Book #90 |
Book: The Second Mrs. Astor | Author: Shana Abé | |
| Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook |
Pages: 323 | Duration: 10/07/25 – 10/09/25 (3 days) | |
| Rating: ★★★★☆ | Genres: historical fiction, romance, disaster, society | ||
| 📕10-word summary: Step inside Madeleine Force’s scandalous courtship and catastrophic honeymoon voyage. 🖌6-word review: Realistically portrayed. Refreshing female protagonist perspective. |
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| 💭A favorite quote: “Marriage is work, enormous work, because it’s a living entity that needs everlasting attention. It will push you and bend you and test you, and if you’re not prepared for any of that, it will shatter you.” | |||
| Description:* Madeleine Talmage Force is just 17 when she attracts the attention of John Jacob “Jack” Astor. Madeleine is beautiful, intelligent, and solidly upper-class, but the Astors are in a league apart. Jack’s mother was the Mrs. Astor, American royalty and New York’s most formidable socialite. Jack is dashing and industrious—a hero of the Spanish-American war, an inventor, and a canny businessman. Despite their twenty-nine-year age difference, and the scandal of Jack’s recent divorce, Madeleine falls headlong into love—and becomes the press’s favorite target. On their extended honeymoon in Egypt, the newlyweds finally find a measure of peace from photographers and journalists. Madeleine feels truly alive for the first time—and is happily pregnant. The couple plans to return home in the spring of 1912, aboard an opulent new ocean liner…*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||
| Thoughts: I chose this book several weeks ago, because it was “available immediately” from the library. Although, I knew it was about the Titanic, I had no idea that the settings of the story would include Newport, RI; Bar Harbor, ME; & Halifax, NS, which were three (of the 5) port calls on the New England & Canada cruise we just returned from, so that was cool! The actual Titanic disaster wasn’t the center of this book, and it didn’t provide any “new” information about it. Most of the book focused on Madeleine Force, whom Jack Astor married after he divorced his first wife — hence the title of the book. It covers how they met, how he pointedly pursued her, and the sometimes-high price of fame and fortune. | |||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
