Fieldnotes:
RMS Titanic, April 1912

4 Teenaged Girls, of which
- 1 Pickpocket and Mastermind
- 1 "Face" / Distraction
- 1 Circus Performer
- 1 Artist / Forger
Diversity in both PoC and LGBT sense

1 Heist of
1 Bejeweled Book of Persian Poetry
1 Excellent Motive
1 Truly Ridiculous Motive
Ambivalence

1 Nemesis
1 Suspicious Matron
1 Blue Hair Clip
Disguises

Several Stolen Kisses
1 Ignored Ice/Weather Report by Telegram
1 Knife Fight
1 Maritime Disaster
Sacrifices

The Plan:
Listen, I heard there was a YA novel about a heist aboard the Titanic featuring 4 teenage girls from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, some of whom wanted to smooch on one another? I could not pick this up fast enough - it sounded SO FUN.

Reader, it was nowhere near as fun as it sounded. First of all, we don't get nearly as much heist planning and executing as I was hoping. The details of the heist are largely hand-waved and mostly seem to involve creeping through the air vents. Where is the elaborate plan?

Second, we are aboard the TITANIC, but I didn't really get a sense of place - not of the luxury onboard, the little details that make it feel real. And then when the inevitable happens, there wasn't much of a sense of disarray and panic. This seemed remarkably civilized rather than people trying to save their own skins.

Also, although we have a character from Karachi and another who is half-Haitian, their backgrounds simply don't feature as much as I wanted to read about them - I could understand wanting to gloss over some of the racism for a fun book, but I still wanted a sense of their background - missing food, smells, quirks.

Finally, and what really killed this for me - the super secret *real* reason for the heist by our fearless leader Josefa (who was the most irksome - being incredibly reckless and impulsive but somehow also the planner?) is payback for being betrayed by her former thieving partner - but she is only a thief because her comfortable middle-class life was too restricting and apparently petty thievery is *thrilling*. Endangering others who may have to actually face consequences because she's BORED? Ugh, no thank you.

I wanted more of all of the other characters and far, FAR less of Josefa. ( )

An entertaining story, but I have mixed feelings about how little the diversity of the girls actually factored in. The book touches on race here and there but isn’t delved into all that much and that’s especially noticeable onboard the Titanic, a time and place where you’d imagine skin color and accents would not have made traveling easy yet prejudice doesn’t really affect their trip.

I’m sure there are some readers who will prefer that this doesn’t dwell on black, brown, and immigrant trauma the way many other books do, however, for me, something like Stacey Lee’s Luck Of The Titanic, struck a more satisfying blend as it featured exciting action and a little romance as this book does yet it didn’t shy away from the Chinese experience onboard the vessel, that balanced storytelling and difficult truth-telling worked well for me, but again, for readers who have understandably just plain had enough of trauma, this book may be the better fit for them.

I liked the sweet and sometimes shy chemistry between two of the girls in this story, but I did ultimately want a little more from their romance, I can’t pinpoint exactly what, there was just something about it that felt a little underdone.

All four girls had distinct personalities and brought a different skill to their squad which I enjoyed, and it’s always good to see girls have each other’s backs. I also found the heist aspect of the plot entertaining for the most part even if there were occasional instances that seemed implausible.

This truly hit its stride around iceberg time and on through to the end, it took on a more page-turning and bittersweet quality to watch each girl’s fate unfold. ( )

Trigger Warnings (as mentioned under Content Warnings at the beginning of the book): mentions of parental neglect, parental abandonment, parental death and abuse, instances of death (specifically drowning)

Josefa, a thief. Emilie, an artist. Hinnah, an acrobat. Violet, the actress. Four teenagers who don’t have all too much in common - except one thing; they all want a better life than what they’re living in Dublin, Ireland. Josefa unions them all together for one goal: stealing the Rubaiyat, a jewel-encrusted book that’s setting sail aboard the RMS Titanic. If they can steal that and get the jewels off of it, they’ll be set.

But mistakes, old grudges, and new romances threaten to jeopardize their months in the making plan and put them all in incredible danger.

I’ve been fascinated with anything and everything about the Titanic since I was a kid, so this was a big reason I wanted to pick this up. Also, the cover is amazing and beautiful and that also caught my eye too. It also helped that it was marketed as being a “Sapphic Titanic Heist YA Novel” - that checked so many of my “Yes” boxes for why I needed to read this book.

This book did not leave my side for the 2.5 days that I was reading it. It went with me everywhere and I was reading it in every spare moment I could manage (curse having to work!). This grabbed my attention and kept it throughout the whole book. For the most part, I knew what was going to happen - the sinking of the Titanic - but I wanted so desperately to see the girls’ happy endings!

There were a few spots where the pacing was a bit slow, but it would build back up again pretty quickly. And it did take me a bit to get the girls straightened out so I could remember who was who.

Overall though, I absolutely loved this book and recommend this to anyone who likes historical fiction, stories from/based off the RMS Titanic, and heists books for sure!

*Thank you HarperCollins and Edelweiss+ for an advanced ebook version of novel in exchange for an honest review ( )

we can appreciate this stunning cover