved getting to know them. A Million to One is based on a historical tragedy and Jaigirdar handled this topic very well. The final sections of the book had me tearing up. Overall, this was a brilliantly written book and I'm looking forward to checking out Jaigirdar's other works as well as any other future books she writes.

Anything involving the Titanic has always been a source of fascination for me. Pair that with a team of female characters involved in a heist on board? That made this title irresistible.

I listened to an automated voice galley ARC of this book which isn’t my preference, but it’s what I was approved for. Not being a stranger to the synthesized ARCs, I knew it might be hard to distinguish between characters – and it was. But I loved the diversity of the main characters both in ethnicity and backgrounds and the sweet romance between two of them.

I didn’t realize until after finishing that the Rubaiyat is an actual rare book that went down with the Titanic. That fact lent an air of authenticity along with the countdown of the sinking noted at the beginning of each chapter. The characters’ plan to steal the Rubaiyat is dangerous and fraught with unexpected roadblocks, but it comes with a big payout and it’s a risk they’re willing to take. Knowing their time is limited creates even more tension for the reader. Which of them will survive, if any?

A couple of things did disappoint me. It takes several chapters to actually get to the heist, and while the romance is adorable, I didn’t expect it to be such a large portion of the plot. That’s something that probably isn’t an issue for many readers, and while I don’t mind romance being part of a story, it overshadows the heist, which is one of the things that drew me to this book. The Oceans movies are aptly used as comp titles, but I was surprised that some identical/nearly identical plot points are taken directly from one of those movies and the Titanic movie (not the historical details).

A heist aboard the Titanic is a compelling concept, and I believe I would have enjoyed this book more with a human narrated audiobook or an ebook ARC.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Review will be posted December 2nd, 2022

“That is all the thrill I’ve ever needed.”

As soon as I saw that this book was about the Titanic and involved a Heist I knew I had to read it immediately!
This book is told in multiple pov's so we can see each girl's perspective and get some info on their talents.
We have Josefa, Emilie, Hinnah, and Violet all from different walks of life, with different talents that have led them to be able to pull off heists before, just not one with something this valuable and with this much at stake.
Of course we get to see the ship and how it looks from their second call perspective, but we also get to see how potentially people of color were treated on the ship. Which I haven't seen mentioned before in a fiction book, or even in a non-fiction book before. We typically only get to see points of view from straight white people, and mostly the first class.
The entire heist though could be put into jeopardy when an old grudge of one of the girls is someone who is close to the object they are supposed to steal. With this and some of the girls not feeling so good about completing the heist due to how dangerous it is things start getting even riskier, and one of the girls puts the entire heist in jeopardy after a mistake. This mistake while one done with good intentions ends up coming back to hurt them and strains the friendship as they start to question if they can truly trust each other.

Overall I loved this book. It was so much fun and I loved the friendships and how the girls worked together. Now while each of the girls have different talents as I mentioned above, some of them are a little bit better at moving into another person's talents than others. They work it out though and even when things get tense (which happens multiple times throughout the book) they find ways to work together to try and pull off the heist without getting caught. Which is something that sounds easier said than done, as the night of the heist is also the night that the Titanic struck the iceberg which creates its own chaos and mayhem that no one knows how to navigate.

The ending of this book was so tense, and had me needing to know immediately what was happening and if they would all make it off the titanic or not after they had been split up. The ending does have several sweet moments as well, and even a few surprises along the way.

I know a lot of you will be curious about the LGBTQIA romance and just know that it is subtle and is not the main portion of the storyline.

This was a disappointing read. I was expecting more excitement, especially with the running countdown toward the inevitable sinking of the Titanic. There were parts where I could feel suspense during the protagonists' painstakingly planned heist, but other moments that dragged. There were characters that were present for a time and then just kind of disappeared. What seemed to be the main objective wound up becoming lost, and the promised reward from the heist that was to set them all up for an easy life did nothing of the sort. As far as the title goes, the protagonists didn't stand a chance.

A Million To One is a YA sapphic novel by Abida Jaigirdar. Four unlikely friends come together for a heist and the biggest payout of their life: stealing a jewel-encrusted book from the Titanic. Josefa: the mastermind. Emilie: the artist. Hinnah: the acrobat. Violet: the actress. But what starts as a hesit quickly becomes a fight for their lives aboard a sinking ship.

First off, I listened to this as an automated voice galley with a synthetic voice. So my experiences might have been different reading the actual book. That being said, the "fake" voice didn't really bother me that much. I didn't really have an opinion on the narrator.

This novel wasn't the most amazing thing I've ever read and it also wasn't the worst. It was just completely in the middle for me and an okay use of ~3 hours of my time (listening at 3x speed). All in all, it was a little bit boring to me. I didn't get invested into the characters really, or the plot. The characters all blended together and half the time I couldn't tell who's POV it was. I don't think enough time was spent allowing the reader to really get to know each character.

The sapphic romance was cute and sweet, I suppose, but without an investment into the characters it felt very flat for me. Almost like I was watching two strangers fall in love.

The book did pick up towards the end which honestly made my final review of this book just average as opposed to less than.

I would love to recommend this to fans of hiest and ensemble books like Six of Crows, but I'm not sure I can. I think if you want a quick, sapphic romance with a sprinkle of danger then this books for you.


Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Audio for the voice galley of this novel. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

A Million to One is a young adult novel following four teenage girls pulling off a (fictional) heist aboard the Titanic. This plot and the beautiful cover were what pushed me to listed to the DIGITIZED (ugh) audiobook! Is is packed full of not only action and high stakes, but also unique, lovable characters. It also includes a sapphic romance! Overall I'd give this book 3.5/5 stars. It was fun and worth reading but I don't think I would pick it up again. I would have liked it more if the setting, which is so special and famous, would have felt more real.