The year is 1912, and four girls from Dublin, Ireland are presented with the opportunity of a lifetime - to travel on the RMS Titanic on her maiden voyage to New York, and change their lives forever. Josefa gathers Violet. Emilie and Hinnah on a mission to take a rare book encrusted with gemstones during the voyage on a heist like no other she's planned but things get complicated when old faces appear on board and well, we all know the history of the Titanic.

I was so excited to read this from the moment I first heard Adiba was coming out with it. I mean, a sapphic heist story set on the Titanic, it has to be brilliant. And yet, unfortunately I feel a bit disappointed. This wasn't a bad book by any means, it was just lacking a lot of excitement and action I wanted from a heist or even any Oceans 8/ Six of Crows type of intelligence. I think this book had an amazing premise but the execution left a lot to be desired and fell flat for me.

The heist story was a little bit of a mess to be honest - it never really felt like something that was even doable - the plans were not very good and predictably it all fell apart almost as soon as they boarded the ship. I would have liked more time with each character as they all had important stories to be told and it felt like they were all rushed (other than Josefa who appeared to just be a spoiled brat running away from a life of privilege), and more time building all the girls relationships with one another as Josefa and Emilie go from 0-100 quite quickly.

The setting was also such a let down - it's the Titanic and yet for most of the book you could easily forget what ship you were on and at times, that they were on a ship at all. I would have loved more about what they were seeing, who they were seeing - the atmosphere of being on the ship of a lifetime, the views from the deck, the cold feeling of the Arctic air on their skin as they sailed into iceberg territory, the blanket of stars in the sky. Yes, there was a little nod to Jack and Rose in Titanic with a chase through the boiler room followed by a romantic moment but it wasn't enough for me.

The sinking of the ship was also very quick and I don't know how I really felt about these scenes. I'm also convinced Josefa wouldn't have survived having been in the water before she found the overturned lifeboat - surely her clothes would have frozen and she would have got hypothermia.

Despite my complaints, this wasn't a bad book and I think many readers will enjoy the friendship, the fast pacing and the historical setting - it just wasn't quite the book I had in mind when I began to read it. I also really appreciated Adiba's author notes at the end talking about some of the historical liberties she took, and discussing the Titanic's history with Ireland and the BIPOC passengers that would have been on board Titanic.