Review & Giveaway: The Romanov Empress by C.W. Gortner

 

The Romanov Empress
by C.W. Gortner
Release Date: July 10th 2018
2018 Ballantine Books
Kindle Edition; 448 Pages
ISBN: 978-0425286180
ASIN: B076GQKBCD
Genre: Fiction / Historical
Source: Review copy from HF Virtual Book Tours

4 / 5 Stars

Summary
Narrated by the mother of Russia’s last tsar, this vivid, historically authentic novel brings to life the courageous story of Maria Feodorovna, one of Imperial Russia’s most compelling women who witnessed the splendor and tragic downfall of the Romanovs as she fought to save her dynasty in the final years of its long reign.
                 
Barely nineteen, Minnie knows that her station in life as a Danish princess is to leave her family and enter into a royal marriage—as her older sister Alix has done, moving to  England to wed Queen Victoria’s eldest son. The winds of fortune bring Minnie to Russia, where she marries the Romanov heir and becomes empress once he ascends the throne. When resistance to his reign strikes at the heart of her family and the tsar sets out to crush all who oppose him, Minnie—now called Maria—must tread a perilous path of compromise in a country she has come to love.
                 
Her husband’s death leaves their son Nicholas as the inexperienced ruler of a deeply divided and crumbling empire. Determined to guide him to reforms that will bring Russia into the modern age, Maria faces implacable opposition from Nicholas’s strong-willed wife, Alexandra, whose fervor has lead her into a disturbing relationship with a mystic named Rasputin. As the unstoppable wave of revolution rises anew to engulf Russia, Maria will face her most dangerous challenge and her greatest heartache.

My Thoughts
The Romanov Empress is definitely one of the best books by this author I have read and I have read all of them.  And although I've usually enjoyed them, this one had that certain something that really made you empathize with the main character and although I was quite familiar with her story, it gave me a new perspective as to what she must have gone through and the agonizing decisions she would have had to make.  And the regrets she would have had to live with.  

Born as a Danish princess, Minnie has known her entire life that she was destined to marry into royalty and do her duty to her family and to the crown.  However, Minnie's upbringing was rather chaste and poor, having little money and learning to mend her own clothing and cook her own food, so the splendours of Imperial Russia literally blew her away.  But so too did the extravagance of the royal family who lived very opulent and luxurious lives, barely registering the poor who suffered under terrible and tragic circumstances.  When Minnie first arrived in Russia, the emancipation of the serfs had already occurred but few really saw their suffering or realized that more needed to be done for them.  Minnie spent her life trying to help them and trying to make first her father-in-law see their plight, then her husband.  While Alexander II seemed to be more willing to listen to ideas about things that could be done to help, Minnie's husband Sasha, who would eventually become Alexander III, seemed not to hear her pleas or her advice.  I can't imagine what it would be like to live in fear everyday knowing that something bad could happen simply because those in power refused to really see what was happening around them while Minnie could see but was helpless to do anything.  It wasn't that she didn't adopt an extravagant lifestyle herself as there was mention of the cost of her gowns and how much she spent for her parties and galas, but she certainly went out of her way to endorse her charities and worked hard at ensuring they were properly funded, even becoming a nurse herself so she could properly tend to those afflicted while having the knowledge to do so.  That little bit of information I didn't know, so I was glad to discover that.  

It was definitely the relationship between Minnie and her daughter-in-law Alexandra that interested me the most however, considering that she was partly to blame for the fall of Imperial Russia.  The author wrote this from the women's perspective and the toll that Alexei's illness had on all of them, including Alexei himself who chafed at his limitations, but also at the effect it had on politics and what was happening around them.  Minnie developed from a timid teenager to a bold and strong woman, but even she was stumped at the antics of her son and wife and you can just feel her desperation as she tried to keep her family together and alive during those turbulent last years.  What I really loved was the family dynamics and drama as well as the relationships between all of them as they tried to keep themselves alive during the Revolution and afterwards.  I have to admit, trying to picture any of them gardening was difficult as most of them had probably never even poured tea for themselves, never mind digging in the dirt and cultivating vegetables.  

Verdict
The Romanov Empress is definitely a compelling fictional look at a woman who lived through some very turbulent times, who suffered some very great losses, yet through it all retained her dignity, her strength, and her courage.  While she definitely couldn't have seen the future, through her personal letters and diaries, she definitely was worried about what was to come and spent many years counseling her husband and son, warming both of them to be careful.  I don't know if the full horror of those last years, or the Rasputin years, really came through in this book, but enough did to make you understand how difficult life must have been for the aristocracy at the end.  However, living in a bubble the way some of them did made them vulnerable to what happened; perhaps they should have paid a bit more attention to their history lessons. Minnie's life was certainly not your average life, nor was her family the average family, but she certainly lived in interesting times, met some really interesting people, and lived a very full life, full of love as well as heartache.  It is clear the author did a lot of research for this book and really brought to life this time period that I adore.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a good story as well as historical fiction. 

Giveaway

Romanov Empress