This book was fabulous! There’s such a range of emotions that I experienced in this book- sadness for the difficult life Elinor had in England, more sadness with the sinking of the Titanic, and then hope and inspiration for the new life she works to build in America. The author does such a beautiful job building the characters and the relationships between them. It is such an inspirational story about love, life, and hard work.

I enjoyed the story, though I wish it had been more fleshed out. The authors use of the Titanic disaster for a young woman to disappear was amusing, though I don’t know how realistic it was. I really enjoy historical fiction and I would have liked to hear more about her story especially about how she managed to create an Empire. We would all like to create empires though she did it. How did she do it? Wouldn’t this be a fun book to take along on a cruise.

I enjoyed reading this book as it had a take on a character from the Titanic sinking I’d never come across before. Elinor is married to an English lord, is unhappy in the marriage and dreads having her son, Teddy, face the same future as his father. As the family takes a trip on the Titanic and the worst happens, she sees it as a chance to begin anew as a different person after arriving in New York. What happens is interesting and the author wraps up the story ver well, I thought.

I received this book from the publisher via net galley in exchange for an honest review. Four stars,

A very interesting premise, which I’m sure happened more than once when the Titanic sunk…. a young woman with a child unhappy with her life in England, disguises herself as one of the victims who drowned and begins a new life on the lower side. The character shows grit and determination and you root for her to succeeded. This book shows the hardships of what it was like to live in the early 1900s where so many immigrants came ashore to make a new life for themselves. I believe it follows history, pretty closely . The book is well written and a pleasure to read.

While it might be difficult to feel any compassion for Elinor, I’m certain that happened too often in England to enable large estates to continue. Elinor had many difficult decisions to make and her conscience played a huge part in helping/justifying her decisions. Her family taught morals and love of family impacted her greatly. Feelings of those who survived the Titanic aren’t often written about. The author did well by Elinor helping her work through the tragedy and its aftermath.

Random House offered this book to me and described it as an historical drama women”s book. Despite that description, I downloaded the book because I enjoy reading about all aspects of the Titanic disaster. I found myself transported back to the world where women were 2nd class citizens, where the titled and entitled male was everything, the nightmares of survivor’s guilt and the world of immigrants struggling to survive in New York City. I found the novel interesting and enjoyed reading it and I thank NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity.

I absolutely loved The Lost Passenger! This book is beautifully written - the beginning draws the reader in very quickly and makes it impossible to put down. Very different story about the Titanic as we follow a survivor looking for a fresh start and how she makes a new lift for her and her son in NY. Highly recommend!

Thank you to net galley for the arc in exchange of an honest review.

Oh, Wow! Downton Abbey meets The Unsinkable Molly Brown! What a wonderful tale with utterly believable characters, historical fiction at its best. Frances Quinn writes a potboiler of a novel. Elinor, the daughter of the Cotton King, a self-made millionaire, has been raised by her father to be a businesswoman. In the early part of the 20th Century? No way that can happen.

Instead, Elinor is courted by the son of an earl who resides in an unheated ancestral home, which mirrors his cold and unfeeling family. He does not love her but needs the wealth of her father to keep up the manse. When their son is born, the heir to Winterton, he is removed to a nanny's care and Elinor is allowed only 20 minutes a day with him. (This portion of the book is the Downton Abbey part and it's wonderful.)

It's 1912 and Elinor's father buys them all, himself, Elinor, her husband and little son, tickets to sail to New York on the unsinkable Titanic's
's maiden voyage. You know what happens next. Elinor and Teddy are saved, but her husband, father and maid are not. Knowing that she will lose her son to his controlling grandparents, Elinor takes little Teddy to the Lower East Side where she assumes the name of her lost Lady's Maid, Molly.

The Titanic's sinking is described chillingly, and Ellinor's act is one you can see her doing. There is so much life in the descriptive prose, crowded dwellings, communal outhouses, home sewing businesses, pushcarts, bargaining with tradesmen. the teeming streets of Old New York. I absolutely loved reading this book and ended with an even greater admiration for the first-person narrator..

Thank you Random House/ Ballentine for offering me this novel to read. This is an honest review.

LOVED it! Immersive from the beginning, it was easy to slip into the world between this book’s cover! The plot was a new twist on historical Titanic fiction, the setting was vivid, and writing was easy to gulp down in large quantities in one sitting! I love this period of NYC history, so this book will be a re-read for me! Thank you NetGalley for the chance!

Well done story with an unusual twist to the Titanic narrative; the pace was well done with enough time spent in England to establish the situation there, then an appropriately short time on the actual ship, followed up by Molly's/Elinor's time in NYC. I liked that everything didn't just fall into place for the character and hard choices had to be made; the only exception to that might be that the blackmail sideline with the fellow Titanic passenger was a bit contrived. However, even that served its purpose within the story. I will be looking for other Frances Quinn material to read.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I found this a unique story. Half of the book takes place in England in a very privileged setting. This is followed by the sinking of the Titanic and making the decision to take on a new identity in the New York. The contrast in the settings is dramatic. The heroine of the book has a challenging life in both places, and she faces many ethical issues. I think the author did a wonderful job bring the characters and circumstances to life. I couldn't put the book down. I highly recommend this, and I look forward to reading more from the author.

The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn is one of the best books I have read this year. It’s a page turner that I could not put down! Elinor’s story will have you experiencing all of the emotions as you read through her story and feel yourself in her shoes. I would definitely recommend this book to any reader, especially those who enjoy historical fiction. A special thank you to Random House Publishing Grouo and Penguin Random house for sending me this advance copy to read through NetGalley.

#TheLostPassenger #NetGalley

We follow Elinor, a well-off, only daughter of a manufacturer that is duped into a marriage she believes is for love but turns out to be for her husband's financial gain. The marriage is filled with infidelity and emotional abuse not only from her husband but his entire family. Time passes and Elinor sets sail on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, with her husband, son and father. When the inevitable happens she has a chance to take her young child and begin a new life.
She finds herself in a new world she knows nothing about with a new family she claims to be a part of. The thought of her lying to them about the death of their loved one was very uncomfortable even though I knew she was doing it for the well being of her and her child.
The second half felt glossed over in parts. There were a few, "2 months later" and "a year after she arrived" where we would just skip over that time.
I enjoyed this for the most part. I found the details of New York incredible, making me feel like I was right there. But I found I really disliked how everyone seemed to be fine with letting the family in England think their grandchild was dead.

Thank you to the publisher for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.

What a great read! I devoured this book. I loved seeing the Titanic catastrophe through the eyes of Elinor and realizing how far the impact of that catastrophe spread in the lives of everyday people. I enjoyed the time period, the characters, and the surprises along the way. Absorbing and well-paced. A wonderful fresh read. Recommend!

I am so delighted I was invited to read The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn.
This was a lovely book and I really enjoyed it.
You really feel for the main character, Elinor when she realizes how constrained her life will be as the wife of Frederick Coombes.
Reading about how she is treated and denied her child after giving birth truly infuriated me!

It was such an interesting idea to put them on the Titanic, and very reminiscent of Rose in the movie.
Elinor takes on an alternate identity, and makes a life for herself in NYC with her son.

The only thing I have to say negative is I felt the confrontation at the end to be a bit contrived,
and I don't know if Lissy truly would have kept her mouth shut, despite the information Elinor holds over her head.

I enjoyed the story and especially enjoyed the descriptions of the food, much of which resonated with me.
It was also interesting to hear about the lower east side and NYC in the 20's as I had ancestors living there as well at that time.
This was a book that really kept my interest, and kept me reading as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dell/Random House for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is a *must read* for fans of historical fiction in general, but specifically for anyone who has ever been spellbound by the sinking of The Titanic. I felt the emotional weight of Elinor's journey as a new bride to a man she hardly new (think Downton Abbey, but with cold, ruthless people). Her isolation, loneliness, and anger were palpable. The description of her time on The Titanic is so vivid, and even though we know how that trip will end, it's no less heartbreaking. As she attempts to start a new life, you can't help but feel her frustration, her constant fear, and her uncertainty about the decisions she has made. I stayed up far too late to see how her story ended.

found this historical novel set right before, during, and after, the Titanic's maiden voyage a gripping read. Elinor, only child of a wealthy cotton manufacterer, is skillfully conned into marriage by a pedigreed-but-poor upper class family. Without physical violence, but searingly done emotional abuse, Elinor's new family does their best to constrain her into a semblance of their lifestyle. Elinor's mother-in-law utterly despises her, her husband--without being a monster--is totally indifferent to her, and her sister-in-law is bitter about women's place in that life.

Elinor watches with defeated horror as her little son is being inexorably molded toward a copy of his father, when
Ellie's dear of a father gives her tickets aboard the new ship launching on its maiden voyage...

Quinn's first person Elinor does a great job with period language. I loved Elinor's voice. The experience of the Titanic's crash and sinking was vividly evoked, but where Quinn really shines, I thought, was in the emotional aftermath.

Elinor takes the place of her chance-met maid, who never turned up to join her in the lifeboat; she finds herself in a dirt-poor part of New York, amid a welter of different cultures all trying to establish a better life for themselves than the one they left behind. She shares a minute apartment with a family headed by a Swedith matriarch who believes in the virtue of hard work, and Ellie, in her new guise, learns and begins to excel, determined to keep her true identity, and her son's, from being discovered. How that pans out was really well handled, I thought--and how Quinn writes women, in particular, just shines with complexity. And compassion.

This is a lovely story. Sometimes in order to become who. You truly Are; a strong woman and a mom ~ you
might have to make some horribly difficult choices. The motto: Hard work will always make life bearable and
the lies and deceptions might seem to help, but in the end……

I was invited to review this book by the publisher. Elinor is part of the aristocracy in Edwardian England, married into a union she does not want to a man who does not want her. She receives a gift from her father - tickets on the Titanic for her and her young son. Elinor is very excited for this trip as it will allow her to get away from her husband. Except, as fate would have it, the Titanic sinks - but Elinor and her son survive, and she sees that as an opening to start a new life by leaving their old ones behind after "dying" on the Titanic. Now with nothing and another person's identity, Elinor must learn to survive in a world she knows nothing about. This was an interesting book; the setting was enjoyable and was depicted well within the writing (both the ship and the time in New York City), but Elinor was written as a strong character who really does learn to live a new life, or rather a new way of life. Her growth and determination were found within the pages, as well as her motivations both for herself and for her child. Another strength of the book was that it moved very quickly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine/Dell for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this story. It is a really good Titanic story without being too focused on the actual sinking of the ship. I felt like the story as more about how Elinor overcomes the obstacles of her former life once she gets to New York. There were a couple parts of the story that felt weirdly similar to the Titanic movie but the story quickly goes away from the sinking and moves on to an interesting look at life in New York City in the early 1900's. I loved reading about a time in our country when hard work and ingenuity were celebrated and rewarded at all social levels. It was a refreshing difference from the social elites you often read about from this time period. I was given a free copy of this book from Net Galley.