Reviews - The Romanov Sisters

561 reviews for:

The Romanov’s were the last imperial family of Russia before WWI caused an upheaval within the country where political unrest had already begun to bubble. Their father was the last Tsar.

This book really should be called the Romanov Family, as the reader learns a great deal about all 7 members of the family. It is an easy read and it gives a lot of insight into the history of Russia, the time period of 1890-1930, as well as pre WWI European royals.

tashabasha1's review against another edition

4.0

informative sad medium-paced

i don't remember why i DNFd this last year, i think it was a mixture of uni and losing interest in the book at the time. i enjoyed it though!

the only thing that i didn't like was that there was a lot on nicky, alix and alexey when this was supposed to be about the romanov sisters. i get that the first couple chapters were about nicky and alix's backstories and how they got together, but then i feel that after that point there was just too much about them and alexey that i feel was just unnecessary for a book that's not about them

chloesbooked's review against another edition

4.0

medium-paced

This was well written for someone who is not an expert on the Romanov’s or Russian Revolution.

misskath's review against another edition

5.0

Bueno... Cuando era pequeña vi Anastasia (y aunque ahora ya sé que en realidad en una película con mucha fantasía y basada más bien en una de las tantas mujeres que a lo largo del siglo pasado se hizo pasar por alguna de las hermanas Romanov) y desde entonces siempre he sentido curiosidad por la última familia imperial rusa. Al crecer, creció mi amor por la historia y más quise conocer, así que cuando vi este libro en la librería hace un par de semanas no me pude resistir.
Muy bien documentado, escrito de manera fluida, es una gran fuente de información sobre los últimos días de los Romanov, en especial sobre las vidas de sus hijas de los zares, cuyas personalidades eran tan distintas como el día y la noche.

danilediard's review

3.25

informative slow-paced

irishfolkofcork's review against another edition

4.0

I think if I were to give this a true rating, it would be between a three and four star. While on one hand, I am an enthusiast of the tsar and his family, on the other hand, there were some issues with the presentation and content of this book. For one, the book claims by its title to be about the Romanov daughters. However, much of the book is more about the family with snippets focused on the daughters here and there. I will say, as an enthusiast, I can understand this. So much of these young women's lives was interconnected with their family life, if not most of their lives. They were highly isolated and at times for good reason. I also felt at times like this was less of a book and more of a research dissertation. There were times when as a reader you were just inundated with quotes and outside opinions that the ratio between the author's words and the opinions was skewed towards the quotations. I really feel that Rappaport needed to find a balance with this in the text and stick with it. To have too many quotations really seemed to draw away from the story at times instead of adding to it. With all this in mind, I have to say I found it a very intriguing read. I learned things, which as an enthusiast, I like to be able to say. I also did like that at times we got such a fantastic feel of the Romanovs and their personalities. Rappaport used situational language very well to convey that. I would however only recommend this to someone who is interested in Russian history, especially this family, like myself. I think because of how heavily research based this book is as opposed to being more literary, it may turn away the average historical non-fiction reader.