22 year-old Grace Winters never dreamed her life would turn out so well. Newly married to the rich and handsome Henry Winters, she is now on a big beautiful ocean liner crossing the Atlantic on her way to meet his family and on her way to a new and better life.
When a mysterious explosion causes the ship to sink, Grace is placed in a lifeboat secured by her husband along with 39 other people. She can only believe that Henry certainly found a way off the boat as well and they will meet again once they are safely back on dry land, wherever that may be.
For three weeks they are adrift, and a lot can happen when you are in a small boat that long with no privacy. Slowly as every once of dignity is stripped away, the little food and water they have is gone, one must look for other ways to survive.
A little over two years after the Titanic, comes The Lifeboat.
Sound a little familiar? Perhaps. I will admit, on this the 100th anniversary since the Titanic sunk I was intrigued by a book that took on a similar story line, around the same time frame as Titanic. While Titanic was in 1912, this is 1914.
The story line starts after they are rescued. In the first opening lines you learn that Grace is now in New York, she has just survived this major trauma, and she is on trial for murder.
Interesting plot line? You bet!
I listened to this on audio, and enjoyed the retelling by Grace as she looked back over what had happened the weeks before, from the time she was placed into the lifeboat alongside an assortment of men and women of various backgrounds, status, and age, including one man, Mr. Hardie, who is the only member of the ship’s crew.
What ensues over the three weeks is what I can only describe as the slow breaking down of the human mind. Three weeks is a long time to be in any kind of boat let alone a life boat designed for 40 people and as time goes on everyone involved would agree… 40 people was way too many.
So what does happen in three weeks? That I can not tell you. I can tell you that Grace’s narration is sometimes vague, sometimes left me feeling that there were more holes in her story than in the ship… this could be credited to either poor character development, or the brilliance of an author who has decided that over developing characters in this situation would have come across as false.
I will let you be the judge of that.
Would I recommend The Lifeboat? Fans (ugh.. that seems like a harsh word) of Titanic like tales I believe will walk away with something positive out of this book, but don’t expect to be blown away. While a good story, I personally was looking for something more.
Amazon Rating
Goodreads Review
Want to see some other thoughts on this one?
I purchased The Lifeboat from audible.com
Book Journey 
Okay….sounds intriguing, but I think I’ll pass.
I would say that is a fair choice Laurel, in a world of so many books I cant say this one is exceptional and worth dropping everything for. 🙂
Not sure if I am intrigued enough to want to find out who is is supposed to have killed.
I would agree Nise.
It sounds like it didn’t live up to its potential.
It didnt Kathy, it was interesting, but if I would have been reading it I probably would have stopped. I am more likely to finish audio that is fantastic that a book. 😀
I totally agree with you. I had the same feelings regarding this read.
Another one that I think had potential that was never reached.
Loved your audio review. So I will not be purchasing it on audible and will instead check out the book from the library!
Well, your audio review was great and so I won’t be purchasing this one from audible. Instead, I will be checking the book out from my library!
Yes not worth a credit! Definitely Library worthy… I will be interested in what you think Staci.
I enjoyed the book to the value of 4.5 stars. 🙂
I indeed thought Grace was an unreliable narrator. It started already with her being rather hysterical at the beginning of the book, she didn’t seem “quite right”. She obviously didn’t really want to tell what her contribution to what unfolds had been, so she’s vague about that for as long as she can.
I liked the book a lot, although I wasn’t so interested in the parts about the court case.
On Amazon I gave it three stars, I would call it an average read – I found it interesting enough to keep going, but it didnt blow me away.
I hope I get a chance to read this one at some point. loved what you had to say about it.
I hope you do too Diane, I love reading different opinions on things i have read. 🙂
I thought this sounded intriguing – the plot reminded me of The Life of Pi, though I’m guessing it’s not as clever. Sounds like a sort of Lord of the Flies in a lifeboat, huh?
Thanks for the review!
Sue