Brit BFFs on Titanic moored to each other

Donna Jones Alward could be a character in one of her novels: Maritimes-born farm girl leaves home, gets an education and then an office job, finds love, marries, has babies, returns to work, starts writing in her spare time and finally — after much angst — sells her first book in 2006. Fast forward to 2025, where our Nova Scotia-based heroine, now with countless romance novels under her pen, has segued into historical fiction writing. Talk about happy endings and homecomings.

Alward has described Ship of Dreams, released in late August, as “a story about the enduring bonds of friendship when they’re tested by adversity.” Set in 1912 aboard the RMS Titanic, dubbed “the ship of dreams,” her novel focuses on Hannah and Louisa, two longtime English chums who book passage to New York aboard the luxury liner. One is married, the other a single suffragette. But both young women have big secrets and need to repair affairs of the heart and head.

Little do the two besties know that the ship’s collision with an iceberg at sea will put their beliefs on love, loss, grit and grief to the ultimate test.

Like any decent historical fiction scribe, Alward doesn’t let her famous setting overshadow her fictional characters. While Ship’s storyline plods along for the first two-thirds of the novel, the narrative picks up steam once ship meets berg. Having the first-person chapters alternate between Hannah and Lou offers insight into how the pair view their locale, their dilemmas and demons; it also fosters reader engagement.

Alward ensures Ship of Dreams meets one of historical fiction’s key requirements: it’s well researched. Her descriptions of Titanic’s showstopping features such as the grand staircase, first-class dining saloon and enclosed promenade jibe with known photographs of the doomed liner. Ditto for her depiction of some of Titanic’s best-known travellers, including the unsinkable Margaret Brown, Helen Churchill Candee and J.J. Astor.

Ship of Dreams is an easy, light read, perfect for lazy fall days, casual book clubs or long-haul travel. But expect some chilling throat lumps when Alward depicts Hannah, Lou and other Titanic survivors seeking their dead kin from among hundreds of hypothermic corpses stored in the Halifax Curling Club.

Alward’s latest follows When the World Fell Silent, her 2024 historical fiction debut. A New York Times bestseller, it details two women’s messy ties to the 1917 explosion in Halifax harbour, a horrific event that impacted thousands of Maritimers.

The connective tissue between Alward’s last two novels is strong. Both stories revolve around Halifax’s bond with two world-renowned events. Both books centre on young women, at the turn of the century, wrestling with societal expectations and angst-filled personal relationships, while trying to survive life-altering disasters. Despite the many highs, sighs and lies of each woman’s situation, both novels deliver endings perfectly suited to each protagonist.

If that seems a bit formulaic, thank Alward’s 15-year tenure writing breathy romance novels for the Harlequin folks.

GC Cabana-Coldwell is a Winnipeg-based freelance writer and longtime Titanic buff.