We present an extract from The Last Lifeboat, the new novel by Hazel Gaynor. 1940, Kent: Alice King is not brave or daring—she's happiest finding adventure through the safe pages of books.

In September 1940, the British ship SS City of Benares was sunk by a German U-boat in the mid-Atlantic. Among the passengers were 90 children, nicknamed "seavacuees," whose parents had made the ...

Bruce Ismay, the man who stepped into the last lifeboat? That decision would forever change the course of his life. Was he a coward and a traitor? Or a savior and a survivor? You decide.