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Published Jul 2018
448 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
For readers of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir comes a dramatic novel of the beloved Empress Maria, the Danish girl who became the mother of the last Russian tsar.
Even from behind the throne, a woman can rule.
Narrated by the mother of Russia's last tsar, this vivid, historically authentic novel brings to life the courageous story of Maria Feodorovna, one of Imperial Russia's most compelling women, who witnessed the splendor and tragic downfall of the Romanovs as she fought to save her dynasty in its final years.
Barely nineteen, Minnie knows that her station in life as a Danish princess is to leave her family and enter into a royal marriage - as her older sister Alix has done, moving to England to wed Queen Victoria's eldest son. The winds of fortune bring Minnie to Russia, where she marries the Romanov heir, Alexander, and once he ascends the throne, becomes empress. When resistance to his reign strikes at the heart of her family and the tsar sets out to crush all who oppose him, Minnie - now called Maria - must tread a perilous path of compromise in a country she has come to love.
Her husband's death leaves their son Nicholas as the inexperienced ruler of a deeply divided and crumbling empire. Determined to guide him to reforms that will bring Russia into the modern age, Maria faces implacable opposition from Nicholas's strong-willed wife, Alexandra, whose fervor has led her into a disturbing relationship with a mystic named Rasputin. As the unstoppable wave of revolution rises anew to engulf Russia, Maria will face her most dangerous challenge and her greatest heartache.
From the opulent palaces of St. Petersburg and the intrigue-laced salons of the aristocracy to the World War I battlefields and the bloodied countryside occupied by the Bolsheviks, C. W. Gortner sweeps us into the anarchic fall of an empire and the complex, bold heart of the woman who tried to save it.
"A solid recommendation for readers of historical fiction, especially those who favor the lives of kings and queens." - Library Journal
"A briskly narrated tale of power and revolution." - Kirkus
"A lost age and a woman for the ages come to life in this epic tale...Captivating and beautifully told, this story is a gem as rich as the opulent era it depicts." - Lisa Wingate, New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours
"A sweeping saga that takes us from the opulence and glamour of tsarist Russia to the violent, tragic last days of the Romanovs...C. W. Gortner breaks new ground here, skillfully painting an intimate, compelling portrait of this fascinating empress and her family." - Stephanie Dray, New York Times bestselling co-author of America's First Daughter
"The Romanov Empress has all the glitter and mystery of a Fabergé egg. The waning days of a doomed dynasty are recounted by the vivacious but tough Danish princess who would become one of Russia's most revered tsarinas, only to see her line end in war and revolution. Gortner pens a beautiful tribute to a lost world, weaving a tale as sumptuous as a Russian sable." - Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network
"From her unique vantage point, Maria Feodorovna transports readers through decades of the most turbulent and dramatic events of modern history, from the last glorious days of the Russian tsars to the violent triumph of the Bolsheviks. This absorbing and poignant novel will leave everyone who reads it with a new fascination about the last days of the Romanovs." - Priya Parmar, author of Vanessa and Her Sister
"A vivid, engaging tale of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna, the mother of Russia's last tsar, her loves and her heartbreaks, bringing the troubled final decades of the Russian empire to life." - Eva Stachniak, author of The Winter Palace
This information about The Romanov Empress was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Stephanie Mohan
C. W. Gortner, half-Spanish by birth, holds an M.F.A. in writing, with an emphasis on historical studies, from the New College of California and has taught university courses on women of power in the Renaissance. He was raised in Málaga, Spain, and now lives in California.
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