Although no spoiler alert is needed for a book with Titanic in its title, readers will undoubtedly find themselves neglecting sleep to finish Stacey Lee's thrilling fictionalized account of a small group of Chinese passengers who took that fateful voyage.
Seventeen-year-old twins and former street acrobats Valora and Jamie Luck were orphaned after losing both their British mother and Chinese father. Val, the more impulsive of the twins, masquerades as her recently deceased wealthy employer to board the Titanic, where Jamie and "seven other Chinese men from his company" have been rerouted for an eventual trip on to Cuba. When Val meets a fellow passenger and part owner of the Ringling Brothers Circus, she hopes to convince Jamie to join her in striking out for America--Chinese Exclusion Act be damned. Jamie, however, is not a fan of his sister's "hasty pudding plans." And, of course, fate has its own objectives.
Lee, known for her superb works of historical fiction, including The Downstairs Girl, Outrun the Moon and Under a Painted Sky, hooks readers with the riveting tale of an impetuous and ambitious young woman. Lee keeps them on the line with vivid details of ship life, both mundane (the boiler room layout, the fact that passengers must pay if they want a room key) and sumptuous (crystal bowls filled with candy in the hallways, silk wall panels, the "tidal wave of a staircase"). Lee seamlessly weaves fact and fiction in Luck of the Titanic, inventing a story that gorgeously captures an era and a tragedy. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor