Review: Good historical fiction romance set on a ship.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 14, 2012
Dehlia is on the run just as a vigilante mob shows up at her house and since at this time vigilantes act first and ask questions later, this means her death warrant is virtually signed.  She needs to get out of San Francisco and she needs to get out of there now.  She feels like luck has always worked in her favor and she hopes once again it will work one more time.  She flees the house just in the nick of time and heads for the shipyard where at least one ship should be leaving momentarily if she can just get on a ship before anyone has a chance to find her.  Her instincts tell her that her best best is first class, because the policemen(looking for her) she spots at the boat are searching departing steerage passengers first.  Unfortunately she only has enough mmoney to for steerage.  So with some quick thinking she pretends to be the wife of one of the first class passengers Kent, who is heading back to New York City.  All she is wanting to do is stay a step ahead of the police until the ship has set sail and then she'll buy that ticket to steerage as planned and she plans on getting off the ship when it makes it to Panama.  Kent meanwhile who is trying to make a big business move ends up not outing her and in fact ends up sharing his room with her, since him pretending to be married has some benefits for him as well.At the beginning of the story, the two of them can barely stand each other but they somehow make things look authentic enough when they go out at meal times as a couple.  But slowly but surely they start sharing stories with each other and the ice starts to thaw between them.  They have little choice as even if she gets off at only half way through the trip, they still are going to be spending a couple weeks together in each other's company.  That friendship though continues to grow which complicates things as Kent has a fiancee back home.  For the most part they pull off the ruse pretty good and in fact end up meeting some people who were really on the ship.  Some lovely couples who are actually on their honeymoon.  The ship reaches Panama without really any further incident as the weather has been perfectly lovely.  This good weather even continues for part of the trip although a few of the passengers are a little nervouse after they boarded the new ship in Panama as the SS Central America used to be called something else and it having a name change is not considered to be a good omen when it comes to ships.This actually becomes apparent a few days or so into the second part of the journey as the waves start to get rougher.  At first the crew is not entirely concerned about this because it could be a sign of something worse or it could be just a mini hiccup.  However during this time a couple days time passes and each day the ship has a larger and larger tilt/slope when trying to walk through it.  Eventually they realize the ship isn't going to make it through the storm and the next day or so is spent bailing out water and just trying to keep the ship afloat until rescue can come to them.  Rescue which is complicated by the fact that any ship that can possibly help them out will be just as in middle of the storm as they are.  Complicating the situation is the fact that there are not many lifeboats on board and also some men like the man who was supposed to be Kent's brother-in-law(he'd gotten on the new ship in Panama) are far from helpful.  Women and children are sent over to the barge rescuing them on the lifeboats, but as the storm rages on the two ships grow further and further apart making the journey to the other boat take longer and longer.  Eventually all of the women and children are on the other ship along with a few lucky men before the ship finally sinks.This is the part of the story that really goes down the path of what really happened.  Some men were rescued from the water but a select few managed to hang on in the water via hanging on to pieces of the broken ship.  This would have been quite a confusing time as many of the women wouldn't have known what happened to their husbands and brothers for days or even some weeks.  Eventually the small group of men clinging to parts of the ship dwindle until it's just a few people.  After days of being a drift at sea and suffering dehydration they think they are hallucinating when they spot one of the lifeboats being sailed by another man.  Finally things look a little less bleak for those few men especially when they finally end up in the path of a ship that's headed towards Europe.  A few days later the captain takes pity on them and manages to transfer them to another ship headed in the direction of America.  In the meantime several cities residents have welcomed the many passengers and clothe and shelter them as they await word for the tiniest bit of hope that their loved ones may have gotten rescued.It was interesting finding out at the end of the book that this was in fact a true story and that many of the characters in the book were actual passengers on the fateful ship.  Unfortunately ship builders didn't completely learn their lesson from this shipwreck and I assume others about having the proper amount of lifeboats on board as maybe there wouldn't been the tragedy known as the Titanic.  It was kind of interesting learning a bit about a part of history that I'd never heard about before.  You'll have to read the book to find out how the fictional Kent and Dehlia fit into the real events of what happened and see how their story ends.