A Million to One

Written by Adiba Jaigirdar

Narrated by Sohm Kapila

Four girls. One daring heist. Their chances? A Million to One.

Four friends have stolen aboard the Titanic. They're after the Rubaiyat - a book inlaid with priceless jewels. Josefa is a charismatic thief, Hinnah a daring acrobat, Violet an outstanding actress and Emilie a talented artist.

It is Josefa's plan, but she needs all of their skills. Despite their very different backgrounds, in a world of first-class passengers and suspicious crew members, the girls must work together to pull off the heist of their lives.

But careless mistakes, old grudges and new romances threaten to jeopardise everything they've worked towards. And with the Titanic sailing ever further north, the girls' chances of survival are a million to one ...

A heart-pounding, romantic adventure from the author of Hani and Ishu's Fake Guide to Dating - WINNER OF THE YA BOOK PRIZE 2022!

(P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
• Release date: Jan 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9781444971651

Adiba Jaigirdar

Adiba Jaigirdar is the author of The Henna Wars and Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating. A Bangladeshi/Irish writer and teacher, she has an MA in post­colonial studies from the University of Kent, England, and a BA in English and history from UCD, Ireland. All her writing is aided by tea and a healthy dose of Janelle Monáe and Hayley Kiyoko. When not writing, she is probably ranting about the ills of colonialism, playing video games, or expanding her overflowing lipstick collection. She can be found at www.adibajaigirdar.com.

Reviews for A Million to One

[sjgirl-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An entertaining story, but I have mixed feelings about how little the diversity of the girls actually factored in. The book touches on race here and there but isn’t delved into all that much and that’s especially noticeable onboard the Titanic, a time and place where you’d imagine skin color and accents would not have made traveling easy yet prejudice doesn’t really affect their trip.

I’m sure there are some readers who will prefer that this doesn’t dwell on black, brown, and immigrant trauma the way many other books do, however, for me, something like Stacey Lee’s Luck Of The Titanic, struck a more satisfying blend as it featured exciting action and a little romance as this book does yet it didn’t shy away from the Chinese experience onboard the vessel, that balanced storytelling and difficult truth-telling worked well for me, but again, for readers who have understandably just plain had enough of trauma, this book may be the better fit for them.

I liked the sweet and sometimes shy chemistry between two of the girls in this story, but I did ultimately want a little more from their romance, I can’t pinpoint exactly what, there was just something about it that felt a little underdone.

All four girls had distinct personalities and brought a different skill to their squad which I enjoyed, and it’s always good to see girls have each other’s backs. I also found the heist aspect of the plot entertaining for the most part even if there were occasional instances that seemed implausible.

This truly hit its stride around iceberg time and on through to the end, it took on a more page-turning and bittersweet quality to watch each girl’s fate unfold.

[oldandnewbooksmell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Trigger Warnings (as mentioned under Content Warnings at the beginning of the book): mentions of parental neglect, parental abandonment, parental death and abuse, instances of death (specifically drowning)

Josefa, a thief. Emilie, an artist. Hinnah, an acrobat. Violet, the actress. Four teenagers who don’t have all too much in common - except one thing; they all want a better life than what they’re living in Dublin, Ireland. Josefa unions them all together for one goal: stealing the Rubaiyat, a jewel-encrusted book that’s setting sail aboard the RMS Titanic. If they can steal that and get the jewels off of it, they’ll be set.

But mistakes, old grudges, and new romances threaten to jeopardize their months in the making plan and put them all in incredible danger.

I’ve been fascinated with anything and everything about the Titanic since I was a kid, so this was a big reason I wanted to pick this up. Also, the cover is amazing and beautiful and that also caught my eye too. It also helped that it was marketed as being a “Sapphic Titanic Heist YA Novel” - that checked so many of my “Yes” boxes for why I needed to read this book.

This book did not leave my side for the 2.5 days that I was reading it. It went with me everywhere and I was reading it in every spare moment I could manage (curse having to work!). This grabbed my attention and kept it throughout the whole book. For the most part, I knew what was going to happen - the sinking of the Titanic - but I wanted so desperately to see the girls’ happy endings!

There were a few spots where the pacing was a bit slow, but it would build back up again pretty quickly. And it did take me a bit to get the girls straightened out so I could remember who was who.

Overall though, I absolutely loved this book and recommend this to anyone who likes historical fiction, stories from/based off the RMS Titanic, and heists books for sure!

*Thank you HarperCollins and Edelweiss+ for an advanced ebook version of novel in exchange for an honest review