The Glass Ocean

A Novel

By: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, Karen White

Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson, Saskia Maarleveld, Brittany Pressley

Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the New York Times best-selling authors of The Forgotten Room comes a captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that links the lives of three women across a century - two deep in the past, one in the present - to the doomed passenger liner, RMS Lusitania.

May 2013

Her finances are in dire straits, and best-selling author Sarah Blake is struggling to find a big idea for her next book. Desperate, she breaks the one promise she made to her Alzheimer’s-stricken mother and opens an old chest that belonged to her great-grandfather, who died when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915. What she discovers there could change history. 

Sarah embarks on an ambitious journey to England to enlist the help of John Langford, a recently disgraced member of parliament whose family archives might contain the only key to the long-ago catastrophe....

April 1915

Southern belle Caroline Telfair Hochstetter’s marriage is in crisis. Her formerly attentive industrialist husband, Gilbert, has become remote, preoccupied with business...and something else on which she can’t quite put a finger. She’s hoping a trip to London in Lusitania’s lavish first-class accommodations will help them reconnect - but she can’t ignore the spark she feels for her old friend, Robert Langford, who turns out to be on the same voyage. Feeling restless and longing for a different existence, Caroline is determined to stop being a bystander and take charge of her own life....

Tessa Fairweather is traveling second-class on the Lusitania, returning home to Devon. Or at least, that’s her story. Tessa has never left the US, and her English accent is a hasty fake. She’s really Tennessee Schaff, the daughter of a roving con man, and she can steal and forge just about anything. But she’s had enough. Her partner has promised that if they can pull off this one last heist aboard the Lusitania, they’ll finally leave the game behind. Tess desperately wants to believe that, but Tess has the uneasy feeling there’s something about this job that isn’t as it seems....

As the Lusitania steams toward its fate, three women work against time to unravel a plot that will change the course of their own lives...and history itself.

©2018 Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Harley House Books, LLC (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

I enjoyed this book, at least most of it.

My biggest issue with this book is the fact that it keeps coming back to the near-present when it doesn't need to. The chapters which revolve around "Sarah" are set in 2013, and they are all tedious filler. The book would be improved if "Sarah" were completely removed. Fortunately, most of the chapters set in 1915 are quite enjoyable. They revolve around two separate women, Caroline and Tess, who cross paths on the doomed ship, RMS Lusitania. The "Tess" chapters are especially well-written and well-performed. The chapters set in 1915 have a good mixture of romance, mystery, and suspense. It's just a shame that the book insists on constantly leaving 1915 in order to go back to 2013.

Quick Exit

I usually don't make such a hasty exit on a book, but I had to do so this time. There might be a bit of a story buried in the cliches, but the different voices are awkward and the narrators are dreadful. Noblesse oblige, second word pronounced with a long i, or German lieder, again, a long i. Seriously?

The Glass Ocean- a tale of two times

This slightly sensationalistic novel weaves the story of travelers on the doomed ship Lusitania, sunk by the Germans and forcing America into WWI, with a contemporary love story between a Brit and an American whose ancestors were both on the ship. Engaging, well-paced and clearly well-researched it is a tale well told that creates a bit of suspense by withholding the outcome until the end. So if you like a bit of guesswork, a bit of history and a bit of romance with distinctive characters you will enjoy this book.

Entertaining but fluffy - mostly a romance novel

Basically a romance novel. I like the concept and it's a fun book to listen too, but I would have preferred more mystery, less flowers descriptions of strong arms and breathless encounters. The voice actor is very good and does a nice job with the various characters. Pacing is great.

Not as wonderful as the first by these three!

I didn’t care for this as much as the earlier one by these three especially gifted authors. The narrator of the contemporary timeline was actually off-putting in this performance and detracted from my enjoyment overall. Her performance here jerked me out of the story every time. The premise was fascinating, but I still couldn’t finish it. I have bought the ebook version and will finish it that way.

Wonderful Historical Fiction

I loved this story, And Narrator also, which I have a hard time finding Narrators that I really enjoy. would reccomend this book to all!!

Terrible writing, predictable story

If yo are looking for a historical novel, forget this one. It's really a badly written romance. Awful writing and some laugh out loud moments (for all the wrong reasons) like when the "hero" Robert offers to pay to transfer the poor researcher's mother with Alzheimers to a fancy nursing home in England at his expense after knowing her for about a week. And she says yes of course. If you a romance reader this might be fine but doesn't cut it in regular fiction First audio book I've ever asked for my money back on.

Fluff

This was a trite piece of fluff with an annoying narrator whose cloying voice was like fingernails on a blackboard.

Awful

Long, boring, utterly unbelievable, with characters that grate on one’s nerves and narrators who mispronounce common words

The best of their work

Really enjoyed this book, learning about the atmosphere aboard the boat and the intrigue of the perilous time before the US joined WWI.