I am reviewing Rough Passage to London by Robin Lloyd as part of A Suzy Approved Book Tour!
The author, Robin Lloyd, found out he was a direct descendant of Ely Morgan who was a sailor in the early to mid 1800’s. Through Lloyd’s research he found a few family letters around which he could build a fictional story. Morgan was growing up during and after the War of 1812 with a father who had a very bad temper and two brothers who left the family home to work on the high seas. After their family receives news that one brother died and the other was missing at sea, Morgan decides it is time for him to leave as well, to escape his father and to try to find his brother. He becomes a sailor on a ship sailing the New York to London routes in hopes of finding clues about his lost brother. Through the years, he becomes an excellent sailor and eventually becomes Captain Morgan! He goes through many rough times, has many “rough passages”, but he does eventually find some answers.
I usually love historical fiction so I was excited to read about a subject that was fairly new to me – maritime history. I must say that I did not connect with it like I do many other historical fiction novels. The author did an amazing job researching his subject and portraying the era as realistically as possible. And as much as there were some intriguing interactions with famous people like Charles Dickens and even Queen Victoria, the story just dragged on for me a bit.
If you like stories from the high seas or historical maritime stories then you will probably like this one as I do have more of an appreciation for the dangerous sailing life of that time!
Rough Passage to London was originally published in 2013 and was just released in trade paperback last month.
Thank you to @suzyapprovedbooktours, @getredpr and Lyons Press for the opportunity to read and review Rough Passage to London!
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