I liked Connolly’s unique approach to the age old story of the Titanic. She pairs the Captain of the Carpathia with a young Irish immigrant, Kate Connolly, and their experiences on that fateful night.
I found it particularly interesting because I had never given much thought to the Carpathian captain. I didn’t know he went on to also captain the Lusitania or did I realize the Carpathia was sunk during WWI.
The split narrative works tremendously well and th4 cover is gorgeous.
Make sure to collect this book In time for the 110th anniversary of the sinking.

Excellent story about the ship that went to aid the Titanic that was long over due to be told. From the beginning I could not put this one down. I could feel the sense of urgency through the author's writing and even my heart was racing at times. I felt like I was feeling everyone's emotions as the event unfolded.. . Told in multiple point of views, which I loved. This is a tough story and Connolly did an excellent job delivering especially about the fierce protection of the captain had for ALL his passengers, despite conflicting opinions of his actions. Thank you to #ShadowMountainPublish and # Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

#ABrilliantNightofStarsandIce #author.rebecca.connolly #historicalfiction #titanticfiction #bookrecommedations

I was sooo looking forward to this book! I found the story fascinating but the writing rather slow. The captain’s tale was rather drawn out but more captivating then the young Irish girl’s story.

An extremely well researched story! The RMS Carpathia was able to race through the icebergs & render aid to the 700+ Titanic survivors on that frigid morning in April 1912. The Carpathia’s captain, Arthur Rostron & the wireless operator, Harold Cottam were two of the unsung heroes of that tragedy.

When I read that other ships, most especially the SS Californian, were only miles from the Titanic & failed to help, I was flabbergasted. What’s that story???

I was gifted this advance copy by NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

Wonderfully written and gripping story about the Titanic and Carpathia, in the few nights before and the night of the sinking of the Titanic. Following the captain, Arthur Rostron, of the Carpathia, and his crew, as well of a few of the Titanic's passengers, we follow along with the emotions and terror of the entire night.

It's just so beautifully written and captivating.

Thanks to netGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

This was an interesting read for me. I really enjoyed reading about the Titanic in such a personal way.

The Titanic's story has always been a fascinating moment in history for me. The movie came out when I was a teenager, and I went to the traveling Titanic exhibit at the local museum. Despite this, I knew next to nothing of the Carpathia or Captain Rostron.

This book gave wonderful information about Rostron and his crew and their heroic efforts to save as many lives as possible. The book moved along at a fast pace and kept me reading the whole time.

The story also followed Kate Connolly and her friends, passengers on the Titanic. I wasn't able to connect as much with her character, it lacked some depth. Her character did give a good perspective of what happened after the lifeboats were rescued.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves the Titanic, or loves moments in history when ordinary men and women step up to do something amazing.

Thank you to NetGalley, Shadow Mountain Publishing, and the author, Rebecca Connolly, for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was brilliant! I loved seeing a different angle of the terrifying and solemn sinking of the Titanic! It was so skillfully and bravely written by Ms Connelly! I truly enjoyed learning more about the Carpathia rescue! What an amazing story of honor and strength in the good Captain and the actual and true survivors of the sinking on that fateful night! I am so glad I got to read this amazing book!

What an emotional read! This book had me crying. This book will give you the feels.

Thank you Shadow Mountain for the ARC.

I don’t think there are too many people who haven’t seen the movie Titanic nor who haven’t read Walter Lord’s ‘A Night To Remember.’ Many people know what happened on April 15, 1912, but few know about the ship that responded to the Titanic’s plea for help and the rescue mission. I caught the Titanic Fever in Grade 9 English because my teacher taught Lord’s book with such passion and I’ve continued to ride on that memory and search out other Titanic novels. What intrigued me about this book is that it’s uniquely told in alternating chapters from the perspective of two eyewitnesses to the epic maritime disaster; the captain of the Carpathia and a passenger from steerage aboard the Titanic.

The author writes to allow us into Captain Arthur Rostron’s mind as he delegates and organizes the rescue mission. Readers discover the leadership and the methodical rescue preparations the captain and his crew undertook to save lives and care for the survivors. When asked about his crew’s actions that fateful night he reported that “There was not a soul among them who had given less than his or her all, from the stokers in the bowels of the ship to the lookouts high above.” I was in awe at the respect he commanded and the swiftness with which the orders were carried out by his crew during what would be a night they’d never forget.

Readers also travel alongside 3rd class passenger, Kate Connolly, and feel her angst as she watches the Titanic sink from her lucky #13 lifeboat. From Kate’s perspective we read about other passengers prior to the collision, their scramble into the lifeboats, their rescue and their stay in hospital. The author was able to bring this POV alive for us by filling in blanks and offering new facts in this tragic event where we already knew the final outcome.

In the epilogue the author highlights each crewmember previously mentioned and the legacy they left.

“Soon Kate would find her own way. A permanent home built on the strength born of a night on icy waters, buoyed by a new appreciation of life and health, and a determination to live for those who could not do so themselves.”

This book will be published just a few days short of 110 years since that fateful night. What the author wants us to remember is not the tragedy, but the humanity. Race, class, sex, and religion were set aside as those on the sea that night helped each other to survive.

“A loss for one was a loss for all.”

I was gifted this advance copy by Rebecca Connolly, Shadow Mountain Publishing and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

Did this novel of the Carpathia and the Titanic need to be written? Probably not. Does it add anything new? Probably not. Still, the story of the night the Titanic sank is so dramatic and full of pathos it's no wonder new works about it are still being created. A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice is well researched and has an almost sweet tone. The crew of the Carpathia are depicted as heroic, and the author does a good job capturing what may have been the thoughts and feelings of the survivors. There's no drama - we all know what's coming - but the story is compelling. A recommend for readers who are fascinated by the Titanic story or who enjoy historical fiction.

Not your usual Titanic story. Here you have Kate in third class trying to survive. As a dual vision, the captain of the Carpathia, Arthur Rostron, trying to get to the Titanic in time to save survivors. Very compelling read.

A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice
By Rebecca Connelly
Publisher: Shadow Mountain (April 5)

Is there something in our history that you know will always keep you reading? Or a monumental moment that is shared through books or tv that you will give pause for?

The Titanic is one of those for me. I cannot help but be drawn in to that night… the human error and miscalculation. The division of classes. The need to be bigger and better. But also taking from it, that when trouble comes, we realize that human compassion and the fight for life eliminate every other division.

This new novel (comes out April 5!) is Carpathia’s story. The ship that answered Titanic’s SOS and follows both the captain’s emotions of attending to the rescue mission in the frigid waters and a young woman aboard the Titanic who was a 3rd class passenger.

I binged it. I couldn’t help it. You’re talking to a reader that saw the Titanic over 5x in the theatre with her HS bestie (here’s looking at you Jackie 😉). But that’s not what kept me reading, what kept me reading was the humanity that happened. That these voices are still being shared over 100 yrs later … so that we never forget the tragedy. I loved it. So fascinating to get into Carpathia’s story this way.

Ps. There’s an added bonus: at the start of each chapter is a quote from survivors.

4.5 stars

I received this from Netgalley.com.

An okay fictionalized telling of a passengers story on the Titanic and the captain of the rescuing ship Carpathia. The history seems accurate, simply because the sinking of the Titanic is a well-known historical fact, but the characters were not very compelling and rather single sided.

2.5☆

April 1912

What a wonderful introduction to a new to me author!

In A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice, there are dual threads that ultimately converge. One thread is focused on the captain of the passenger steamship Carpathia: Captain Arthur Rostron. The other thread is centered on four Irish young adult women aboard the maiden voyage of the Titanic. And be still my history loving heart...so much of what is in the pages of the novel is based upon historical facts!

There are multiple novels about the Titanic. This novel provides details about the fated passenger ship, but is more focused on the Carpathia and its crew. So many fascinating details emerged in the pages. And the emotions of the passengers and crew of both ships are well described adding to the tension of the rescue.

I am so glad the author has a back list of novels. A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice is highly recommended for fans of historical fiction.

Out of tragedy heroes are born. This is the story of the RMS Carpathia and the ships contribution to the tragedy of the Titanic. For close to 110 years, there has been so many stories of what happened on that fated night. After reviewing a distress call, the RMS Carpathia, captained by Arthur Rostron and his crew race towards the Titanic. This story is took from two perspectives, that of Arthur, and the other being Titanic passenger Kate Connoly.
A quick moving tragic tale of the sinking of the Titanic and the aftermath for the survivors.

Rebecca Connolly's haunting but beautiful retelling of the story of the captain of the Carpathia and some of the survivors of the sinking of the titanic uses powerful imagery to evoke and portray the emotions that would have been felt among all that night. This story brought me to tears. The precursor to the sinking showed things as light-hearted. The sinking brought reality and tragedy to the seen. The scenes afterwards showed the devastation, raw emotion, and heroism of not just the captain but of all the crew and passengers of the Carpathia. While I personally struggle reading books about tragedies like this- there is such importance in not forgetting the disasters that have come before us. Rebecca Connolly does the event justice in portraying what it would have been like that night.

I adore historical fiction, and this is such an interesting premise. I recommend because of the story itself, writing style, and its ability to transport you into a different world/time period.

When I read that this book was centred around the sinking of the Titanic I was so excited to read it. I adore anything related to the Titanic! This particular book just wasn’t for me. The names of the characters were very similar which confused me at times as I was lost as to who was doing what. The jump from the characters being on the ship to the ship actually sinking was very quick! And certain parts had a similar theme to that of the film which made me visualise the film adaptation rather than use my imagination.
In contrast, the perspective from The Carpathia was interesting to me as I didn’t know a lot about it.

Thanks to Rebecca Connolly, the publishers and NetGalley for allowing me access to this fantastic book.

Wow. I had chills pretty much the entire time that I read this book. It is so, so well written. Arthur Rostron and the entire crew of the Carpathia are incredible. I enjoyed both POVs, but I especially loved everyone on the Carpathia and the way they interacted with each other. I could basically write a paragraph about every character in this book just praising them, but that would make this very long. So I’m just going to sum up by saying me feeling that way just shows how well this book and the characters were written.

A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice was fantastic, from start to finish. I read it all within a day, I didn’t want to put it down. The only time I did put it down was when I needed a bit of a break from the heaviness of the story. As much as I read about the Titanic, it still makes me emotional, especially any time I learn something new.

On that topic, I am a bit ashamed to admit that I knew very little about the Carpathia prior to reading this book. So there was a lot of new information for me to learn. I want to include part of a quote here, after Dean said to Arthur that if he continues to downplay this, history will forget the part they played and Arthur replies “I have no doubt they will forget” and why he believes that (I don’t want to include the entire quote, I believe your reading experience will benefit from reading it first as part of the novel and not my review). Part of Dean’s reply is “even if it falls by the wayside on the pages of history.” and I feel like they were both correct. 110 years later, it does feel like the Carpathia is rarely mentioned in the story of the Titanic, at least to the level I believe it deserves. So I am personally very thankful for this book, because as someone who is always seeking to learn more about the Titanic, I am in awe of the story of the Carpathia.

I found the names with the Titanic passengers to be quite confusing due to there multiple sets of people with the same name due to there multiple sets of people with the same name. However, I am aware that this story used the names and stories of actual passengers and the names weren’t just choices made by the author. So I am not faulting the book at all for this, but I still wanted to mention it in my review. So I am not faulting the book at all for this, but I still wanted to mention it in my review. I also want to add that this book felt like such an interesting combination of fiction and non-fiction. I struggle to read non-fiction, but because this is written as fiction but about a real life event and real people, it was so educational while still absolutely reading like a fictional novel.

A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice is absolutely going to stick with me for a long time. I will not hesitate to recommend it to basically anyone and everyone who will listen to me, because I think it’s a really important story that people should know. I will also be ordering a physical copy of this book for my shelf, because I know that I will be reaching for it in the future for a reread (also, how gorgeous is that cover??)

The afterword & author’s note at the end of the both were both wonderful and informational. I loved reading about how life went for the crew of the Carpathia and the survivors from the Titanic. I also really appreciated the author clarifying details and names in her note. She did her research and it really showed.

Thank you to Shadow Mountain Publishing & NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book!

This book follows the Titanic disaster from the point of view of the captain of the Carpathia, the ship that rescued Titanic survivors, and one of the survivors, Kate Connolly. While the book started out strong, it quickly became repetitive and uninteresting.
I enjoyed hearing about Titanic in the first days, the excitement of the passengers, meeting new friends and exploring the ship. When the ship started to sink halfway through the book I thought, hmm, what's the second half going to be about? Well, it was mostly about the shock of the passengers and their sorrow. Repeated over and over and over.
I also couldn't get scenes from the movie out of my head and was picturing that the whole time while reading. Overall this book was not very original and could have used a bit more substance. I do like that the author tried to bring to light the role of Carpathia and its crew. I had hoped this would be a much better book. Thanks @netgalley for the ARC!