This book came so close to being better than 'good'. I'm not often interested in traditional 'romance' novels, but the author's grasp of Russian history kept me involved and turning the pages. I greatly enjoyed her evocation of the pre war, and interwar eras. She had a strong grasp of the times and a wonderful way of bringing the characters to life, as well as a way of creating a believable family dynamic. Her picture of the post war era was not as clear, nor as compelling, largely because she jettisons her strength in favor of lengthy descriptions of sex.
Yeah, yeah... I know that is part of the bread and butter of modern day romance novels, but at this aspect she failed for me. Part of how this novel fails is that the sex is frankly overblown and told in eyerollingly purple prose. Our heroine (who has her own issues-back to that in a sec) goes from virgin to 'oh my God' screamer in record time, and rocks it like a porn star. And one twist near the end had me banging my head on my desk and yelling, "Can't you just be happy? After all you've been through?"
The real weakness of his book is the heroine. She vacillates between dull and silly, and ultimately brings the story to a weaker level. It's clear that the author has more respect and admiration for her hero, as he is a much more clearly defined character, and much more human.
Silly sex and a weak heroine plague the last quarter of this book, but the strong historical base that was established at the beginning kept me reading. It was, at the end of the day, good... but it could have been better.
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