Books are Wonderful

A little bit of alternate Russian history

I haven’t read much of Russian history, so when I read the blurb about this book I wondered whether I’d be able to get into the setting of the novel, but it sounded interested so I decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised. Robin Bridges does a good job merging fantasy with history, allowing the reader to slip into the story without feeling like they are in history class. 

Katerina Alexandrovna Maria von Holstein-Gottorp is the Duchess of Oldenburg and our narrator. She attends a prestigious finishing school - her classmates are princesses and other ladies of royal lineage - gets invited to fancy balls hosted by the Empress and hides a very dark secret from everyone, she has the ability to raise the dead. 

Katiya (as her family and friends refer to her) is a spirited narrator. She’s a strong, level-headed young woman, and cares deeply for her loved ones. She wants to be a doctor, but she cannot study medicine in her hometown, so she reads medical books and journals to keep up with the medical field.

As a narrator, Katiya is easy to read and very lovable. She’s not afraid to speak her mind even to someone above her station. It makes for a humorous read at times.

One thing that I found jarring in the story was all the names that were thrown around. It took the greater part of the book for me to get the secondary characters sorted. It would have been helpful if most of them were non-existent or if there was a way to reference them outside of the narrative to understand who is who. I almost started writing the names down with descriptions so I could remember, they were so difficult to keep track of at times. 

Another is the way the first names were generally paired with the patronymics, after reading names like Katerina Alexandrovna a few times my brain started dropping the patronymic. 

I also found that there was a lot of information in this book - enough to get the plot moving - however, a lot of times I felt as though the story was rushed where I wanted a slower pace while some places it seemed to drag, and I wished it were faster paced. This book is pushing 400 pages and had a lot of world and character building which affected the pace but many times the parts that interested me the most seemed rushed. 

Though she is a strong female lead, there were times when Katiya behaved a little out of character - but, I forgive her, especially given the stressful situations in which she found herself. 

These things aside, this book has a lot of potential and I found it rather enjoyable. The last quarter of the book was fantastic. It hit the perfect momentum and I couldn’t put it down. Robin is great at describing settings – be it gowns and dancing or conflict – so it was almost as though you were in the middle of the action, off to the sidelines, observing.

I’m definitely interested in where Katerina’s story will lead her. If the next books are anything like the last quarter of this book, they will be fantastic.