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tiareleine 's review for:
Tsarina
by Jackson Pearce, J. Nelle Patrick
Edit: 10/10/15
Now that I think about it, Tsarina is more "speculative historical fiction" than actual historical fiction. The author took a lot of liberties with history (or so I've heard. I don't know enough about this particular part of history to be able to say with certainty all that she changed). That didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book, for the exact reason that I don't know enough about it to be peeved, but for any out there who is intimately familiar with Russian history or culture: Be warned, the people in this book were taken out of the reality of our history and molded to fit the story that Jackson Pearce wanted to tell.
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(Original Review)
I don't read a lot of historical fiction. I think I have... maybe 3 or 4 other historical fiction titles on my shelf. I don't know why, I guess I'm just picky about my books and not much historical fiction appeals to me. However, Tsarina might make me rethink that.
Conveniently, I just learned about the Russian Revolution in my history class. So, this revolution is fairly familiar territory now. (Okay, when I say "fairly familiar" I mean I know the gist of it.) Obviously I'm no expert, so I wasn't pinpointing historical inaccuracies as I read and getting riled up about them. At the end of the book some of the inaccuracies were accounted for (a few things had to be slightly altered for story-telling purposes, and I think that's okay) and I found myself mostly not even realizing there'd been a problem with them. Just be warned, if you're a stickler for historical fiction that doesn't stray from the facts, this isn't that. (Though hopefully you could tell that by the magical Fabergé egg that's central to the plot...)
I liked all the characters, I thought they were all well written and more than one-dimensional. (Okay, well Alexei was a little one dimensional, but he got one chapter... so... and I don't think that's really a spoiler) Even Emilia--who fit the mold of fashion-loving best-friend who is slightly jealous of main character's life and definitely jealous of main character's love life--had a personality outside of that trope. I, of course, liked Natalya. She was very driven, but she never acted it that exaggeratedly determined way that makes characters do stupid things. Her decision-making was fairly emotion based, but not to the point of idiocy. I don't really want to get into the other characters for fear of spoilers, but I liked them.
Oh, and for those of you who are afraid of love-triangles; if you know anything about the Romanov dynasty then you know whether or not it's a love-triangle.
A lot of people complained about the ending, but I don't know what there's to complain about. Endings are difficult, and I think Tsarina's ending was just fine. Obviously I'm not going to tell you about it because I don't want to spoil anything (there are some books for which I'm willing to talk about the ending, but I really think Tsarina is good and you should read it, so I'll refrain from spoiling)
The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars (though don't be fooled by the 4, I really want to give it 4.5) is that there were times when I was unsure of characters/character relationships. For example, Maria was only 18, but there were times when I'm pretty sure she or her powers were referred to as the oldest...? Another time was when Natalya was at Emilia's uncle's and he seemed disappointed that she had an intended. Did he want to marry her? Is that normal? What is happening? That seemed like something we were supposed to know. It's possible I missed some sort of explanation for those things, but it was frustrating to be confused.
In the end Tsarina was a great book with a great story and great characters. I may have to check out some of Jackson Pearce's other work (she wrote this under a pen name, for those of you who don't know)
Now that I think about it, Tsarina is more "speculative historical fiction" than actual historical fiction. The author took a lot of liberties with history (or so I've heard. I don't know enough about this particular part of history to be able to say with certainty all that she changed). That didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book, for the exact reason that I don't know enough about it to be peeved, but for any out there who is intimately familiar with Russian history or culture: Be warned, the people in this book were taken out of the reality of our history and molded to fit the story that Jackson Pearce wanted to tell.
------------------
(Original Review)
I don't read a lot of historical fiction. I think I have... maybe 3 or 4 other historical fiction titles on my shelf. I don't know why, I guess I'm just picky about my books and not much historical fiction appeals to me. However, Tsarina might make me rethink that.
Conveniently, I just learned about the Russian Revolution in my history class. So, this revolution is fairly familiar territory now. (Okay, when I say "fairly familiar" I mean I know the gist of it.) Obviously I'm no expert, so I wasn't pinpointing historical inaccuracies as I read and getting riled up about them. At the end of the book some of the inaccuracies were accounted for (a few things had to be slightly altered for story-telling purposes, and I think that's okay) and I found myself mostly not even realizing there'd been a problem with them. Just be warned, if you're a stickler for historical fiction that doesn't stray from the facts, this isn't that. (Though hopefully you could tell that by the magical Fabergé egg that's central to the plot...)
I liked all the characters, I thought they were all well written and more than one-dimensional. (Okay, well Alexei was a little one dimensional, but he got one chapter... so... and I don't think that's really a spoiler) Even Emilia--who fit the mold of fashion-loving best-friend who is slightly jealous of main character's life and definitely jealous of main character's love life--had a personality outside of that trope. I, of course, liked Natalya. She was very driven, but she never acted it that exaggeratedly determined way that makes characters do stupid things. Her decision-making was fairly emotion based, but not to the point of idiocy. I don't really want to get into the other characters for fear of spoilers, but I liked them.
Oh, and for those of you who are afraid of love-triangles; if you know anything about the Romanov dynasty then you know whether or not it's a love-triangle.
A lot of people complained about the ending, but I don't know what there's to complain about. Endings are difficult, and I think Tsarina's ending was just fine. Obviously I'm not going to tell you about it because I don't want to spoil anything (there are some books for which I'm willing to talk about the ending, but I really think Tsarina is good and you should read it, so I'll refrain from spoiling)
The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars (though don't be fooled by the 4, I really want to give it 4.5) is that there were times when I was unsure of characters/character relationships. For example, Maria was only 18, but there were times when I'm pretty sure she or her powers were referred to as the oldest...? Another time was when Natalya was at Emilia's uncle's and he seemed disappointed that she had an intended. Did he want to marry her? Is that normal? What is happening? That seemed like something we were supposed to know. It's possible I missed some sort of explanation for those things, but it was frustrating to be confused.
In the end Tsarina was a great book with a great story and great characters. I may have to check out some of Jackson Pearce's other work (she wrote this under a pen name, for those of you who don't know)