Book Review: The Tsarina's Daughter by Carolly Erickson

 

Goodreads Summary: From the bestselling author of The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette comes a dramatic novel and powerful love story about the last Russian imperial family.It is 1989 and Daria Gradov is an elderly grandmother living in the rural West. What neighbors and even her children don't know, however, is that she is not who she claims to be—the widow of a Russian immigrant of modest means. In actuality she began her life as the Grand Duchess Tatiana, known as Tania to her parents, Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra. And so begins the latest entrancing historical entertainment by Carolly Erickson. At its center is young Tania, who lives a life of incomparable luxury in pre-Revolutionary Russia, from the magnificence of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to the family's private enclave outside the capital. Tania is one of four daughters, and the birth of her younger brother Alexei is both a blessing and a curse. When he is diagnosed with hemophilia and the key to his survival lies in the mysterious power of the illiterate monk Rasputin, it is merely an omen of much worse things to come. Soon war breaks out and revolution sweeps the family from power and into claustrophobic imprisonment in Siberia. Into Tania's world comes a young soldier whose life she helps to save and who becomes her partner in daring plans to rescue the imperial family from certain death.

Goodreads Ratings: 3.38 stars with over 2,500ratings

Genre Listing: Historical Fiction, Romance, Alternate History, Speculative Fiction

Goodreads Challenge: 2/60

2024 Reading Challenge: #44 Read a book that takes place in a cold climate (Find the entire challenge here)

Book Review: 

Hello, Readers! I hope everyone is doing well. I actually finished The Tsarina's Daughter a few days ago, but have been fighting a cold. This will be a fairly short review. I actually debated not doing a review for this book, but I am trying to post more. 

I picked The Tsarina's Daughter by Carolly Erickson a while ago, but for whatever reason didn't finish it. The book reimagines the life of the Romanov family before their assassinations. In The Tsarina's Daughter, their second oldest daughter, Tatiana survives and assumes a new identity. This probably sounds a little familiar, but about a different Romanov daughter.

Overall I enjoyed the book, but I don't have much to say about it. The Tsarina's Daughter is a perfectly acceptable novel. I didn't love it or hate it. It's under 350 pages, and the way Tania survives is plausible. It's just kind of one note and I feel completely neutral about it.