What do readers think of The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch? Write your own review.

I only gave this book a 3 because I thought it was terribly disjointed. The sprawling love story between Valentin and Tonya never quite gelled. This novel takes place between 1919 and 1991 alternating between three generations of women in Russia and the US. All the women have witnessed murders and have siblings that seem to be added without the reader realizing it. The reader does not find out until the end that there were two doll makers- Alexey and his brother Eduard. I also did not realize that Kadya's brother Mischa was the Mikhail that was Viktoria's son-in-law. This book definitely needs a list of characters in the beginning that can be used for reference. I read this book twice and still found it confusing. The only reason it might be good for book clubs is that you would have a group to dissect it and perhaps make sense of it. It is impossible to give a review of this book without discussing the convoluted plot and characters eg Lena, Dmitry, Natalya,, Kukola, Rosie and Lev to name a few. Using the dolls as clues was a unique twist, but too little to save the book.

I love generational stories especially when they are in an historical setting and go through different time periods.I had a problem with the development of the characters which I found confusing sometimes.The best part of the book was the amazing history of Russia.

The Last Russian Doll is an epic look at what Russia was like from 1917 to present. It is told from different characters who lived and are living this history. I found the book attempted too much and at times it was hard to follow the story line. Development of the characters at times left many questions. I learned a lot about Russian history and its impact on the general population but it never drove me to hurry up and finish the book.