The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott

Desperate to get away from her life as a servant and establish herself as a real dressmaker, Tess lucks into a job as the personal maid of Lady Lucile Duff Gordon on the Atlantic crossing of the maiden voyage of the Titanic.  Tess can't believe her luck in getting this job with a renowned fashion designer.  Lady Duff Gordon (who insists on being called "Madame") is difficult to work for and like but there are other advantages to being onboard the ship - like catching the eye of two completely different men.  On the fourth night at sea, however, disaster strikes.

Tess is one of the last people to get on a lifeboat (Molly Brown's) and one of her suitors makes it into another lifeboat along with Lady Duff Gordon.  There he is able to witness her actions on a lifeboat only partially filled.  Once in New York, Lady Duff Gordon's actions are called into question and Tess finds herself torn between the woman who can guarantee her future and the man (or men?) she might love.

Unlike many people, I'm not as up on my Titanic history as I could be.  Much of what I know I learned from movies or musicals!  ("The Unsinkable Molly Brown" is a favorite.)  I knew that some lifeboats weren't completely full and that there weren't enough for all the passengers.  I didn't know that the Duff Gordons were real people.

I enjoyed this look at real events through the eyes of fictional characters.  The writing style might have been a little too instructional at times but the history and look at how things played out after the ship landed were welcome.  Tess is a determined young woman excited at being in a new country with new possibilities and I pulled for her to make the right decisions.

The Library owns this book in hard copy and ebook format.  I checked out the ebook format.