I have been thinking about what to write about Rachel Rhys' Dangerous Crossing for almost a week. This is a difficult book to really rate and write about as it's a bit confused about what it is; and yet I enjoyed the majority of what I read. So it's not that the book is bad but it's not a 4 or 5 star read either.

Confused Plot
My largest complaint is that the plot isn't really a plot. Our lead gal gets on a cruise ship headed from England to Australia in 1939. Of course the world is just entering into WWII and things are starting to fall apart in Europe. It's interesting to think about a boat with all different nationalities, including some Jews already fleeing the Nazis, just before England declares all out war. This is explored in a very intriguing way as we being to realize that there are 'enemies' on board if war is declared and that some on the boat are definitely in line with Hitler and his regime policy of pushing the Jews.
While there are mysterious and odd things happening on the cruise ship, some first class folks who 'slum' with tourist class, and every character is beautifully written and developed (back stories and all), I still never really felt like there was a plot. Unless plot can be a cruise ship going from one location to the next while the world is in turmoil?

The Ending
My plot issues only compound once I get to the last few chapters and realize that what I thought was going on is not at all what was happening. It's not that the ending is coincidental or unrealistic; it's more that it came a little out of nowhere for me. Interestingly the events on the cruise are derived from true stories on that same cruise ship over a few years during WWII. So while Rhys has moved a few timelines for minor events on the ship and changed many of our main characters; everything she writes is based on fact (as explained at the end of the book).

Overall
This is a decent piece of historical fiction that gives insight into what it would have been like to be just on the outskirts of WWII. To be waiting for any country to declare war; hopeful that it might be avoided. I think Rhys creates the kind of awkward suspense that is appropriate for all our characters. And she certainly creates a few well written villains to help tell the story to remind us all that while most were against the Nazi's policies; not everyone was.
There are some really disturbing (at least to me) moments in Dangerous Crossing where I realized that the tension in our world today, that US President Donald Trump has created, could easily be the opening steps to a larger conflict; just like what is inevitable in 1939. Between controversial conversations that divide people who would otherwise have a potential to be friends and average people showing their 'true colors' as villians; any one of the people on the ship could be someone today. Additionally, some people saying that the stories of persecution against the Jews in German couldn't possibly be true. Yet we all have the knowledge that nothing was exaggerated by anyone. It really was that horrific and dangerous to be a Jew in 1939. So, if you replace Jew with Muslim, Hitler with Trump and German with United States you could almost be reading a story of today.
Whether Rhys did this on purpose, or it's just a case of history repeating itself, I'm not sure. What I do know is that Dangerous Crossing is a good reminder to us that you can get caught up in politics and choose sides that will eventually turn into murder and war.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

I enjoyed the novel even though it was slow at beginning. Like the characters.
Thank you netgalley.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I thought the premise and plot was quite good, but I have mixed feelings about many of the characters. It almost seemed too busy at times; there were so many smaller plot lines and new characters introduced that it seemed as if the author wanted you to consider them all as 'suspects' - who could be the mystery woman led off the ship by the police in handcuffs? There were aspects of the story that could have been left out and not affect the story at all. While it was not a jumbled mess, it could have been tidied up a little and been an excellent mystery. I mostly enjoyed reading this book and would read another by this author.

I enjoyed this book immensely. The story drew me in right from the beginning and I kept my interest right up to the shocking conclusion. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me a copy to review.

It is an atmospheric and suspenseful story, set in August 1939, just before the storm of WW2 hits Europe. A young British girl, Lily Shepherd, is escaping from a failed romance and sets sail on a large cruise ship bound for Australia. A new life and a job in domestic service awaits her there.

The story is about Lily's life aboard ship as she meets a cast of interesting characters. Of course, nobody is as they first appear and there's plenty of intrigue amongst the passengers. En route to Australia the ship calls at several exotic ports, such as Cairo, where Lily has some adventures. The suspense builds as the ship nears its final destination and the tensions come to a head.

It's great escapist reading and recommended reading.

Destined for Australia, Lily is leaving Europe on the brink of WWII. Sailing on a huge ocean liner, she is looking forward to stopping at romantic places Ceylon and Egypt. But her traveling companions have reasons of their own for fleeing Europe, and she finds there is so much more to learn than seeing new countries. Sensitively and very well written.

1939 and Lily Shepherd is onboard a ship to Australia to start a new life. But the new friends she makes just leads to tragedy.
The story was okay, it seemed well-written, though in the present tense which I do dislike. I didn't love it or hate it but it felt flat and didn't really care much what happened to any of the characters.

Dangerous Crossing is about Lily, a young woman travelling to Australia from England to work as a domestic servant, and the cast of mysterious and exciting characters she meets on board the ocean liner: brother and sister duo Edward and Helena, who have a secret they won't reveal; glamorous married couple Max and Eliza; Maria, a Jewish refugee; George, a fascist who seems to hate everyone on board; and Ida, Lily's stern-faced bunkmate who seems to pop up at the worst possible times. It's summer 1939, and the world seems to be on the brink of war again, a tension that infects the ship as it travels ever closer to its destination. The characters are well drawn, particularly Maria and Edward, and I was genuinely surprised by one of the twists at the end. However, the book took a little too long to get going for me. Comparisons to Agatha Christie are misleading—while this is technically a mystery and there is a death, the focus is not on "solving" a mystery and more on how the different personalities on the ship conflict with each other. I liked the details about which ports the ship stopped at and what they saw there, but there was a little too much tense build-up for what turned out to be a pretty obvious ending.