'A tragic tale about falling in love on the world’s most infamous ill-fated sea voyage as heroine, Tess, discovers darker secrets that lie beneath the doomed crossing… and a hidden brotherhood that threaten to tear her lover from her forever.
The RMS Titanic is the most luxurious ship ever built, but for eighteen-year-old Tess Davies it’s a prison. Travelling as a maid for the family she has served for years, Tess is trapped in their employ amid painful memories and family secrets.
When she meets Alec, a handsome upper class passenger, Tess falls helplessly in love. But Alec has secrets of his own… and soon Tess is entangled in a dangerous game. A sinister brotherhood that will do anything to induct Alec into their mystical order has followed him onboard. And Tess is now their most powerful pawn.
Tess and Alec fight the dark forces threatening to tear them apart, never realising that they will have to face an even greater peril before the journey is over….'' taken from goodreads
I'm the Mum of District YA, otherwise known as Sue, and was very kindly given Fateful to read by my daughter Leanne. The first I saw of this was when she was received the book from the very kind Harper Collins, I immediately grabbed it to be the first to read it. I've always been very interested in the Titanic story, so much so that I went to the O2 last year to see the Titanic exhibition, which was amazing, so when I saw the brilliant cover on the Fateful novel, it really grabbed me to read it.
The cover shows a young blonde woman standing on the deck of a ship, wearing a red silk gown, with a full moon behind her, and just below the moon is an ominous looking Iceberg, which really says it all!!!!
Fateful in my opinion is Downton Abbey meets Supernatural, its an easy read with highs and lows. Claudia Gray writes her book with scenes that are easily understood, you walk the streets, cabins with a real understanding of the area your in.
In my youth I actually travelled to Australia and back to England on a ship, so could really relate to the characters feelings of being in an isolated, small area for a very long stretch of time. A lot of the feelings I had at the time resurfaced & got me thinking of things that happened, not all of them carefree and happy, but that is a whole other story.
The book starts on April 12th 1912, and revolves around Tess a teenage maid to the impressive Lisle family. Tess has decided to start a new life, hopefully a better life in America with the Lisles, a rather complex family. You see how her hard life working for the Lisles is, and I felt Claudia Gray transported me to that time. Tess works so hard, I really embraced her character and when she meets Mikhail, who wants harm to come to her, its a case of reading the pages quicker to make sure shes okay.
Then there is the beautiful Alec, who you want to be the opposite of Mikhail, poor Tess all alone, you want her to be helped.
We all know the story of the Titanic, and obviously the outcome, but this adds to Fateful, because you know there's only 5 days for this situation to end one way or the other, and and as the days are counting down in the book I found myself willing Tess along.
All along reading the book I kept thinking of Upstairs, Downstairs and also of the 1950's film of Titanic, and was so pleased when I read the Authors notes at the end of the book, found she'd had both of these in mind, whilst writing Fateful. The book has Love, Intrigue, Mystery, Supernatural element and in my opinion was a really good read.
Rating 3 1/2 Out Of 5
This Is Published In The UK By
Harper Collins
This Can Be Purchased
HERE and from good book Retailers
