Review & Giveaway!! The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor

Title: The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic
Author: Hazel Gaynor
Published: April 1st, 2014
Publisher: William Morrow / Harper Collins
Paperback, 384 pgs

GoodReads / Amazon / B&N / iTunes / IndieBound

Inspired by true events surrounding a group of Irish emigrants who sailed on the maiden voyage of R.M.S Titanic, The Girl Who Came Home is a story of enduring love and forgiveness, spanning seventy years. It is also the story of the world’s most famous ship, whose tragic legacy continues to captivate our hearts and imaginations one hundred years after she sank to the bottom of the Atlantic ocean with such a devastating loss of life. 

I've always been fascinated by the Titanic -- the grandness, the majestic, this beautiful story with such a tragic ending. The idea that at this time, the Titanic would be your one-way ticket to a new life and a new world...there was just so much possibility. I love to read about the different kinds of people who happened to be on board and how their stories have been so unique and each one compelling in its own right.

This love for the Titanic is what led me to pick up The Girl Who Came Home. Just take one look at the stunning cover. You just know it's going to be a story that instantly grabs you and pulls you right in. Isn't it funny, though, how even though you know how the general story goes, you can't help but want to re-live it once more and hope for something different. Hope for something better.

The author, Hazel Gaynor, gives you that hope. In this beautifully written, creatively descriptive novel, Gaynor takes what would be one of the most horrific tragedies of our time and turns it into a story of love, family, and ultimately, the realization that the past can never hold us down. And once we let go of what's holding us back, what's been anchoring us to the past, only then can we "go home" and truly be free. It is an amazing work.

The novel follows 17-year-old Maggie Murphy -- a girl who is actually quite hesitant from the get-go about sailing on the Titanic. She must leave the love of her life, her home and her entire world behind her. When the ship sinks, Maggie survives, and is forever changed by the tragedy she's lived through. Only when she sees a bit of herself in her granddaughter, Grace, does she finally re-live her story and let her family (and the reader) join her on this unforgettable and captivating journey.

5 out of 5 stars!

GIVEAWAY!!
One Grand Prize Winner will receive this incredible New York Times Poster! And three runner ups will receive copies of the book!
 a Rafflecopter giveaway

READ AN EXCERPT FROM THE GIRL WHO CAME HOME! 

     Pushed along by the crowd behind her, Maggie had no choice but to keep climbing, emerging onto the boat deck terrified, shivering uncontrollably with the cold, and separated from everyone from her group other than the four who stood with her. The emergency rockets being fired into the sky sent a bright red light across the ship, which was now audibly creaking and groaning under the strain of the water flooding the lower compartments.
     Maura Brennan stared wildly at the unfamiliar faces emerging from the ladder behind them. “Maggie, where are the others? They were right behind us.”
     “They got pushed back. I don’t know. I don’t know where they are.” Maggie’s fear developed into gasping tears then, the enormity of what was happening suddenly hitting her. “I don’t know where they are, and I don’t know where Aunt Kathleen is either.”
     Grabbing her arm, Harry pulled Maggie and the others he had managed to bring up the ladder toward a lifeboat. “It’s women and children first,” he told them. “The men will follow.”
     Maura Brennan grasped Harry’s arm. “What in God’s name d’ye mean, women and children first? Can we not all go together?”
     “Officer’s orders, miss. Women and children first.”
     A terrible silence fell over the group then. Maggie looked at all their faces as an officer manning the boat started shouting at them urgently.
     “Everyone in, miss. Come on, everyone in, right now. There’s room for a few more.”
     Seeing that Maura was pregnant, he ushered her toward the boat, pushing Eileen and Maggie with her. A surge of passengers behind them caused them all to be pushed forward, Their legs crushed momentarily against the hard edge of the lifeboat. Some men tried to clamber aboard. A shot rang out. Maggie turned to see the officer waving his gun in the air.
     “Get back, men. Get back and wait your turn.”
     Amid the confusion, Maura Brennan stood perfectly still, a determined composure and certainty about her. “I’ll not go,” she whispered. Maggie stared at Maura, who stood at the edge of the boat. “I’ll not go without Jack. I will never go without Jack.”
     Next to her, Eileen started to sob desperate tears. “I’ll not go either, Jack. I’ll not leave my brother standing here. I’ll not leave you to drown.”
     As the women hesitated, their seats were gladly taken by others.
     The officer pushed Maggie forward. “Miss, one seat left. I would take it now if I were you, before it’s too late.”
     Maggie hesitated, looking wildly from one face to the other, at young Michael Kelly’s face streaked with tears.
     “Let the boy in,” she said to the officer, pushing Michael forward. “Let him go in this boat. He has a mammy at home.”
     “Women and children first, miss. He can go in the next boat.”
     “But I can’t go alone,” she cried, clutching at Maura’s thin coat. “I can’t leave you all here. And what about the baby?” she added, conscious of the life growing within Maura’s belly.