Customer Reviews

The Romanov Bride

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I confess, I'm a sucker for just about anything on Imperial Russia. It doesn't matter what the topic is, art, music, history, a biography -- I'm there. So, when I look at this novel and my experience of it, I have only myself to blame.

Robert Alexander's third novel, The Romanov Bride, takes the story of one of the more intriguing members of the Imperial Family. Born as a member of a minor German princely family, Elizabeth -- or as she was known to her family, Ella -- was one of the numerous granddaughters of Queen Victoria, and would loose her mother at a young age. She was also considered to be the loveliest, and had been courted for a time by her cousin, Wilhelm II. But her choice of a husband confused many -- the aloof, rather chilly, Grand Duke Serge of Russia. He was also one of the most unpopular members of the Romanov family, and would finally meet his end at the hands of assassins.

In his novel, Robert Alexander focuses on episodes from Ella's life that had profound changes on her -- a visit to an ailing family with her mother, the coronation of her brother-in-law, Nicholas II and her sister Alexandra as Tsar and Tsarina of Russia. Her marriage to Serge gets hardly a mention, and it's only when it comes to his assassination do we get to see anything of Ella herself. Then a few years later we have her making the choice that stunned her family and led down the long road to her martyrdom at the hands of the Bolsheviks.

And speaking of Bolsheviks, the other main character is Pavel, a very angry young man who decides to become a revolutionary. We watch as he gets involved with every single big uprising from the Bloody Sunday massacre in St. Petersburg, to Serge's assassination, to where he and Ella's lives intertwine. I've never before read such venemous narrative, and at times, it got to be sounding very much like propoganda, and not much like how a person could realistically be thinking.

Sadly, a lot of what would have made this book appealing to the reader and making Ella more interesting would have been some of the background of her life before Serge's violent death. It would have been interesting to see what had brought the two together, why she decided to marry Serge, the important role the two played in bringing about Nicholas and Alexandra's marriage. Instead, all of the glamour of Tsarist Russia gets dumped to the side, and all the reader gets is the grime and misery of life for the underclasses -- I think that the author forgot that the main reason why people read novels is to escape for a few hours and simply enjoy themselves.

And now to some of the major problems of the novel. For one, when Pavel speaks, it's of a very uneducated, rather naive, man who has the remarkable ability to be in the middle of the high points of the novel -- it stretches the credibility of the story, and counts as too many coincidences for me. Too, what bothered and distracted me the most was that the author used first person narrative for both Pavel and Ella, which tended to make the story confusing. Fortunately, this is a short novel, at just 300 pages in length, and I was happy to finally get to the end, a reaction that I usually don't want to have in a story.

Given the vast amount of new research available on Imperial Russia since the fall of communism, this could have been a far better story than what the reader was given. Instead, the author fell back on using flat characters, cut out huge sections of Ella's life, and then to add insult to the reader, decided to throw in a fictional character that was brutal and cliched. The readers deserve better, especially as Robert Alexander's first novel, The Kitchen Boy, was such an entertaining story.

Overall, just three stars from me. I would think that after two successful novels, the author would know better by now, but sadly, this was not the case.

Other books, nonfiction, are available about Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna. Both of them are fairly well-written and to be honest, much more entertaining than this fictional attempt, and I would suggest them over this novel:

Elizabeth: Grand Duchess of Russia by Hugo Mager
Ella: Princess, Saint, Martyr by Christopher Warwick

I couldn't put it down - my only critique is that is was over far too quickly! Having read Mr. Alexander's first two books on the history of Russia, the Romanov family and the Revolution, I was excited when I stumbled across this title in a local bookstore!!

Although there is far more to the "actual" story of the Grand Duchess Elisavyeta ("Ella"), I felt like I got a real glimpse of a short period in her life and that of the other main character, Pavel, an uneducated, angry young peasant who joins in the revolution and becomes the reason why we even hear this story.
I love the way Mr. Alexander finds a new and interesting way to tell these stories - which have been written about over the course of history time and time again - but never with such an intimate voice. His characters bring you to the "front lines" of the story and there is always an "ah-hah" moment as to why this/that character is telling the story to begin with - whether it be the young man who prepares the meals for the royal family while they are in captivity (as in The Kitchen Boy) or the daughter of one of the most intimate "advisors" to the Tsarina (as in Rasputin's Daughter) - Robert Alexander finds that hook that keeps you on the edge of your chair from beginning to end!

Let's face it, in 300 pages there is only so much that an author can write about. As with his first two books, Mr. Alexander continues to write stories that are historically-based, but with that added bit of fiction, brings an otherwise stale story to life on the page! Can't wait for his NEXT book to be released!!!

The fate of the Romanovs is a true tragedy and the story of Grand Duchess Elizabeth is one of the saddest of all. Robert Alexander gives us a moving and realistic version of Elizabeth's life in The Romanov Bride.

The Romanov Bride is told in two voices. The first voice is Grand Duchess Elizabeth (called Ella by her family). Born Princess Elisabeth of Hesse, Ella was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She married the Russian grand duke, Sergei, son of Tsar Alexander II and brother of Alexander III. The second voice is Pavel, a Russian revolutionary. The fictional Pavel came to St. Petersburg with his young wife. But instead of finding greater opportunities, he lost everything he cared about on Bloody Sunday.

In 1905, Grand Duke Sergei was assassinated. Ella sold her properties and her jewels and used the money to establish the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy. The convent operated a hospital and orphanage, and Ella became a nun and served as its abbess.

Alexander creates a story where the paths of Ella and Pavel collide with tragic and lasting consequences. Ella will change Pavel's life in ways that he could never imagine, and touch his heart in the process. While not condoning terrorism, the author makes us feel sympathy for the tortured Pavel. The book is extremely realistic with Alexander using known facts and actual letters. However, don't read The Romanov Bride expecting a full biography of Grand Duchess Elizabeth. There is very little about her childhood, the royal family or the early years of her marriage. Since this story belongs to Ella and Pavel, most of The Romanov Bride deals with the period of time when conditions start deteriorating in Russia and unrest becomes rampant.

This is the first Alexander book that I've read, and being a big fan of Russian history, I now plan on reading his earlier works including The Kitchen Boy and Rasputin's Daughter.

This is a must read for anyone with an interest in Russian history. It is superbly written with a two-person narrative voice. The Russian revolution is seen through the eyes of the peasant and the aristocrat.

I learned quite a bit from reading this and highly recommend it.

I picked up this novel because I love reading about Russian history. I not only read Doctor Zhivago years ago but watch the film whenever I can.

I somehow missed reading Alexander's earlier books but saw a copy of the Kirkus review of THE ROMANOV BRIDE on a web site that made a comparison between it and Doctor Zhivago, saying that in both books "coincidence abounds and some scenes and themes call to mind that classic Russian novel." It also promised The Romanov Bride had "a deeply moving finale." Well, I wasn't disappointed. Alexander beautifully develops the story of the beautiful Grand Duchess Elisavyeta ("Ella"), the sister of Alexandra, who - after her husband was killed - became a nun, devoting her life to the poor. Perhaps even more amazingly, Alexander's manages to present in a remarkably honest and realistic manner the voice of an ordinary peasant, the man who ultimately became her judge and executioner. This is powerful history, superb storytelling. Easily a FIVE STAR read!

Robert Alexander has written one of the most important books of the century in this fictionalized account of the true life of The Grand Duchess Elizabeth, now known as St Elizabeth the New Martyr.

Perhaps even Mr. Alexander will think this an overstatement, but I stick by this assessment, because of the truth within the story. The Romanov Bride is good reading, and I found it hard to put down, but the most important factor is not his creativity or cleverness. What shines is that Elizabeth was a woman who not only followed Christ's directive that those who want to be perfect are to give up everything to follow him, she also went the second and third mile by showing love, compassion and forgiveness to terrorists. Tragic and horrifying (true) events happened to St Elizabeth and others around her, but her story is not ultimately sad or tragic. Her story is the triumph of a woman who chose a difficult path in order to minister to the poor and become a slave to world by emulating Christ.


I highly recommend this book.

"The Romanov Bride" is the story of Ella or more formerly Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna of Russia. She was a grand daughter of Queen Victoria and a sister of the last Empress of Russia. The book starts with her childhood in Darmstadt in Germany and follows her to Russia where she marries Grand Duke Serge, a brother of Tsar Alexander III. After her husband is assassinated Ella becomes a nun. Running parallel to her story is the story of Pavel a Russian peasant and throughout the book the chapters move between these two characters as narrators as their lives become intertwined.

Although I enjoyed both of Robert Alexander's first two books immensely ("The Kitchen Boy" and "Rasputin's Daughter"), I think that he has excelled himself with this book. Robert Alexander has captured the spirit of Ella very successfully. Although the book is fiction the author has stuck to all the known facts about her life and indeed has included many small details about Ella's life to make her truly come alive again. I think that this book is must read for any Romanov fan and even for anyone not interested in them it is still a very interesting story told in an exceptional way.

The Grand Duchess Elizabeth, also known as New-Martyr Elizabeth to Orthodox Christians, is the beautiful heroine of this historical fiction by Robert Alexander, released last year. I'll admit that I am wildly picky about books on this holy woman, seeing as I chose her as my saint when I converted to Orthodoxy. She led the typical life of a German princess, was granddaughter to Queen Victoria, and through marriage into the Romanov family, became a Grand Duchess, third in wealth and status only to her sister (the Empress Alexandra) and the dowager Empress. Upon the assassination of her husband by revolutionaries, she sold all that she owned and took her vows. Using the money from selling her jewels and fine clothes, she opened the Convent of Mary and Martha, serving the Russian people until the day they come to "collect" her with the rest of the Romanov martyrs. The stories that surround her assassination are fascinating - from her bandaging other wounded victims after being thrown down a mine shaft and being bombarded with grenades, to her angelic singing of the liturgy for hours on end before they died. Whatever the truth, she was a remarkable woman.

Robert Alexander's book is very well-researched and thought out. He does not encroach on the historicity of her true story, but he does a wonderful job of weaving together the lives of nobles and peasants as they experience the Russian Revolution from different perspectives. I love the casual mentions of events that were enormously important to others, but to Elizabeth, were of little impact. Alexander manages to paint a wholly realistic picture of life in Russia, from accurate depictions of the jewels Elizabeth owned to the food that was served in the worst slums in Moscow.

I recommend this book to all young adults interested in history, Christian women looking for a fantastic role model, and anyone wanting to dig into a true story about an extraordinary historical/political/religious figure. This one's on my "Buy in hardcover for my personal library" list!

This period of time is fascinating to many people. After reading RASPUTIN'S DAUGHTER & THE KITCHEN BOY I somehow expected more from this 3rd book. This one didn't keep my interest as the other two. However, I do recommend it as a completion of a trilogy.

I am an avid historical fiction fan,visited Russia, and have read this author's previous novels. This is his best novel yet! I especially liked how he moved his story back and forth between the two central characters. We eventually begin to know them and the times in which they lived. I highly recommend this book because it is informative, engaging, and well-written.