Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys -- Review

Title: Dangerous Crossing 
Author: Rachel Rhys
Pages: 368
Publishing: January 9th 2018 by Atria Books
ISBN: 1501162721

Synopsis: 

The ship has been like a world within itself, a vast floating city outside of normal rules. But the longer the journey continues, the more confined it is starting to feel, deck upon deck, passenger upon passenger, all of them churning around each other without anywhere to go...

1939: Europe is on the brink of war when young Lily Shepherd boards an ocean liner in Essex, bound for Australia. She is ready to start anew, leaving behind the shadows in her past. The passage proves magical, complete with live music, cocktails, and fancy dress balls. With stops at exotic locations along the way—Naples, Cairo, Ceylon—the voyage shows Lily places she’d only ever dreamed of and enables her to make friends with those above her social station, people who would ordinarily never give her the time of day. She even allows herself to hope that a man she couldn’t possibly have a future with outside the cocoon of the ship might return her feelings.

But Lily soon realizes that she’s not the only one hiding secrets. Her newfound friends—the toxic wealthy couple Eliza and Max; Cambridge graduate Edward; Jewish refugee Maria; fascist George—are also running away from their pasts. As the glamour of the voyage fades, the stage is set for something sinister to occur. By the time the ship docks, two passengers are dead, war has been declared, and Lily’s life will be changed irrevocably.

Review: 

Dangerous Crossing had an interesting premise and immediately caught my attention. I thought the characters all seemed unique and the setting was caught my eye as well. As I began to read, I became more and more interested in the story and felt a bit on the edge of my seat waiting on the action to start. Unfortunately, I had to keep waiting for a while. The story itself was intriguing, but it took too long to get to the interesting parts of the story. I felt that it was stretched out about 100 pages further than it needed to be. 

I enjoyed getting to know each of the characters, but I had a really hard timely liking Lily. Being the main character, I felt that I was supposed to like her, but she wasn't a great friend and I actually found her to be a little childish. She seemed to complain a lot and I wish she would have spoken up for herself a little more. The other characters she comes in contact with were also a little hard to like. 

All in all, I thought the story itself was very interesting, but it fell a little short for me. The ending was very heavy on the action and suspense, while the beginning and middle were a little flat. I would still recommend this novel to readers who enjoy historical fiction novels, but go into knowing there will be a few sections of the novel that are pretty slow. 

Rating 3/5

*Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for sending this novel in exchange for an honest review.