Immerse In Fateful Rendered By Claudia Gray Presented In EPub
Set sail on Titanic with some werewolves,
Tess hurries down the cobbled street, Anxious to get to the shop to fetch the laces for the boots of her employer, The shadows are lengthening, it is a dangerous hour for a young lady to be on the street, Men leer on the corner and Tess is reminded, yet again, of her vulnerability as a maid, She scurries along, dreaming of her imminent freedom which will hopefully begin in a week's time, She is to set sail on the Titanic with her employers to America, where she plans to give her notice and begin a new life, Suddenly a man dashes around the corner and grabs her hand, informing her if she wants to live to come with him, Frightened she follows. To her horror, wolves come running down the street, Wolves here in Southampton Once the beasts melt into the shadows, the man releases her and she runs home terrified, The next day on the Titanic, she is threatened by a strange man, trying to steal her employer's valuables, Her rescuer is, once again, the strange man from last night, the wealthy Alec, heir to his father's steel fortune, Things are not as they seem, Alec has a secret, he is a werwolf, pursued by a dangerous organization known as The Brotherhood, They are powerful group of werewolves looking to coerce him into servitude, Tess unwittingly finds herself caught in the power struggle, while losing her heart to Alec, Will she be killed by the malicious leader of the werewolves or will she die during the sinking of Titanic
What I Liked:
I love a good historical book and Ms.
Gray does an excellent job of bringing the Victorian era alive, I especially enjoyed learning more about the life of the people who were in service to the wealthy, Their lives were difficult, and they had little chance to dream and have their own lives away from the employers, The Titanic is an excellent microcosmic example of the class divisions, We follow Tess as she navigates from her quarters in the third class steerage up to the lofty decks of first class to serve her wealthy mistress, I liked learning more about the barriers facing the working class,
I love anything pertaining to Titanic, I know I am not alone in my fascination with the doomed liner, This week being the centennial anniversary of the sinking, I wanted to finally read this book, Ms. Gray takes us into the heart wrenching terror of the sinking and presents us with a star crossed pair of lovers caught in the danger,
I really admired Tess, She is a young lady caught in very trying circumstances, At a young age, she was forced along with her sister to give up her schooling and enter a life of service to help her family, Her mistress is definitely a nasty woman, In spite of everything, Tess rises above it all and maintains her dreams of freedom and a new beginning in America, Time and time again, she is forced to hold her tongue against the nasty barbs, I don't know if I could handle that type of treatment, Once she meets Alec, she again is faced with the cruel divisions of class, A third class girl like her could never be with a first class boy like Alec, yet she dares to dream, She has so much courage, Definitely an admirable lead.
I especially appreciated that Ms, Gray did so much research on the lives of the servants during this time period, She uses the information to create a vivid picture of life for the servants, It was an eye opening experience to learn, even at the beginning of theth century, that people in servitude led such bleak existences,
And The Not So Much:
I was excited to read this story hoping to glean more information about Titanic, Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Titanic was really not a big focus in the story, except of course, for the dramatic chapters covering the sinking, The story delves more into the paranormal aspects of the werewolves and Titanic is, for the most part, nothing more than a backdrop, At the end of the book, the author discusses her details on the Titanic and I was not happy to discover that much of it was fictionalized, If you are looking to read this for the Titanic aspects, you may come away a bit discouraged,
This book utilizes, yet again, the famous Titanic love theme of a pair of lovers, one from first class, the other from third, who meet and fall madly in love over the span of four short days.
Then comes the dramatic iceberg collision and sinking and you are left wondering if they will survive, Unfortunately, even despite the paranormal twist of the werewolves, I was bored of this well worn theme,
The added werewolves were fun, but there was some flaws in the story, Without going into too many spoilers, one of the werewolves runs loose on the ship and inadvertently kills a man, There is a discussion about destroying the "dog" and then it is decided to wait until they dock to get it tested for rabies, Then the whole issue is forgotten, For me, this whole scene is ludicrous, First of all, if a werewolf terrorized people and killed someone, there would be a big uproar, Second it is just not realistic and I found it really detracted from the story, The same thing with the ending, again I won't go into too much detail, but overall it just didn't work for me,
Fateful is a book that recounts the life of a servant girl on board Titanic, While I did enjoy the character of Tess and learning about her life as a maid during this time period, I was overall disappointed in the book, The Titanic is for the most part just scenery until the sinking and many of the elements are fiction, The werewolf theme is also a bit far fetched and has flaws and overall just did not fit well into the Titanic setting, The book was entertaining but I can't wholeheartedly recommend it, If you are looking for a book with exceptional detail, historical accuracy and a believable paranormal twist, I would recommend you read Destined by Allison Kraft, instead,
Favorite Quotations:
"Beauty is no guarantee of goodness"
"Because the big trunks they're hefting, the bundles of clothes the women hold closethose aren't supplies for a sea voyage.
They're the foundations of a new life, "
"His gaze is dark and devouring, Something blazes within him as he looks at me, but I can't tell if it's anger or desire, "
"It's impossible to spend years of your life in a house with a woman who thinks you're lower than dirt and not let it get to you from time to time.
"
"There is something wild about him even in his human form, something that wants always to be free, "
"It's so odd to think that these people I've come to know the ones society puts in three different boxesmight all be friends if things were just a bit different.
"
"Around me, in each direction, the ocean stretches out to every horizon, Even aboard this enormous ship, I am one small speck in infinityso entirely alone, "
"The sun has begun dipping below the horizona sliver of orangegold light sliced by the dark line of the ocean, "
"Even in death, it matters whether your dress had been trimmed with lace, or whether your shoes were polished oxfords instead of worn brogues, It's the difference between a grave your loved ones can visit and being dropped into the water in a sack with stones at your feet, "
Posted sitelink typepad. com/ A compelling story with an enticing paranormal romance, an engaging story line and a beautiful retelling of the heartbreaking tragedy of the Titanic, Fateful is a book that I sat and devoured in one sitting.
Claudia Gray has written a story that is captivating, well researched and incredibly written,
Aside from being a paranormal story, I loved the historical part of Fateful, Claudia did a brilliant job with her detailed writing and how she handled the entire voyage of the Titanic, Even though I knew what was going to happen, I was so engaged with the romance, the paranormal twists and everything else that was happening, that my worries and fears for who would survive subsided until the moment the ship hits the ice burg.
Claudia threw in some fabulous twists that kept this story well paced and kept me hooked until the very end, I thoroughly enjoyed being taken back in time and feeling as though I was aboard the Titanic with this great cast of characters,
There's few books that I read and end up enjoying most
every character I read about, and Fateful is one of them, Claudia's characters are so well written, indepth, and despite some of them being paranormals, they felt believable to me, It wasn't hard for me to fall in love with some of the main characters and even the secondary characters, as they were easy to imagine, and even the villain was easy to despise.
He was so well written, Talk about a fabulous evil guy,
The story is centered on Tess, a servant girl from England who's traveling with the family she works for to the US, I really admired Tess's strength, She's had to deal with a lot of crap in her life, but that doesn't stop her from wanting to fulfill her dreams, In fact it makes her that much more determined to follow them, Tess inadvertently finds herself in the middle of a world she had no idea existed, and that puts her life in grave danger, Her reactions to some of the events that unfold aboard the Titanic are really credible, I'd be in state of shock if I found myself witnessing some of the things she does as well,
The romance is so awesome! I love a well written time period romance, I really enjoyed the way Claudia developed the relationship between Alex and Tess, It's not a rushed, instant love kind of romance, but a well thought out, well written one that develops through out the course of the book, Alex is such a fabulous love interest, He's a tortured soul, but in a way that I totally understood why, He and Tess really bring out the best in each other, There romance is so addicting, I couldn't get enough of it! The sacrifices they make for each other totally made me cry! Not that I didn't except to cry since the story is set on the Titanic.
Fateful has the perfect blend of historical references, romance and paranormal activity that fans of Claudia Gray, romance, history and paranormal books will really enjoy this one.
I am in love with this book and it's ending is fabulous! I'm not sure if this is going to be a series or have a sequel, but whether it's a stand alone or not, this is a book I highly recommend picking up.
There is some very mild language and an implied sexual scene, This is a book I'd recommend to readersyrs amp older, .