Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for The Last Grand Duchess by Bryn Turnbull. Thank you MIRA for inviting me to participate.
Publisher: MIRA
Published: February 8, 2022
Source: ARC Paperback via Publisher
Summary:
This sweeping new novel from the internationally bestselling author of The Woman Before Wallis takes readers behind palace walls to see the end of Imperial Russia through the eyes of Olga Romanov, the first daughter of the last Tsar.
Grand Duchess Olga Romanov comes of age amid a shifting tide for the great dynasties of Europe. But even as unrest simmers in the capital, Olga is content to live within the confines of the sheltered life her parents have built for and her three sisters: hiding from the world on account of their mother’s ill health, their brother Alexei’s secret affliction, and rising controversy over Father Grigori Rasputin, the priest on whom the Tsarina has come to rely. Olga’s only escape from the seclusion of Alexander Palace comes from her aunt, who takes pity on her and her sister Tatiana, inviting them to grand tea parties amid the shadow court of Saint Petersburg. Finally, she glimpses a world beyond her mother’s Victorian sensibilities—a world of opulent ballrooms, scandalous flirtation, and whispered conversation.
But as war approaches, the palaces of Russia are transformed. Olga and her sisters trade their gowns for nursing habits, assisting in surgeries and tending to the wounded bodies and minds of Russia’s military officers. As troubling rumours about her parents trickle in from the Front, Olga dares to hope that a budding romance might survive whatever the future may hold. But when tensions run high and supplies run low, the controversy over Rasputin grows into fiery protest, and calls for revolution threaten to end 300 years of Romanov rule.
At turns glittering and harrowing, The Last Grand Duchess is story about dynasty, duty, and love, but above all, it’s the story of a family who would choose devotion to each other over everything—including their lives.
My thoughts:
Historical fiction has definitely become my go-to lately and when I saw that Bryn Turnbull’s latest book was set in Russia, I knew I had to read it. I loved her debut novel, The Woman Before Wallis, so I was quite eager to get my hands on her newest one and let me just say…I enjoyed it just as much.
I have not read a lot of books about the Romanov family, so this immediately appealed to me. This one is focused on Olga, the older daughter of Tsar Nicholas, and is told solely from her perspective, alternating between two timelines – leading up to the Revolution and the years following the Revolution leading up to the family’s execution. It is very character-driven, and while at times it is a little slow, I found it to be incredibly fascinating, mainly because I didn’t know much about Olga’s life prior to reading this.
The author does a great job in making Olga, and the other characters, come to life. I particularly loved how this book focused on the family relationship here. When we first meet Olga, she is quite young, and she and her siblings lead quite a sheltered life. Yet, as she gets older and becomes more aware of her surroundings, she realizes her parents made some horrible decisions. While she remains loyal to her parents and does forgive them, she sees the danger all around and tries to get them to change their ways, to no avail.
It is quite evident the amount of research that went into the book. I loved that not only do we have a list of characters at the beginning, which might I add I referred to quite often, but there is quite an extensive authors note at the end which helps distinguish what is fact and what is fiction. If you are a fan of Romanov history, I highly recommend picking this one up!
About the author:
Bryn Turnbull is the bestselling author of The Woman Before Wallis. Equipped with a master’s of letters in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews, a master’s of professional communication from Ryerson University and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from McGill University, Bryn focuses on finding stories of women lost within the cracks of the historical record. She lives in Toronto.
Authors Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads
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