In The Romanov Empress, we follow the voice of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna (Princess Marie Sophie Frederikke Dagmar/Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna) or Minnie as she races down a long glittering corridor past portraits of figures attached to unimaginable tragedy, political struggles, bitter rivalries and tableaus of impending bloody anarchy. This is a historical drama if there ever was one as events unfold and you hold your breath when explosive scenes come to life. It's quite the story that pulls you in and will have many reaching for additional works about the Romanov Dynasty but for a few readers, they may wish they found another title or could replace negatives with positives. To be honest, the descriptive scenes at times brutal and graphic were still handled with a respectful approach and for a curious reader just hearing so many infamous names and titles of Russian and English Royalty for the first time, you are sure to create a mental outline of certain characters that will hopefully carry over to other interests and continued reading to smooth out any final mental portrait. Perhaps this type of novel is more geared toward a newer audience which is fantastic to see but for those of us who already know the illustrious names and connection of Courts, The Romanov Empress begins to show the tarnish under the flash and dazzle in the first couple of chapters (and then continues) with poor character dialogue (that just rambles and sounds like an emotionless recitation of an encyclopedia article) and odd placements of conclusions (every chapter had to end with dramatic foreshadowing, awkward boudoir scene, another cigarette break or a bomb blast). These kinds of noticeable negatives were soldered between excellent descriptions of court life and easy to follow politics that I must say overall impressed me and are worth recommending to anyone but I couldn't ignore the repetitive dialogue that only ended with me seriously distrusting the narrator and wishing another voice to speak up. By the final page, I had enough and believe me I wanted to love this novel. It just wasn't what I was hoping for and I think one personal negative of this book fixating on animosity between certain family members to the point where it felt there was an underlying agenda pushed me to the edge. Still in a way I'm glad I read The Romanov Empress it has shown me how far I have come with my tastes on fiction (or personal studies) but I believe the end of my historical fiction journey has been reached and I should only seek out non-fiction with a pairing of narrative flare in the pages when it comes to fascinating and mysterious topics such as The House of Romanov in the future. With thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for kindly sending me an advanced copy of The Romanov Empress: A Novel of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna Title Expected to be Released: July 10, 2018 -EGP/April 2018 Comments are closed.
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