This is the first novel I’ve read by the author and I’ve no doubt it will be among my favourite reads of 2025. I love historical novels set in the Edwardian era and The Lost Passenger drew me in from the first chapter. Elinor Coombes is trapped in an unhappy aristocratic marriage when her mill owner father takes Elinor, her husband and young son Teddy on the Titanic’s maiden voyage. When the ship sinks Elinor grabs the opportunity to start a new life in New York with Teddy.
I absolutely loved the character of Elinor, this was an emotional read and I was so angered by Elinor’s treatment by her husband and his family which gives the reader a real insight into the place of women in society in the early twentieth century. I was completely immersed in the ups and downs of Elinor’s journey and her new life in New York and was rooting for her and Teddy throughout. The author is superb at really taking the reader to a time and place, whether it’s upper class England, on board the Titanic or the Lower East side of New York and I found the descriptions of New York and it’s diverse population fascinating. The author writes beautifully and effortlessly and this is story telling at its best. I feel completely bereft now it’s over and long to hear more about Elinor and Teddy.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

I loved The Bonesetter Woman so I was excited to read Fran's latest book. I absolutely loved this story and couldn't put it down.

Elinor was such a brilliant character, and I could hardly believe the circumstances she found herself in following what she believed to be a marriage of love to Frederick. It was so frustrating to see how powerless she was against the aristocratic family she married into.

I loved Elinor's resilience and determination to be with her son. The backdrop of the Titanic was fascinating and heartbreaking to read. The family in New York were brilliant, and I loved all of the different characters that Elinor met in her new life. The way Elinor built a new life for herself in New York through the fashion industry and the street carts was fascinating!
The novel is clearly meticulously researched, and this comes through in all the details of the story.

Overall, this is a heartwarming story of a mother's love as well as of family and friendship. If you like historical fiction, I highly recommend this book.

No-one does historical fiction and strong female leads quite like the wonderful Fran Quinn - she packs every page full of sounds, smells, tastes and textures to bring her world to life.

In ‘The Lost Passenger' our heroine is Elinor Coombs, married to aristocratic husband Frederick. They are sailing on the Titanic’s maiden voyage along with their young son Teddy and Elinor’s beloved father, a selfmade man who has amassed a fortune in cotton mills.
Elinor is very unhappy in her marriage; she feels trapped and alone, knowing that she was unwittingly chosen for the money she could bring to the marriage rather than for love. She knows that she has no say in any aspect of her life, not even when it concerns her own child. Frederick's family make all the decisions, seeing the family's future riding on Teddy's shoulders as the future Lord Stourton. If Frederick dies, her son will be raised by Frederick’s own parents, sent to boarding school to learn how to be a Lord. Elinor can’t bear the thought of Teddy being sent away, but her voice carries no weight.

She jumps at the chance to spend some time with her father, seeing it as an opportunity to be herself and be heard, even if just for a few days. The thought of freedom is wonderful. Her father has always promised to take her, Frederick and Teddy on the Titanic’s maiden voyage, so they join the other excited passengers on board, Its a longed awaited trip of a lifetime for so many of its passengers, who are delighting in the luxury first class settings, the sumptuous decorations, the unforgettable meals, and the ultimate luxury, an onboard swimming pool. Its almost painful reading, knowing what is in store for so many of the passengers in just a few short hours.

We all know what happened to the Titanic; and when Elinor spots the chance to change the future for her and Teddy she leaps at it, taking on another identity as Molly, a young woman who was sailing to New York for her own fresh start.

I was absolutely rooting for Elinor to get the new start she so deserved; her tenacity and resilience were a joy to read about; I don’t know if I would have been so brave. Her determination for her and Teddy to have a new future ahead of them was inspiring and wonderful. The final post-script was perfect.

Naturally I wanted to read this book by Frances Quinn because of the reference to the Titanic. However there is so much more to this book. I love the way that Quinn sets the scene in Edwardian England first before the voyage. Plus once 'the lost passenger' survives the sinking, her life in New York is very interesting as well.

I don’t often choose historical fiction novels but the beautiful cover of The Smallest Man, Frances Quinn’s first novel, caught my eye and it ended up being one of my favourite books in 2022. I was therefore thrilled to secure an eARC of The Lost Passenger.

Again, another stunningly beautiful, eye catching cover for The Lost Passenger. And again, I can see another Frances Quinn book topping my favourite books’ list of 2025. Her writing is just so good; I was immediately caught up in Elinor’s story. The depth of all her characters are so impressive and the descriptions of places and circumstances are so concise and well written, I can imagine myself there. It is obvious how much research went into this book.

It sounds simplistic for a review (and for that I apologise) but I just thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for the eARC of this fabulous book.

Although I have Frances Quinn’s other books on my Kindle, somehow I’ve never had time to read them. I’m so glad I made time for this one, and will be moving the others straight to the top of my TBR pile.
I loved this story, which provides such a satisfying character arc. I felt the full gamut of emotions on Elinor’s behalf: sadness that she had to use her intelligence to manipulate situations and pretend to be someone she wasn’t; pity for her tragic losses and unhappy marriage; admiration for her resilience and achievements; tension as on several occasions she faced losing everything she held most dear; and delight at the satisfying resolution.
Elinor’s life of pretence and deceit stems from a series of events beyond her control which force her to make unconscionable decisions, every one of them completely understandable thanks to the author’s sensitivity and excellent plotting. At her core Elinor is deeply honest and authentic, and seeing her being forced to live in an inauthentic way made me hurt on her behalf. I pitied seeing her innocence stripped away, but knew from the start that a girl who was prepared to “steal someone else’s life” would somehow find a way through. I was gripped from the banging first sentence and delighted in following her journey.
Those weren’t the only aspects I loved. The secondary characters were beautifully drawn and well-rounded. The research that must have gone into the different worlds depicted in this story was remarkable, but the author used her obviously detailed knowledge with a light touch. I also enjoyed the parallels with the aristocratic love triangle between Charles, Diana and Camilla. It was so easy to sympathise with all of the characters.
Congratulations to the author for a terrific story, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book I have read by Quinn, and I'm not sure I chose the best place to start.

Whilst I loved the themes of the plot and the writing style was very up my street, I felt the story lost momentum towards the last third and the end was tied up all too conveniently.

It was an enjoyable read, and I would definitely pick up Quinn's other titles which seem to have better reviews.

Frances Quinn’s That Bonesetter Woman was one of my books of the year in 2022 and I didn’t really expect her new one, The Lost Passenger, to live up to it. Well, I’m pleased to say that I thought it was even better!

The novel begins in England in 1910. Nineteen-year-old Elinor Hayward is the daughter of a wealthy Manchester mill owner known as ‘the cotton king’, but when she marries Frederick Coombes, the son and heir of Lord and Lady Storton, she finds herself being looked down upon by her aristocratic in-laws. It seems that nothing she says or does is good enough for them and although Frederick himself is not unkind, it quickly becomes obvious that he doesn’t love her and it’s not going to be the happy marriage she had dreamed about. Worse still, when their first child, Teddy, is born, he is immediately taken away to be raised by a nanny and it is made clear to Elinor that she’s to have very little involvement in his upbringing.

After two unhappy years, Elinor is thrilled when her father buys tickets for the Titanic and invites her to join him on the ship’s maiden voyage, along with Frederick and Teddy. It’s a chance to see more of the world, but also to finally spend some precious time with her little boy. Of course, the voyage ends in tragedy but Elinor and Teddy are lucky enough to be rescued after the ship goes down. When asked for her name so a list of survivors can be compiled, it occurs to Elinor that this is the only opportunity she’s ever going to have to escape from her old life. Before she has time to really think about the consequences, she finds herself giving another woman’s name and taking on a fake identity. But will she be able to avoid being caught – and will the new life she builds for herself in New York be worth the deception?

Frances Quinn has a real gift for creating characters the reader can get behind and root for. I liked Elinor from the beginning and she had my full sympathy in having to deal with the vicious snobbery of Lady Storton and the disappointment of a loveless marriage. Her life with Frederick and his family is so stifling and unhappy that even though the decision she makes after the sinking of the Titanic is questionable, it’s also very understandable. Although this first section of the novel is quite slow, I think it was necessary for Quinn to spend plenty of time showing us how trapped Elinor felt and how desperate she had become.

Many books have been written about the Titanic, but this one is different. The Titanic is not the main focus of the story but is a starting point to explore how Elinor makes the most of the second chance she has been given. However, I still felt that Quinn handles the disaster sensitively and with respect for the victims. She writes about the failings of the evacuation process, the conditions experienced by those who make it into a lifeboat and the realisation that there’s no hope for the hundreds left on board, but she doesn’t go into too much detail on any of these things. Instead of concentrating on the disaster itself, she focuses more on the survivors and how they try to cope with the trauma they’ve suffered and move forward with their lives.

The second half of the book is devoted to Elinor’s arrival in New York and how she goes about trying to build a happier future for herself and Teddy. I’m deliberately not saying much more because I want you to enjoy discovering the rest of Elinor’s story for yourself (everything else I’ve talked about so far is already touched on in the publisher’s blurb for the book). It’s both fascinating and inspirational to see how Elinor is able to create a whole new life out of the ruins of her old one, but at the same time there’s always the risk that someone who knew her before could see her and give her away her secret.

I loved this book and as I haven’t read her first one, The Smallest Man, yet, I still have something to look forward to!

A very enjoyable read. Elinor, an only child, had a wonderful upbringing with loving parents. Her father is a self made millionaire and after her mother died Elinor helped him with the business. She also loved to read and these stories gave her rose tinted glasses when aristocrat Frederick shows an interest in her. Believing herself in love they marry but her glasses are soon shattered. After the birth of their first child Edward ‘Teddy’ she becomes even more unhappy, only being allowed to spend 20 minutes with him each day. This was so easy to read I didn’t want to put it down I was so engrossed.

Briefly, her father contacts her to say he has bought tickets for the maiden voyage of the Titanic, which he promised before her marriage. She persuades Frederick to accept the offer and so they board with Teddy and a maid to help with Teddy. The terrible tragedy that follows gives Elinor an opportunity to change her life, and as she stands on board the Carpathia, she makes a shocking decision.

Elinor is a wonderful character. A strong and clever woman, the sort of person you know will be successful when she sets her mind to it. But she’s a flawed woman who lies to people she cares about, but because she is scared and desperate. The plot is good and it’s like two different stories - before and after Titanic. I loved the family Elinor and Teddy lived with in New York, they couldn’t be more different than her family in England. A entertaining and enjoyable read. 4.5⭐️

The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn
Having read The Smallest Man and That Bonesetter Woman I was really looking forward to this book. I found the description of Elinor’s life fascinating but was surprised at how easily she allowed herself to be fooled by her husband’s aristocratic family. We know that she is shrewd from the work she has done in her father’s cotton business but she allows herself to be manipulated by Frederick and his family.
There is nothing in Frederick’s attitude towards her which suggests he has found the love of his life and their romance is conducted in a very business-like manner. Her submission to what his family wants does not seem to fit with her upbringing. I also thought that her father might have ensured that she could inherit as he had involved her so fully in the business.
All this being said I really enjoyed the book and it is obvious from the start that Elinor will end up travelling on the ill-fated Titanic. The description of the sinking of the ship is handled well and her subsequent life in New York is covered very well. As soon as she arrived in America I became more involved in her story and enjoyed the way in which the story was developed. I will recommend the book to others even though I did not feel it was as good as the two previous novels it shows her ability to write historical novels firmly set in different periods of time.
Many thanks to Frances Quinn, Simon and Schuster and Net Galley for the opportunity to read the book in return for an honest review.

On the deck of the Carpathia, cold, wet and alone, a survivor stood, hiding from all who could identify her, for she was not who she claimed to be. In the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic, Elinor could escape and begin again, if she held her nerve. But how did it come to this, why were such drastic measures needed....
As a young 19 year old Jane Austen fan, Elinor fell too easily for Frederick. She thought she was marrying for love, in truth Frederick needed her money to help pay his aristocrat families debts. Elinor had been tricked !
She tries reluctantly to navigate through her new life and her part within this family, but they are unfeeling and cruel. As her life of privileged impotence gets worse, Elinor plans her escape. Little did she know that aboard the Titanic, that chance may come...imagine the breathtaking sight of that amazing ship as Elinor first saw it, a magnificent giant of the sea...could it save her, or would it be her end ?

I loved That Bonesetter Woman so I knew I would enjoy this one. It's amazing. A feast for your emotions. Take a deep breath and dive into this well written, excellently crafted tension builder of a novel. We are rooting for Elinor to have a second chance, and to be happy at last. I loved it from cover to cover.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this amazing book !
Suse

This is yet another smash hit from one of the best historical fiction writers of our time. I loved how Elinor's story wasn't the sweeping upper class Bridgerton story, yet the riches to rags made for more interesting reading. The Titanic also isn't the centre piece here and I commend the author for being brave enough to do this as it worked amazingly well as a plot point more than "just another Titanic story."

Elinor is everything I love in a female character, fearless, bold and a caring mother to dear Teddy.

Adored this and adds to the collection of iconic characters this author has already created.

Absolutely brilliant from the first page to the last!! I was hooked completely and couldn't put it down!
Elinor is a fantastic character who has a huge amount to deal with in her life. She lives with her father who owns cotton mills but has fingers in other pies as well. He's a very wealthy man who adores his daughter and would do anything for her. Elinor takes a great interest in her father's business and helps him a lot but even so she won't inherit because she's a single woman.
At a party, which she's surprised they've been asked to, she meets Frederick and starts to fall for him right away. From here on her life changes utterly and she's hit with a myriad of problems and her life is never the same again.
Part of this book happens on the Titanic but this is not a story about this great ship, it just plays a part in a huge change for Elinor and her life. The parts that did take part on the ship were very well done.
But it's the rest of the story that's the stand out part. Her life in America is so different to what she has already been through and it toughens her up. All she learned from her father stands to her in her new way of life.
There's a huge amount of tension in the story and I found myself holding my breath wondering what was coming next!
I can't recommend this book highly enough to anyone who likes historical romance.

Many thanks to Simon and Schuster UK and NetGalley for an early copy of this book.

This was my first historical fiction book by Frances Quinn but it certainly won't be my last. I don't know how I have missed her previous books as her writing style is right up my street. Many potential readers may be put off by the thought of yet another book about a Titanic survivor but this one is different. The Titanic plays a very small part in the story. I really enjoyed Elinor/Molly's battle for independence in New York after being treated like a possession for sale or barter in England. The author has obviously done her research and nothing in the novel jars as being obviously incorrect. A very enjoyable read I'm happy to recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

If I could be a character in a book I would choose to be one of the female leading characters in a book by Frances Quinn. She writes strong, dynamic women so well, women who have a steel will and a determination to take life by the horns.

Elinor is such a fantastic protagonist. The daughter of a self-made millionaire, she is bright and intrepid, and as a woman in a man’s world is focused on having her voice heard. When she marries for love but finds that she has been misled by her husband and his family, she realises that she has to make the most of her situation.

Traveling on the Titanic she is faced with a new future after she and her son Teddy are the only survivors of her traveling party. Losing her father, her husband and their staff she assumes the identity of Molly, the maid she employed at the last minute before boarding the ship.

What follows is a riches to rags story where she has to make a life for herself and her child. Learning to do all the things she had previously had servants do for her, and living in relative poverty it was a very steep learning curve.

I adored the juxtaposition between life for Elinor before Titanic and after it. The story before Titanic was incredibly different to the story after the Titanic sank and it really gave the novel an epic quality. As with Frances Quinn’s previous novels I would love to see this book optioned as a movie or a television series, because it has such a visual quality that is absolutely captivating from the very first page to the last.

The Lost Passenger is a story of love, loss, hope, determination and family in all its forms.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I was not paid to review the book.

Elinor is the daughter of a Cotton King and is married off to a Lord. She quickly realises that he wanted to get to her father through his marriage to her, and wants her fathers money. She soon has her son, Teddy, and after having him, realises that she doesn’t want to live like this. She then manages to convince her husband to go onto the Titanic with her father, long story short, Elinor and Teddy end up surviving, and she “borrows” a passenger’s identity, in order to not have to return to her life. The story goes through the before, during and aftermath of the Titanic tragedy and how life changes for the main character and her son.

I like historical fiction, it interests me. This was very engaging throughout and I was hooked. I enjoyed this story and it’s obvious that the author did research before writing this.

For sheer enjoyment, this would have been a five star. As I’ve come to expect as a fan of The Smallest Man and That Bonesetter Woman, Frances Quinn has delivered a story filled with warmth. I love her writing style and as a child of the Titanic movie generation, I did develop an obsession with the doomed liner and so this could not have been more up my street if it tried. I’ve only knocked off .25 because I had expected it to be based on someone who actually lived, but it seems it was fiction. Unfair perhaps., but I did feel a frisson of disappointment when I discovered this. However, a wonderful read!

I looooooove Frances' books, so much!

In fact The Smallest Man - Frances' first book - was one of the first reviews I ever posted on this blog. The Smallest Man is set in the 1600s, and her follow-up, That Bonesetter Woman, was set in the 1700s. This book, whilst still historical, is set in a more recognisable and familiar age of the 1900s.

We all know about the Titanic and what happened, but we rarely give a lot of thought to the individuals on the ship, those who died and those who survived. We tend to see them as a number, those 1,500+ that perished, rather than see them as each individual people, as mums and dads, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives and children. And so it was interesting for Frances to pick that as a focus.

Frances has a knack of picking the underdog, or the person who doesn't fit into society's place for them, and making them the star of their own life, and this is no differencee.

The Titanic doesn't really comes into it until about 30% of the way through, which at first I thought was too late. I'd have liked a bit more set on the Titanic, but that's just personal taste. But in hindsight I'd say it feels about right, as it gives us a good amount of time to get to the know the characters, which in turn makes the rest of the story feel deeper. And this isn't a story about the Titanic, not really, it's more about what happened to the people after rather than during.

It has a lot of well-developed characters in it - as I've come to expect from Frances' work. Elinor is a beautiful protagonist and has such a real voice and a presence about her. I really felt for her. It would have been quite easy to depict her as this little rich girl who complains about being rich and have no sympathy for her but I really felt like her friend. There are many other characters, some good and some bad, some in it more or less than others. But there isn't a wasted one amongst them, and they really helped develop Elinor's story.

It's not the easiest book to read, and not just because of the obvious sad Titanic parts. But the bits about Elinor's life beforehand, what she has sacrificed, what she's willing to do to protect her son. It really does pull at the heartstrings.

It's like two different stories - one set before the Titanic and one after - and usually I would say I didn't like that because they often don't join up, but I liked it with this book. It gave us a clear divide and made for an interesting read to see just how much had changed after the incident.

I suppose the one thing I would have liked is if we'd had more about what was happening in England at the time Elinor was in New York. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed what was there, but part of me was wanting to see what had happened to those she'd left behind.

It is a very well researched book and it's clear Frances has a real passion for the characters and the story she was telling.

It's like a Cinderella story in reverse, in a way. A girl born into wealth, but man-made wealth rather than inherited, who marries into peerage and has everything she could possibly want, who then, seemingly overnight, finds herself in a situation where she has to share a toilet with 20 strangers. It's a riches to rag story. But she finds a different kind of riches amongst the people in New York.

Even amongst all the death and grief, hardships, hatred, anger, lies and fear, this book has so much love and joy and more importantly, so much hope about it, it really is very heartwarming.

Frances Quinn writes great historical fiction and "The Lost Passenger" is equally compelling as her other books. Set in 1910 we follow Elinor into a loveless marriage and realise that her son is not going to have the life that she would wish for him. Her father then buys her, her husband and son passage on the Titanic's maiden voyage to New York. With a chanced meeting with Molly and tragedy that unfolds around the sinking of the Titanic, we see how life in New York can give anyone, who works hard enough, new opportunities. A touching story and you will be rooting for Elinor's new life.

I DNF'd this book about a 1/3 of the way through. The female main character just seemed to be whinging all the time and it was grating on me... at some point it has to be seen that she is the issue right! I couldn't get on with her.