ebgould's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this follow-up to The Russian Concubine. I wondered if some of the situtations Lydia got herself into were realistic for a 17-year old girl, even one who had to grow-up fast in pre-Communist China, but otherwise, it was a nice read. I liked all of the characters and am interested in learning more about them. Hopefully, the next novel Ms. Furnivall comes out with will be a sequel, not a prequel (unfortunately, I didn't care for Valentina Ivanova enough to read The Jewel of St. Petersburg).
bethyboo29's review against another edition
3.0
I think I enjoyed this book more than the previous novel, but of this series the prequel about Valentina and Jens is still my favourite.
I disliked how Lydia kept ignoring Alexei and Chang An Lo's warnings about passing notes into the prison to her father, she knew it was dangerous but she didn't care. She continued to do it even after Liev Popkov was shot (but thankfully not killed). She was reckless and it's no wonder it didn't pay of as she wanted.
I didn't like how a lot of the time in this novel Alexei seemed like a cold hearted creep when talking about or to members of the Vory, a secret gang of thieves who consider one-another brothers and the leader their father.
I also disagree with Furnivall killing Jens Friis. I mean what was the point in basing this whole book on finding him and getting him out of the prison camps just for him to exchange a few words with the daughter he had not seen for about 12 years. I don't feel that was a very fair thing to do but I can't see a way of Lydia's life working out with Jens Friis in it.
I'm glad this plot was simpler but there still seemed to be a lot going on, a communist war in China, finding Jens Friis, Liev Popkov and Alexei Serov finding partners in unlikely places, Alexei joining a gang of thieves and working out personal traumas. I still feel Lydia never really works through who parents deaths. When Valentina died she was upset but she seemed to recover quickly and when Jens Friis' death in this novel she was again upset but recovered far to quickly, though I suppose this one makes more sense since she had already lost her father once.
The ending left this novel quite open, I feel if the author desired she could write another novel for this series but it would also be quite difficult to work out.
So in summary this novel was better than "The Russian Concubine" but I preferred "The Jewel of St. Petersburg" to this one. I don't know, maybe it's just the characters in the prequel that I liked. If you're looking for a couple of soppy historical romance novels with a busy plot then these may be the books for you.
I disliked how Lydia kept ignoring Alexei and Chang An Lo's warnings about passing notes into the prison to her father, she knew it was dangerous but she didn't care. She continued to do it even after Liev Popkov was shot (but thankfully not killed). She was reckless and it's no wonder it didn't pay of as she wanted.
I didn't like how a lot of the time in this novel Alexei seemed like a cold hearted creep when talking about or to members of the Vory, a secret gang of thieves who consider one-another brothers and the leader their father.
I also disagree with Furnivall killing Jens Friis. I mean what was the point in basing this whole book on finding him and getting him out of the prison camps just for him to exchange a few words with the daughter he had not seen for about 12 years. I don't feel that was a very fair thing to do but I can't see a way of Lydia's life working out with Jens Friis in it.
I'm glad this plot was simpler but there still seemed to be a lot going on, a communist war in China, finding Jens Friis, Liev Popkov and Alexei Serov finding partners in unlikely places, Alexei joining a gang of thieves and working out personal traumas. I still feel Lydia never really works through who parents deaths. When Valentina died she was upset but she seemed to recover quickly and when Jens Friis' death in this novel she was again upset but recovered far to quickly, though I suppose this one makes more sense since she had already lost her father once.
The ending left this novel quite open, I feel if the author desired she could write another novel for this series but it would also be quite difficult to work out.
So in summary this novel was better than "The Russian Concubine" but I preferred "The Jewel of St. Petersburg" to this one. I don't know, maybe it's just the characters in the prequel that I liked. If you're looking for a couple of soppy historical romance novels with a busy plot then these may be the books for you.
wonderumpus's review against another edition
Not as exhilarating a read as The Russian Concubine. In fact, it made me slow down in reading it, and I found myself getting frustrated with how slow I was going, since I usually blow though books. However, when the book was over, I realized that I loved it. I adore the characters in this story, and feel that Furnivall does a very good job of character development.
kerrin's review against another edition
3.0
Quick, good read. If you are thinking about reading this, you should read The Russian Concubine first - there's a lot of backstory that takes place in the first book.
timofeev's review against another edition
4.0
I really do love this author. It was nice to get a little more about the characters that I fell in love with from the first book but I don't think I liked it as much as the first.
bdietrich's review
2.0
I was severely disappointed by this third installment by Kate Furnivall. I loved The Russian Concubine and The Jewel of St. Petersburg, but The Girl from Junchow took me nearly two-thirds of it to be fully gripped by the story. Perhaps, though, this was because it had been more than a year since I'd read the first two; I've changed and grown a lot since then.
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