I enjoyed reading The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn. The main character, Elinor Coombes is introduced as the naive young daughter of a successful father. As the story progresses, Elinor is met with more and more challenges. Despite her young age and posh upbringing, she rises to each challenge and becomes a character you can't help but root for! The Lost Passenger would be a great book club read. If you enjoy historical fiction, this would be a good choice for you. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced digital copy.

I was so happy to get this ARC. I always enjoy historical fiction and I loved this one about a passenger on the Titanic. I thought the details and the emotions were very well written. I really felt for the main character’s dilemma. I was happy that I could never quite figure out how it would wrap up until the very end. I thought the ending was well done and not rushed.

This was an awesome adventure! Of course I say that about all Titanic books. Anything Titanic I love.
Elinore is a woman before her time and I really admired her and her outspoken ways. She really is a woman before her time.
I'm so glad that I was t born into High Society. It's really too much. Money isn't everything as Elinkd proves to us readers..
What made me admire her more was her love for her son. Now, that is true love.
I did NOT like Fredrick or his faultin family so I do t blame Elinore one bit for what she did. A very brave lady.
What a weird way of finding out who you truly are and how you choose to do it.
5 stars from me for keeping me invested from the beginning. I really enjoyed this and didn't want it to end. I'm thinking about these characters especially Elinor.
My thanks for a copy of this book. I was NOT required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine.

Elinor is the “cotton kings” daughter and marries a Lord, quickly realizing he only wanted to marry her for her father’s money. After having their son, Teddy, Elinor realizes this isn’t the life she wanted. Convincing her husband to go on the Titanic with her father, her and Teddy survive and she takes over a fellow passengers identity so she doesn’t have to return. I really enjoyed this historical fiction and it kept me engaged - it went through before, during and after the sinking!

Elinor Coombes has a better-than-average life. Her father has a very successful business in cotton and fabrics. As the only child, Elinor grew up around the business. Her natural inquisitiveness spurred her interest in and understanding of her father's business. The inheritance laws do not allow female children to inherit property or businesses. If only something could be done to change the law! Elinor's mother died when she was small. She hadn't been invited to parties or balls until a neighboring estate invited them to a New Year's ball. She attends with her father and is swept off her feet by the son of an earl. Life on her husband's family estate is dreadful. Elinor misses home and the cheerful presence of her father. When the Titanic makes her maiden voyage, her father promises to take her along. Although her husband doesn't want to go, the family embarks on the journey. Elinor survives the sinking but realizes that the deaths of her husband and her father dictate her return to England and the family's estate. Instead of identifying herself with her name, she assumes the identity of her nanny/maid who perished with the ship. Will she be able to fade into the background in America? She fears discovery. Can she live with being someone else?

This book is reminiscent of the Titanic movie. A young girl dreads the future awaiting her and takes measures into her own hands. Society expected upper-class women to act in a certain manner and guard the long-held family traditions. Elinor chafed against this narrow role. Becoming another person is difficult and she travels a bumpy road. The author describes the post-traumatic stress Elinor lives with vividly. How could anyone survive such emotionally devastating trauma? Elinor is a character that you feel drawn to as she decides to change her life. Her struggles, both major and minor, shape her character. Elinor rejects conventional British society and embraces her freedom in America. The trauma she has endured shapes her into an admirable person, one the reader will eagerly hope for.

The author excels at description whether it is the glamor of the Titanic stateroom or the wretched poverty of the Lowen East Side of New York City. The main characters are multidimensional and realistic. She has crafted a strong-willed heroine in Elinor and although times may be different, it is never too late to show women how to be courageous.

Thank you Random House, Megan Whalen, and Frances Quinn for providing me with an early reader's copy.

The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn is a compelling historical drama set in the wake of the Titanic disaster, exploring themes of reinvention, and class constraints. Elinor Coombes is a young mother trapped in an aristocratic marriage, with limited access to her son. When she embarks on the Titanic with him, the tragic sinking becomes an unexpected opportunity for escape. Faking her own death, Elinor seizes a new identity and heads to America, aiming to carve out an independent life. However, her past resurfaces in this new world, challenging her to protect both her child and her hard-won autonomy.

You immediately are thrown into 1910s New York and the limits for women during that time. Imagine going to a new country, knowing noone and forging your path from there. She is so brave! Elinor’s journey is fraught with emotional and logistical struggles, blending survival instincts with a longing for liberation. Her story is one of resilience, exploring what people will risk for a second chance, especially when the stakes include family and freedom. The opportunity to create a new life fills her with joy and hope, but she's constantly looking over her shoulder, not knowing who to trust.

With vivid period details and a nuanced portrayal of early 20th-century societal norms, The Lost Passenger resonates as both a suspenseful and deeply emotional tale of self-discovery and love. The novel’s blend of personal transformation against a richly historical backdrop offers a gripping experience for readers drawn to stories of survival and reinvention

The Lost Passenger was a wonderful book from the very beginning. Throughout the entire book you cared about every single person. I felt like I was right there with the characters so many times in the book, especially when the Titanic was sinking. I think this is the best book I have read all year and have recommended it to so many people.

Elinor dreams of romance and believes she’s found it in the wealthy Fredrick Coombes. Unfortunately, her husband only wanted her for her family’s hard earned money. Elinor hates her life with the snobby Coombes family and only resents them more when they insist her son be raised by a nanny. When the family takes a trip on the Titanic and it sinks, Elinor snatches the opportunity to start a new life with her son. She hopes it will be easy to disappear into the crowded city of New York but she knows there’s always a chance of being found…

I truly enjoyed this book. Elinor is headstrong and speaks her mind, something that her husband’s aristocratic family hates. What really made me like Elinor, though, was her love for her son, Teddy. My own son is around the same age and I was reading, I couldn’t help but ask myself would I make the same choices; the answer is yes, yes I would.

I loved seeing Elinor adjust to life in a crowded apartment and having to learn normal domestic skills for the first time. It again proved what she’s willing to go through to give her son a good, normal life where he won’t be forced into an aristocratic role.

The only reason this book wasn’t a five star read was because the Titanic section was so short. The first part of the story was Elinor getting married, trying to adjust to her new role and having Teddy. The Titanic voyage takes up maybe 15% of the book after that and then the rest is focused on Elinor’s life in New York. I LOVE anything to do with the Titanic so I was hoping for more. Elinor and Teddy were the first off the ship so she really doesn’t witness any of the chaos on board. She’s able to see it from a distance but that isn’t quite as immersive.

Though I did hope for more about the Titanic, The Lost Passenger is still an excellent story about a mother’s love and determination.

Elinor is a new-money rich, British woman who finds herself married into a family seeking her family’s money with a loveless and emotionally abusive relationship. She is isolated from her only remaining family and gaslit into limiting her contact with her son after his birth by her mother in law.

When her father provides the opportunity for Elinor to board the titanic with her son and husband, she jumps at the opportunity and manipulates her husband into agreeing. When the Titanic sinks, Elinor assumes the identity of a poor pregnant woman, Molly, who was caring for her son on board and convinces the woman’s distant family in New York to take them in. Leaning on the kindness of the people she is manipulating, Elinor builds a new life for herself and her son with hard work but she lives in fear of being caught.

While this was a quick and easy read, I struggled with more than 25% of the book passing before we even hear about the Titanic in earnest. There was so much opportunity to show character development on board the ship, but very little of that occurred. The titanic itself was a small moment in the story, and I expected to see much more of its grandeur. The first 1/4 of the book was intended to make the reader feel bad for our protagonist, but she is a rich, manipulative, naive, whiner with no conscience. She is not innocent in her manipulative behavior from very early on. Did I hate her mother in law? 100%. But… What Elinor did to Molly’s family was despicable. I can see where Elinor puts motherhood and her son before other people, but there were not enough redeeming qualities in her character. Most of the characters. Except poor, innocent Molly and her amazing family in NY.

The ending, however, I thought was very sweet.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book caught my eye with the cover and description. I am a sucker for historical fiction and stories about the Titanic.
At first I thought like most Titanic books, this was going to be a tragic love story but I was definitely caught of guard. It was a slow start in the beginning with the lead up to the ship sinking but when the ship sank and Elinor had to make the biggest decision of her life things really kicked into gear. Elinor/Molly was such an inspiration as not only a women but as a mother to do what was best for her well-being and for the future of her son. She followed her own dream and started life anew on her own terms.
Thank you NetGalley, Penguin Random House, Frances Quinn for an advanced e-ARC of this book.

“The Lost Passenger” is a historical fiction book by Frances Quinn. This book follows Elinor, the daughter of a wealthy cotton mill owner, who marries a broke aristocrat. The aristocrat not only lives with his overbearing parents at the family estate, but he’s also in love with someone else. Elinor is miserable for a variety of reasons. Even after the birth of her son, Elinor yearns to be free of her husband’s family. Things look up when Elinor’s father books passage on The Titanic … and, well, that trip didn’t end as Elinor expected. However, Elinor steals another woman’s identity and starts a new life for herself and her son in New York City - which takes grit, determination, and some lying to the family she’s now living with. About half of this book is taken up setting the scene for the trip to New York. While this makes sense, there also seemed like a lot of repeated emotional agony for both Elinor and her husband. While I wanted to cheer on Elinor (forget her husband, he needed to grow a few spines, but I’m not really sure he cared much about anything), she truly didn’t start developing as a character for me until the second half. Then I wanted to know more about her resourcefulness and grit. While her street smarts were shown on the page, it felt a little too late, because (for me) the second half could’ve been most of the book. Overall, this wasn’t a bad book - but if felt a little lackluster until the fateful Titanic trip.

This is a great read! Elinor believes she has her 'fairytale' wedding and marriage but soon finds out things are not always what they seem. Heartbroken and determined to start anew, she fakes her and her son's death on the Titantic and poses as a friend she quickly made and lost aboard. Elinor quickly learns what hard work means but she also discovers a resilience and fight she didn't know she had. A wonderful read for anyone who enjoys reading historical fiction and personal growth stories!

This historical fiction book is an ultimate survival story. Elinor and her young son survive the sinking of the Titanic while other family members do not. She has her reasons for not wanting to be known as a survivor so she takes on the identity of another passenger. Her strength she herself was unaware of comes forward as she establishes a new and completely different life for herself in this new country. The author’s writing transports you to the time and place of the story and makes you root for Elinor.
Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for this advanced eGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.
#TheLostPassenger #FrancesQuinn #NetGalley

This book was one of the best I've read in awhile. It's a historical fiction, which I love. It takes place around the time the Titanic sunk and follows a fictional character on her journey on the Titanic and her life after. Elinor was such a likeable character and her feelings as a mother resonated with me completely. This book is so well written.

The Lost Passenger tells the story of Elinor Hayward, the daughter of a successful businessman who finds herself married to a man who married her for ulterior motives and does not love her.

The Lost Passenger describes Hayward's married life, the life of society, and what love for a child can land, which in this case, lands to life in a,different country, a life previously unknown and learning the true meaning of family.

This book is definitely for female historical fiction readers who love to see how life changes can lead to unexpected actions which lead to new lives.

This book was so tough at the start to see the frustration that Elinor had as a new wife and a mother of a man/ family who's only purpose was to use her for her fathers money and make sure there was a male kin. It had me heated for sure!!!. It was amazing to see her strength grow and find a family out of friends and go through changes. This book is a spin off of the Titanic if Rose was already married to Kal with the similarity that she chose a different life than the Rich and Ugly of an estate woman. I really did love the intensity of this book as a woman in the 1920s whether she was poor or rich; the characteristics that were demanded from others.

I love historical fiction regarding the Titanic and this was no exception! The first half of the story revolving around Elinor’s life at Winterton Hall was a little slow and drawn out, even though you felt awful for her at the way she was treated. As soon as she boarded the ship though, it picked right up and was a masterful piece of work. The description of the ship and the way first class passengers acted on board was so intricately researched and being able to be there for the entire trip, start to sink, was done so well. Then once Elinor got to the next phase of her life, it was even more intriguing to see how everyone made things work when you had absolutely nothing. Overall, I loved this book and don’t have a single complaint!

The Lost Passenger is an historical fiction story about a woman who survives the sinking of the Titanic but takes the identity of another woman who did not and begins a new life in New York. What could have been a mediocre story in the hands of another writer, shone brightly in the hands of Frances Quinn. This is a coming of age story told exceptionaly well, essentially in three parts, Elinor's early life and marriage, her time on the Titanic and it's sinking, and finally her life as Molly. Elinor is so unsure of herself early in the book and steadily grows through the course of the novel into a very self assured woman. This is also a love story. Not your typical love story, but a story of the love of found family. I thouroughly enjoyed this novel, will miss the characters, and will definately look for others by this author. Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the advanced copy of this book.

I enjoy historical fiction and survivor stories and this is both. A wealthy woman and her young son survive the sinking of the Titanic but her husband and father do not, Elinor takes advantage of the confusion to take the identity of a maid to create a new life for herself and her son, free of her overbearing in-laws. The author does a good job of showing what life is like for women during this time period, the stark differences in the classes as well as how traumatic the sinking was for the survivors. The ending was a little rushed but overall, a good story.

Although I found this novel somewhat formulaic,( plucky little rich girl has a chance to find out how the other half lives), Quinn threw in enough plot twists to keep it moving along. But, honestly, to use the sinking of the Titanic to build the story is a worn out literary tool. I think it would be good fodder for book clubs, because it'll spark conversations among women, but there's really nothing ground-shaking about it.