Reviews

DNF. I had high hopes for this book. It is so well reviewed and I've always been fascinated with stories of possible escaped grand duchesses. But this book didn't hit the mark for me. The romance was saccharine. The love at first sight lacked believability even more than usual. More frustrating, the timeline stories didn't really connect in my opinion. The transition between present and past was choppy. There's only one moment when present day Kitty finds a charm that probably matches up to something mentioned in the previous past timeline chapter and starts wearing it on a necklace. Of course, if it was the charm from the previous chapter then it was a fancy tag for the royal dog. How romantic.

My suggestions is that is you want a historical fiction novel featuring a grand duchess, read City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin. Skip The Secret Wife.

chrissypink80's review

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4.0

A very engrossing and interesting take on the Romanov family. I really enjoyed this book.

sualuminasidus's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

lilays43's review

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

reedinthelibrary's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

mommalewis's review

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5.0

loved it!

chels0611's review

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4.0

An enjoyable book that gives a pretty good picture of the Romanov dynasty in Russia. The first 100 pages are mostly focused on love letters and character development and is quite uneventful. However, the remainder of the book has a lot going on and is very interesting. I definitely enjoyed the book.

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