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This is the first book I have read by Quinn, and I'm not sure I chose the best place to start.

Whilst I loved the themes of the plot and the writing style was very up my street, I felt the story lost momentum towards the last third and the end was tied up all too conveniently.

It was an enjoyable read, and I would definitely pick up Quinn's other titles which seem to have better reviews.

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Frances Quinn’s That Bonesetter Woman was one of my books of the year in 2022 and I didn’t really expect her new one, The Lost Passenger, to live up to it. Well, I’m pleased to say that I thought it was even better!

The novel begins in England in 1910. Nineteen-year-old Elinor Hayward is the daughter of a wealthy Manchester mill owner known as ‘the cotton king’, but when she marries Frederick Coombes, the son and heir of Lord and Lady Storton, she finds herself being looked down upon by her aristocratic in-laws. It seems that nothing she says or does is good enough for them and although Frederick himself is not unkind, it quickly becomes obvious that he doesn’t love her and it’s not going to be the happy marriage she had dreamed about. Worse still, when their first child, Teddy, is born, he is immediately taken away to be raised by a nanny and it is made clear to Elinor that she’s to have very little involvement in his upbringing.

After two unhappy years, Elinor is thrilled when her father buys tickets for the Titanic and invites her to join him on the ship’s maiden voyage, along with Frederick and Teddy. It’s a chance to see more of the world, but also to finally spend some precious time with her little boy. Of course, the voyage ends in tragedy but Elinor and Teddy are lucky enough to be rescued after the ship goes down. When asked for her name so a list of survivors can be compiled, it occurs to Elinor that this is the only opportunity she’s ever going to have to escape from her old life. Before she has time to really think about the consequences, she finds herself giving another woman’s name and taking on a fake identity. But will she be able to avoid being caught – and will the new life she builds for herself in New York be worth the deception?

Frances Quinn has a real gift for creating characters the reader can get behind and root for. I liked Elinor from the beginning and she had my full sympathy in having to deal with the vicious snobbery of Lady Storton and the disappointment of a loveless marriage. Her life with Frederick and his family is so stifling and unhappy that even though the decision she makes after the sinking of the Titanic is questionable, it’s also very understandable. Although this first section of the novel is quite slow, I think it was necessary for Quinn to spend plenty of time showing us how trapped Elinor felt and how desperate she had become.

Many books have been written about the Titanic, but this one is different. The Titanic is not the main focus of the story but is a starting point to explore how Elinor makes the most of the second chance she has been given. However, I still felt that Quinn handles the disaster sensitively and with respect for the victims. She writes about the failings of the evacuation process, the conditions experienced by those who make it into a lifeboat and the realisation that there’s no hope for the hundreds left on board, but she doesn’t go into too much detail on any of these things. Instead of concentrating on the disaster itself, she focuses more on the survivors and how they try to cope with the trauma they’ve suffered and move forward with their lives.

The second half of the book is devoted to Elinor’s arrival in New York and how she goes about trying to build a happier future for herself and Teddy. I’m deliberately not saying much more because I want you to enjoy discovering the rest of Elinor’s story for yourself (everything else I’ve talked about so far is already touched on in the publisher’s blurb for the book). It’s both fascinating and inspirational to see how Elinor is able to create a whole new life out of the ruins of her old one, but at the same time there’s always the risk that someone who knew her before could see her and give her away her secret.

I loved this book and as I haven’t read her first one, The Smallest Man, yet, I still have something to look forward to!

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A very enjoyable read. Elinor, an only child, had a wonderful upbringing with loving parents. Her father is a self made millionaire and after her mother died Elinor helped him with the business. She also loved to read and these stories gave her rose tinted glasses when aristocrat Frederick shows an interest in her. Believing herself in love they marry but her glasses are soon shattered. After the birth of their first child Edward ‘Teddy’ she becomes even more unhappy, only being allowed to spend 20 minutes with him each day. This was so easy to read I didn’t want to put it down I was so engrossed.

Briefly, her father contacts her to say he has bought tickets for the maiden voyage of the Titanic, which he promised before her marriage. She persuades Frederick to accept the offer and so they board with Teddy and a maid to help with Teddy. The terrible tragedy that follows gives Elinor an opportunity to change her life, and as she stands on board the Carpathia, she makes a shocking decision.

Elinor is a wonderful character. A strong and clever woman, the sort of person you know will be successful when she sets her mind to it. But she’s a flawed woman who lies to people she cares about, but because she is scared and desperate. The plot is good and it’s like two different stories - before and after Titanic. I loved the family Elinor and Teddy lived with in New York, they couldn’t be more different than her family in England. A entertaining and enjoyable read. 4.5⭐️

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The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn
Having read The Smallest Man and That Bonesetter Woman I was really looking forward to this book. I found the description of Elinor’s life fascinating but was surprised at how easily she allowed herself to be fooled by her husband’s aristocratic family. We know that she is shrewd from the work she has done in her father’s cotton business but she allows herself to be manipulated by Frederick and his family.
There is nothing in Frederick’s attitude towards her which suggests he has found the love of his life and their romance is conducted in a very business-like manner. Her submission to what his family wants does not seem to fit with her upbringing. I also thought that her father might have ensured that she could inherit as he had involved her so fully in the business.
All this being said I really enjoyed the book and it is obvious from the start that Elinor will end up travelling on the ill-fated Titanic. The description of the sinking of the ship is handled well and her subsequent life in New York is covered very well. As soon as she arrived in America I became more involved in her story and enjoyed the way in which the story was developed. I will recommend the book to others even though I did not feel it was as good as the two previous novels it shows her ability to write historical novels firmly set in different periods of time.
Many thanks to Frances Quinn, Simon and Schuster and Net Galley for the opportunity to read the book in return for an honest review.

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On the deck of the Carpathia, cold, wet and alone, a survivor stood, hiding from all who could identify her, for she was not who she claimed to be. In the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic, Elinor could escape and begin again, if she held her nerve. But how did it come to this, why were such drastic measures needed....
As a young 19 year old Jane Austen fan, Elinor fell too easily for Frederick. She thought she was marrying for love, in truth Frederick needed her money to help pay his aristocrat families debts. Elinor had been tricked !
She tries reluctantly to navigate through her new life and her part within this family, but they are unfeeling and cruel. As her life of privileged impotence gets worse, Elinor plans her escape. Little did she know that aboard the Titanic, that chance may come...imagine the breathtaking sight of that amazing ship as Elinor first saw it, a magnificent giant of the sea...could it save her, or would it be her end ?

I loved That Bonesetter Woman so I knew I would enjoy this one. It's amazing. A feast for your emotions. Take a deep breath and dive into this well written, excellently crafted tension builder of a novel. We are rooting for Elinor to have a second chance, and to be happy at last. I loved it from cover to cover.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this amazing book !
Suse

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This is yet another smash hit from one of the best historical fiction writers of our time. I loved how Elinor's story wasn't the sweeping upper class Bridgerton story, yet the riches to rags made for more interesting reading. The Titanic also isn't the centre piece here and I commend the author for being brave enough to do this as it worked amazingly well as a plot point more than "just another Titanic story."

Elinor is everything I love in a female character, fearless, bold and a caring mother to dear Teddy.

Adored this and adds to the collection of iconic characters this author has already created.

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Absolutely brilliant from the first page to the last!! I was hooked completely and couldn't put it down!
Elinor is a fantastic character who has a huge amount to deal with in her life. She lives with her father who owns cotton mills but has fingers in other pies as well. He's a very wealthy man who adores his daughter and would do anything for her. Elinor takes a great interest in her father's business and helps him a lot but even so she won't inherit because she's a single woman.
At a party, which she's surprised they've been asked to, she meets Frederick and starts to fall for him right away. From here on her life changes utterly and she's hit with a myriad of problems and her life is never the same again.
Part of this book happens on the Titanic but this is not a story about this great ship, it just plays a part in a huge change for Elinor and her life. The parts that did take part on the ship were very well done.
But it's the rest of the story that's the stand out part. Her life in America is so different to what she has already been through and it toughens her up. All she learned from her father stands to her in her new way of life.
There's a huge amount of tension in the story and I found myself holding my breath wondering what was coming next!
I can't recommend this book highly enough to anyone who likes historical romance.

Many thanks to Simon and Schuster UK and NetGalley for an early copy of this book.

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This was my first historical fiction book by Frances Quinn but it certainly won't be my last. I don't know how I have missed her previous books as her writing style is right up my street. Many potential readers may be put off by the thought of yet another book about a Titanic survivor but this one is different. The Titanic plays a very small part in the story. I really enjoyed Elinor/Molly's battle for independence in New York after being treated like a possession for sale or barter in England. The author has obviously done her research and nothing in the novel jars as being obviously incorrect. A very enjoyable read I'm happy to recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

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If I could be a character in a book I would choose to be one of the female leading characters in a book by Frances Quinn. She writes strong, dynamic women so well, women who have a steel will and a determination to take life by the horns.

Elinor is such a fantastic protagonist. The daughter of a self-made millionaire, she is bright and intrepid, and as a woman in a man’s world is focused on having her voice heard. When she marries for love but finds that she has been misled by her husband and his family, she realises that she has to make the most of her situation.

Traveling on the Titanic she is faced with a new future after she and her son Teddy are the only survivors of her traveling party. Losing her father, her husband and their staff she assumes the identity of Molly, the maid she employed at the last minute before boarding the ship.

What follows is a riches to rags story where she has to make a life for herself and her child. Learning to do all the things she had previously had servants do for her, and living in relative poverty it was a very steep learning curve.

I adored the juxtaposition between life for Elinor before Titanic and after it. The story before Titanic was incredibly different to the story after the Titanic sank and it really gave the novel an epic quality. As with Frances Quinn’s previous novels I would love to see this book optioned as a movie or a television series, because it has such a visual quality that is absolutely captivating from the very first page to the last.

The Lost Passenger is a story of love, loss, hope, determination and family in all its forms.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I was not paid to review the book.

Elinor is the daughter of a Cotton King and is married off to a Lord. She quickly realises that he wanted to get to her father through his marriage to her, and wants her fathers money. She soon has her son, Teddy, and after having him, realises that she doesn’t want to live like this. She then manages to convince her husband to go onto the Titanic with her father, long story short, Elinor and Teddy end up surviving, and she “borrows” a passenger’s identity, in order to not have to return to her life. The story goes through the before, during and aftermath of the Titanic tragedy and how life changes for the main character and her son.

I like historical fiction, it interests me. This was very engaging throughout and I was hooked. I enjoyed this story and it’s obvious that the author did research before writing this.

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For sheer enjoyment, this would have been a five star. As I’ve come to expect as a fan of The Smallest Man and That Bonesetter Woman, Frances Quinn has delivered a story filled with warmth. I love her writing style and as a child of the Titanic movie generation, I did develop an obsession with the doomed liner and so this could not have been more up my street if it tried. I’ve only knocked off .25 because I had expected it to be based on someone who actually lived, but it seems it was fiction. Unfair perhaps., but I did feel a frisson of disappointment when I discovered this. However, a wonderful read!

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I looooooove Frances' books, so much!

In fact The Smallest Man - Frances' first book - was one of the first reviews I ever posted on this blog. The Smallest Man is set in the 1600s, and her follow-up, That Bonesetter Woman, was set in the 1700s. This book, whilst still historical, is set in a more recognisable and familiar age of the 1900s.

We all know about the Titanic and what happened, but we rarely give a lot of thought to the individuals on the ship, those who died and those who survived. We tend to see them as a number, those 1,500+ that perished, rather than see them as each individual people, as mums and dads, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives and children. And so it was interesting for Frances to pick that as a focus.

Frances has a knack of picking the underdog, or the person who doesn't fit into society's place for them, and making them the star of their own life, and this is no differencee.

The Titanic doesn't really comes into it until about 30% of the way through, which at first I thought was too late. I'd have liked a bit more set on the Titanic, but that's just personal taste. But in hindsight I'd say it feels about right, as it gives us a good amount of time to get to the know the characters, which in turn makes the rest of the story feel deeper. And this isn't a story about the Titanic, not really, it's more about what happened to the people after rather than during.

It has a lot of well-developed characters in it - as I've come to expect from Frances' work. Elinor is a beautiful protagonist and has such a real voice and a presence about her. I really felt for her. It would have been quite easy to depict her as this little rich girl who complains about being rich and have no sympathy for her but I really felt like her friend. There are many other characters, some good and some bad, some in it more or less than others. But there isn't a wasted one amongst them, and they really helped develop Elinor's story.

It's not the easiest book to read, and not just because of the obvious sad Titanic parts. But the bits about Elinor's life beforehand, what she has sacrificed, what she's willing to do to protect her son. It really does pull at the heartstrings.

It's like two different stories - one set before the Titanic and one after - and usually I would say I didn't like that because they often don't join up, but I liked it with this book. It gave us a clear divide and made for an interesting read to see just how much had changed after the incident.

I suppose the one thing I would have liked is if we'd had more about what was happening in England at the time Elinor was in New York. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed what was there, but part of me was wanting to see what had happened to those she'd left behind.

It is a very well researched book and it's clear Frances has a real passion for the characters and the story she was telling.

It's like a Cinderella story in reverse, in a way. A girl born into wealth, but man-made wealth rather than inherited, who marries into peerage and has everything she could possibly want, who then, seemingly overnight, finds herself in a situation where she has to share a toilet with 20 strangers. It's a riches to rag story. But she finds a different kind of riches amongst the people in New York.

Even amongst all the death and grief, hardships, hatred, anger, lies and fear, this book has so much love and joy and more importantly, so much hope about it, it really is very heartwarming.

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Frances Quinn writes great historical fiction and "The Lost Passenger" is equally compelling as her other books. Set in 1910 we follow Elinor into a loveless marriage and realise that her son is not going to have the life that she would wish for him. Her father then buys her, her husband and son passage on the Titanic's maiden voyage to New York. With a chanced meeting with Molly and tragedy that unfolds around the sinking of the Titanic, we see how life in New York can give anyone, who works hard enough, new opportunities. A touching story and you will be rooting for Elinor's new life.

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I DNF'd this book about a 1/3 of the way through. The female main character just seemed to be whinging all the time and it was grating on me... at some point it has to be seen that she is the issue right! I couldn't get on with her.

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I adored That Bonesetter Woman and The Smallest Man and was beyond excited to get a copy of The Lost Passenger on Netgalley.

After being tricked into a loveless marriage, and separated from her loving, businessman father, Elinor is slowly sucked into the life of country nobility where women have no power or influence. After the birth of her son Teddy, she unwillingly does what is asked of her so she can’t be deemed mentally incapacitated, but leaving him in the care of a cold nanny, with only a twenty minute visit to Elinor each day and the threat of him being sent to boarding school at age seven, is too much to bear. When Elinor is invited on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, she is determined to enjoy every minute with her son. When the ship sinks, Elinor makes a decision not to go back to her old life.

It was everything I hoped for and more. I, like many others am fascinated by tales of the Titanic and Frances Quinn tells of its opulence beautifully, and the horror of its sinking, but without letting it engulf the story.

In New York she stays with Anna, Ruth and Per, who although poor, are rich with love which they offer willingly to Elinor.

There’s no great romance in this book, no knight in shining armour, just a strong independent woman with a desire to make a better life for her and Teddy, and it’s perfect

If you’ve not read a book by Frances Quinn, go and buy one now, and pre-order this at the same time.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this wonderful book.

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Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster UK for this eCopy to review

The Lost Passenger is a compelling read, rich in historical detail, and emotional depth, it was an unforgettable experience.

The story centres around Elinor Coombes, a young mother trapped in a loveless marriage with a British aristocrat. Her life is stifled by the rigid social norms of Edwardian England, and she finds herself isolated and unhappy. A gift from her father—tickets for the maiden voyage of the Titanic—offers a glimmer of hope and a chance to spend time with her young son, Teddy.

When the Titanic tragically sinks, Elinor seizes the opportunity to start anew. She fakes their deaths and assumes a new identity, hoping to build a better life in New York City. The novel vividly portrays her struggles and triumphs as she navigates this brash new world, far removed from the oppressive confines of her previous life.

Quinn masterfully weaves historical events with personal drama, creating a gripping tale of survival and reinvention. The tension escalates when a fellow survivor recognizes Elinor and threatens to expose her secret, adding a layer of suspense to the narrative. Then once she believes they are safe she is spotted by a friend from her past? Can Elinor and Teddy escape detection? Will she be forgiven for her lies?

The characters are well-developed, and Elinor's journey is both heart-wrenching and inspiring. Her resilience and determination to protect her son and carve out a new life for them are truly moving. The book also explores themes of identity, freedom, and the lengths a mother will go to for her child.

Overall, The Lost Passenger is a beautifully written and emotionally resonant novel that I highly recommend. It's a story of hope, courage, and the enduring bond between mother and child. If you enjoy historical fiction with strong, relatable characters and a touch of mystery, this book is a must-read.

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I have loved Frances Quinn’s work since I read her first book “The Smallest Man” and this, her third book is another brilliant historical fiction read!!! That said, Lost Passenger is a bit different from her previous work.

It tells the story of Elinor Coombes, who escapes an unhappy marriage after surviving the Titanic disaster. Taking a new identity, she starts fresh in New York with her son Teddy, I found it to be an inspiring and compelling read.

If like me, you enjoy historical fiction, especially those with strong female characters then this is going to be right up your street!! A great choice for your 2025 TBR list

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As someone who adores Frances Quinn's stories I am truly sad to tell that I was a bit disappointed with this book. I mean, it was perhaps not a bad book, but compared to the two previous books "The Lost Passenger" felt superficial and lukewarm. I had a feeling the author sped through the story, it felt so rushed and all the periods in Elinor's life were touched upon but were - for me - not explored enough. The story focuses much more about her life in America, though I would so love to hear more about the Titanic trip itself. Then all the situations were solved in such a quick and in such a favourable way that it made me sigh with frustration - no real drama or climax here, to be honest.

Nevertheless, the book had its strong points of course, especially the writing that was steady and sure. It was also though - over very well and meticulously planned and researched, filled with brilliant descriptions and truly interesting facts from this period of time. I really liked how independent and strong - minded Frances Quinn has made her main character and how women power shines through the pages. Sadly, just like I said, I can't not compare this book with the author's previous ones, which were on another level of greatness. Nevertheless, already looking forward to a new Frances Quinn novel.

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Oh my goodness, I absolutely loved The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn. I won’t precis the plot, plenty of other reviewers have done that, but I will say I adored the writing style, the characterisation and the gripping storyline to the extent that I couldn’t wait to get to the end whilst really not wanting it to end. Anyone who has enjoyed watching Titanic will be enthralled by this brilliant book.

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The cover is stunning - I don't know if it is by Holly Dunn, but it has that 'look' and is gorgeous ❤️

This is an unusual book. I really liked the voice of the writing - it was irreverent and agile. 'The Lost Passenger' feels a bit like a fairy-tale, and one which upends Cinderella expectations. I've had 'The Smallest Man' and 'That Bonesetter Woman' on my TBR for ages, and look forward to catching up with those earlier stories.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.

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