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A review by gilmoreguide
Empress of the Night: A Novel of Catherine the Great by Eva Stachniak
4.0
Power lies in hearing what is not meant to be heard. In understanding what motivates those who plot against you. In knowing what could make them turn about-face, come to your side.
Empress of the Night, Eva Stachniak’s new historical novel about Catherine the Great, begins at the end by opening with the last days before her death. Catherine is in the 34th year of her reign and is 67 years old. As she lays stricken by a stroke, leaving her unable to talk, her mind goes all the way back to the early years of her marriage to Grand Duke Peter III—a man who was raised in Prussia and sees his homeland as a backwater and his bride as a nuisance. The Grand Duke has no interest in his new young bride and Sophie (her birth name) is left to navigate the hostile waters of Empress Elizabeth’s court. When after five years of attempting to become pregnant Catherine finally gives birth to a son, there is much speculation that the child is not Peter’s. Still, it is a son and the child is taken from Catherine by the Empress to be raised her way, creating a split between the child and mother that never heals, to the point that Catherine chooses her grandson to succeed her, doubting that her son is fit to rule.
You can read the rest of this review AND enter to win a free copy of Empress of the Night at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://wp.me/p2B7gG-GM
Empress of the Night, Eva Stachniak’s new historical novel about Catherine the Great, begins at the end by opening with the last days before her death. Catherine is in the 34th year of her reign and is 67 years old. As she lays stricken by a stroke, leaving her unable to talk, her mind goes all the way back to the early years of her marriage to Grand Duke Peter III—a man who was raised in Prussia and sees his homeland as a backwater and his bride as a nuisance. The Grand Duke has no interest in his new young bride and Sophie (her birth name) is left to navigate the hostile waters of Empress Elizabeth’s court. When after five years of attempting to become pregnant Catherine finally gives birth to a son, there is much speculation that the child is not Peter’s. Still, it is a son and the child is taken from Catherine by the Empress to be raised her way, creating a split between the child and mother that never heals, to the point that Catherine chooses her grandson to succeed her, doubting that her son is fit to rule.
You can read the rest of this review AND enter to win a free copy of Empress of the Night at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://wp.me/p2B7gG-GM