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lupinsoctober's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, Pregnancy, and War
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Misogyny, and Physical abuse
helenastinks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Antisemitism
foxonabook's review against another edition
I DNF'ed this at roughly 30% of the way through, and despite that I still have quite a few thoughts about this book, so here they are. I want to preface this by saying that I rarely write negative reviews because writing a book is hard, however there are instances where staying silent isn't an option. Trigger warning for mention of sexual violence in my review.
This book was recommended to me because of my love for historical fiction and my fascination with the Romanov dynasty. On paper this looked like the perfect read, I was hoping that it would read along the lines of [b:Wolf Hall|6101138|Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell #1)|Hilary Mantel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1627203575l/6101138._SY75_.jpg|6278354] or [b:The Parisian|40718380|The Parisian|Isabella Hammad|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1542154799l/40718380._SY75_.jpg|63334665], where the book is driven by its characters who provide us with insight into the socio-political climate of time. After all, the book takes place at a pivotal point in Russian history where Peter the Great was waging near constant war while also trying to westernise Russia. Alas, this isn't that type of historical fiction...I would actually go as far as to say that this is a poor excuse for a historical fiction novel and is instead a gratuitous erotic novel with a thin coating of historical fiction in it.
The book is filled with unnecessary r*pe and s*x scenes. Yes, the book is set in a time where violence against women is rife, however we are still living in a world where violence against women is rampant so authors should be careful not to treat it as an easy plot device. In the case of Tsarina, it felt to me like Alpsten was using r*pe and other forms of violence as a plot filler, detailing every detail of the attacks. Even where (sexual) violence against women is necessary to the plot (say because the book is about trauma), there are more respectful ways to approach such a sensitive and horrific issue. This may be a work of fiction, but Alpsten's approach was not only gratuitous, it sometimes felt like she was trivialising it too. There really was no reason for five scenes of sexual violence less than 30% of the way through...
This book could have been so much. Catherine I's story is truly remarkable. Born a serf who cannot read or write, she defies all odds to become Peter the Great's second wife and Tsarina of Russia. There is no denying that only a brilliant woman could make such a leap. Unfortunately her greatness isn't reflected in the book. All of the characters lack depth and multifacetedness, including Marta/Cathering which is a reason why we don't ever get a sense of her shrewdness. Additionally, most character make a fly-by appearance which makes it harder to connect to any of them.
Save your money and your time. Don't read this.
This book was recommended to me because of my love for historical fiction and my fascination with the Romanov dynasty. On paper this looked like the perfect read, I was hoping that it would read along the lines of [b:Wolf Hall|6101138|Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell #1)|Hilary Mantel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1627203575l/6101138._SY75_.jpg|6278354] or [b:The Parisian|40718380|The Parisian|Isabella Hammad|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1542154799l/40718380._SY75_.jpg|63334665], where the book is driven by its characters who provide us with insight into the socio-political climate of time. After all, the book takes place at a pivotal point in Russian history where Peter the Great was waging near constant war while also trying to westernise Russia. Alas, this isn't that type of historical fiction...I would actually go as far as to say that this is a poor excuse for a historical fiction novel and is instead a gratuitous erotic novel with a thin coating of historical fiction in it.
The book is filled with unnecessary r*pe and s*x scenes. Yes, the book is set in a time where violence against women is rife, however we are still living in a world where violence against women is rampant so authors should be careful not to treat it as an easy plot device. In the case of Tsarina, it felt to me like Alpsten was using r*pe and other forms of violence as a plot filler, detailing every detail of the attacks. Even where (sexual) violence against women is necessary to the plot (say because the book is about trauma), there are more respectful ways to approach such a sensitive and horrific issue. This may be a work of fiction, but Alpsten's approach was not only gratuitous, it sometimes felt like she was trivialising it too. There really was no reason for five scenes of sexual violence less than 30% of the way through...
This book could have been so much. Catherine I's story is truly remarkable. Born a serf who cannot read or write, she defies all odds to become Peter the Great's second wife and Tsarina of Russia. There is no denying that only a brilliant woman could make such a leap. Unfortunately her greatness isn't reflected in the book. All of the characters lack depth and multifacetedness, including Marta/Cathering which is a reason why we don't ever get a sense of her shrewdness. Additionally, most character make a fly-by appearance which makes it harder to connect to any of them.
Save your money and your time. Don't read this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Murder
Moderate: Child death, Suicide, Vomit, Trafficking, and War
stellamcvey's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Clumsy writing, odd pacing, unnatural dialogue and weak characterisation are barely held up by the plot - the only thing that kept me reading this frustrating book. But as it’s historical fiction the plot is the only thing that isn’t totally original. I will not be reading anything by this author again, her style aggravates me too much.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and War
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Infertility, and Pedophilia
Minor: Abortion and Death of parent
ravensandlace's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Find this review and others like it at https://aravenclawlibraryx.wordpress.com
A special thank you goes out to St Martin's Press (my favorite publishing company) and Netgalley for allowing me to read this eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This book wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I was a bit misled by the synopsis. I had thought it was going to be about how Catherine I came to power after her husband’s death. I thought I was going to see a struggle with her daughter, Elizabeth. But what I got was the entire life of Catherine up until the point of her husband’s death with a few pages of what happened afterwards. Which wasn’t bad, don’t get me wrong but it wasn’t what I expected. This was a bit of a miss for me which is sad because I love St. Martin’s Press so much.
It also didn’t help that was very confused as to who Catherine was. I had thought for the longest time that it was about Catherine the Great but come to find out, there was more than one Catherine. Monarchs really need to switch up their names. I had to do a google search in order to understand. Because Catherine the Great’s husband was also named Peter. I was just a big mess. So it was a very confusing 50 pages or so.
I think one of the reasons why I didn’t completely love this was the formatting. I got an eARC from Netgalley which I know is bound to lead to some formatting issues. However, I found out that this was a re release so I thought the formatting would be a lot better. There were huge walls of texts.I’m talking just pages and pages of text with no paragraph breaks. It was hard to read at times. I had to turn on Netgalley night mode just so my eyes wouldn’t burn to death. I also had to read it on my phone because when I brought it up on my iPad, the formatting didn’t take into account the bigger screen so it was absolutely miniscule on my iPad.
Beside the formatting issues, I actually enjoyed this book despite the rather less than rave review up until this point. Of course, that was after I figured out who it was about. It’s nice learning about different tsars than the usual ones like the Romanovs, which is what I usually gravitate towards. I admired Catherine for her strength and her cunning. She truly did whatever she could to make sure she would survive. Which I know can be rough considering what she was up against.
One last thing before I wrap this review up. I know I posted my trigger warnings at the top of this review but I wanted to make a separate paragraph especially for this. This book was rough to read in terms of the content. There are a lot of places where Catherine is raped and it’s described pretty graphically. It was hard to read at times because your heart just bled for her. She didn’t deserve that. Not one bit. There is also so much misogyny and it’s often unchallenged as it usually is where historical books are involved. So take care while reading this book because it gets pretty rough.
Overall, this was a good book hence the 3.5 star rating. I think I would have it rated it higher if the formatting hadn’t been such an issue. Also I think the synopsis needs to be changed. It’s kind of misleading. But other than that, I did enjoy this book but it just wasn’t one of my favorites. I’m not discouraged though. I’m sure St Martin’s Press has many more books for me and just waiting to be discovered.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma