Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book very much, but it got off to a slow start. The book is told from three points of view in alternating timelines—Augusta Longstreet and her niece Lilly Forsyth in 1838 when the disaster took place, and Everly Winthrop in current day, when the story of the disaster is being uncovered. While alternating timelines is a common technique that I normally enjoy, I found it to be a little distracting in this book. I was really engrossed in the 1838 timeline and wanted to get to the story! However, it didn’t take long before I was enjoying both stories.

One thing I really enjoyed was following Everly, the museum curator hired to put the Pulaski exhibit together, on her journey to uncover the family history of the Longstreet family. As a family historian, I could really relate to her hunt, and her excitement when she uncovered details that let her, not to a conclusion, but to more searching. I think family historians in particular would enjoy reading this book.

I enjoyed the characters in the book, particularly Augusta. She was a strong, yet vunerable, woman and I enjoyed watching her grow and survive the shipwreck. I’ve always been fascinated with the story of the Titanic, and reading about the actions and fates of the passengers of this ship was just as engrossing. [confession; when I chose this book, I knew it was a bout a shipwreck, but I confused ‘Savannah’ with ‘Sultana’ so did not get the shipwreck I thought I was going to be reading about.] I thought some of the ‘romance’ of the story was a little predictable, but I did really enjoy the interaction of Everly and Maddox, the leader of the diving expedition. He was a character that I really enjoyed.

Like all good historical fiction does, this book inspired me to ‘read more about it’! Book clubs will enjoy this book and particularly enjoy discussing ‘survival’ and the different levels of meaning illustrated in this book.

I won a Kindle copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

My rating: ★★★★½

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