The Poppy and the Rose

By: Ashlee Cowles

Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso, Esther Wane

Death can take many things, but it can't take your memories.

1912: Ava Knight, a young English aristocrat, boards the Titanic and meets a sailor, a soldier, and a woman with secret knowledge about a coming war that will change the course of history.

2010: Taylor Romano arrives in Oxford for a summer journalism program and is invited to tea at an old manor with a cursed history.

When Taylor discovers that the lady of the house knows an uncanny amount about Taylor and her family's secrets, she knows something isn't right. But before she can find answers, the old woman dies suspiciously, leaving Taylor with a single clue: the story of a Titanic survivor named Ava.

With the help of a brooding chauffeur and some historical sleuthing, Taylor must uncover the link between Ava's past and her own before her most cherished memories are tarnished forever.

©2020 Ashlee Cowles (P)2021 Tantor

Interesting generational story

Interesting story about connecting the Titanic 1st class passenger experience and ultimate tragedy to a modern day relative on her own investigative journalism story. I liked the duel perspectives and cutting back and forward in time, and trying to piece together as a reader how it connects. Author did a good job of wrapping it all up at the end, with a few unexpected details too. My favorite part was the description of Ava on what she went through, saw, smelled, tasted, felt during Titanic’s sinking (and how she was in the same lifeboat as Molly Brown).