(Image Credit: Goodreads)

In 2013 Sarah Blake is struggling. After releasing a well acclaimed and popular book, Sarah has yet to publish anything since. She yearns to write a unique story and thinks she might have found it after going through some of her family’s heirlooms and discovering artifacts relating to her great-grandfather, killed when the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1915. As Sarah travels to England and works closely with a fellow Lusitania descendent, the stories of Caroline and Tessa are also told. In 1915, Southern belle Caroline is married to Gilbert, a highly successful and rich businessman who seems more interested in his work than his relationship with Caroline. Bored and alone, Caroline soon finds herself in the company of an old love aboard the Lusitania, forcing her to make painful decisions about the men in her life. Tessa does not have the same issues. A thief working with her sister to make ends meets, Tessa travels aboard the Lusitania to pull off a heist. But as Tessa works to fulfill her end of the bargain she begins to sense that something might be amiss.

I’ve been looking forward to picking this book up for a while. As an ocean liner buff I am always looking out for books set on famous passenger ships that aren’t always the Titanic (though those suggestions are always welcomed). The Glass Ocean was one of the first books I saw that takes place on the Lusitania and I decided to finally pick it up.

Despite this story being written by three different authors, I found the book to be written well and seemingly written by just one person. The authors did an excellent job keeping the same voice and it wasn’t at all obvious where one author stopped writing and the other started. I also thought Caroline’s storyline was fairly well developed and her final decision did surprise me.

Yet there were also quite a few things I didn’t like about the book. My first, and major complaint, is that even though it takes place on the Lusitania, it could have taken place on any other vessel during World War One as there was very little description of the ship and almost no interaction with any of the real passengers and crew. Having studied the ship before, I learned of several interesting figures that were on the ship and I wish this book would have included more of that. Granted, this isn’t everyone’s preference but it is something I wish the authors would have expanded on. The sinking of the vessel itself was also very brief, about two chapters. Granted, the Lusitania sank in eighteen minutes, but as it was the climax of the story, I felt it should have been longer. Again, if you aren’t going to go into detail on what the ship is famous for, then why not just have it any other passenger ship?

Additionally, I didn’t like the three competing storylines and I found Sarah and Tessa’s stories to be pretty uninteresting. While Tessa’s story did add to the overall plot, Sarah’s felt like it was crammed in there and as a character in general I greatly disliked Sarah. She came off as very entitled, bitter, and annoying, which is unfortunate since I think she really could have added to the story.

While this book is a very good effort on the authors’ part to share the story of the Lusitania. Unfortunately, The Glass Ocean does fall short in several regards.

3 out of 5 stars