What do you think?
Rate this book
The Curse of the Romanovs
Alexei Romanov, heir to the Russian throne, is in deadly danger.
It¹s 1916, the struggling Russian people are tired of war and are blaming their Romanov rulers for it, and some are secretly plotting to murder the young heir and his family. But nobody outside the palace knows that Alexei suffers from a terrible bleeding disease, hemophilia, which threatens to finish him off even before the family¹s enemies can. The only person able to help Alexei is the evil and powerful religious mystic Rasputin -- and now Rasputin is trying to kill him too! Desperate, Alexei flees through time to New York City in 2010, using a method taught to him by the mad monk himself.
In New York, Alexei meets smart and sassy Varda Rosenberg, and discovers she is a distant cousin. Varda is working on a gene therapy cure for hemophilia, as the disease still runs in the family. When Alexei learns that history shows that his entire family will be assassinated in 1918, he and Varda travel back in time to the Russian Revolution, with Rasputin hot on their heels. Will they be able to rescue Alexei¹s family before it¹s too late?
Staton Rabin lets Alexei tell his own riveting story in a rousing adventure with stunning surprises -- a movingly authentic look at royalty and revolution in the days of the tsars.
It¹s 1916, the struggling Russian people are tired of war and are blaming their Romanov rulers for it, and some are secretly plotting to murder the young heir and his family. But nobody outside the palace knows that Alexei suffers from a terrible bleeding disease, hemophilia, which threatens to finish him off even before the family¹s enemies can. The only person able to help Alexei is the evil and powerful religious mystic Rasputin -- and now Rasputin is trying to kill him too! Desperate, Alexei flees through time to New York City in 2010, using a method taught to him by the mad monk himself.
In New York, Alexei meets smart and sassy Varda Rosenberg, and discovers she is a distant cousin. Varda is working on a gene therapy cure for hemophilia, as the disease still runs in the family. When Alexei learns that history shows that his entire family will be assassinated in 1918, he and Varda travel back in time to the Russian Revolution, with Rasputin hot on their heels. Will they be able to rescue Alexei¹s family before it¹s too late?
Staton Rabin lets Alexei tell his own riveting story in a rousing adventure with stunning surprises -- a movingly authentic look at royalty and revolution in the days of the tsars.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published July 10, 2007
About the author
Staton Rabin
15 books11 followersStaton Rabin has a B.F.A. in film from New York University. In addition to writing for children, she is a screenwriter; a popular speaker about the art, craft, and business of writing for film; and a veteran story analyst for Scr(i)pt magazine, screenwriters, and producers. Staton Rabin lives in Irvington, New York.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
May 4, 2016
This is the most ridiculous book that I have read so far in my 16 years. Everything was absolutely ridiculous that I don’t quite know where to start.
To make things easier, let’s begin with the characters.
The only Romanov character featured here was Alexei Romanov, the youngest son of Nicholas and Alexandra and the heir to the Russian throne. At the start, I quite enjoyed the Romanov family life. Everything was in place; from Tatiana being a “governess” to Anastasia’s naughtiness. Felix Yussupov and the murder of Rasputin is also featured but that is when the pleasantness of this book ends. As soon as the third chapter rolls around, the Romanovs probably started rolling in their graves.
Alexei lands in 2010 America in a river and he starts yelling for help in Russian. Although not in the Russian that readers would have understood but in Russian as in the Cyrillic alphabet. That’s right, Alexei starts shouting in a different alphabet. How the fuck that got through the editor, I have no idea. This is where the historical accuracy of the book also ends. Alexandra, Nicholas II’s wife, was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England. Knowing that, the Romanov children would have grown up in a somewhat English speaking family and apart from that, they also had a tutor who taught them how to speak in English. So why is it that the minute Alexei arrives in America, he starts speaking in broken English? That part made no fucking sense and was the first sign that this book would turn out to be the most ridiculous thing ever printed. I should have stopped there, but I was being nice and I was hesitant to DNF a book this early on in 2014, but stopping there would have meant that I was saved from such drivel.
God, I should have gone with my guts.
An American girl by the name of Varda saves Alexei from drowning in the river. Varda is 15 and her father was a hemophiliac, meaning that she had an obsession with the disease. Alexei had hemophilia. Coincidence? Of course not. As of 2013, the CDC reports that only 1 in 5,000 males are infected with hemophilia in the United States. It’s completely plausible that Alexei stumbles upon a hot girl with a hemophiliac for a father.
On a scale from 1-10, the ridiculousness of this book shoots up to 15 following this.
Varda is searching for a cure for hemophilia. Yes, you heard that. A fucking 15 year old is searching for a fucking cure for fucking hemophilia. Now, I’m all for teenaged empowerment and portraying teens as intelligent human beings but she has a fucking DNA thing contraption in her room and has the fucking resources to conduct gene therapy or whatever mumbo jumbo. Her way of speaking was frequently littered with, “likes” and “dudes” and all the other teenager slang so forgive me if I couldn’t believe how a girl like her could have a cure for hemophilia. But that’s exactly what she has. The minute she meets Alexei, she announces that she was going to this hemophilia convention where she would be announcing her findings for hemophilia, thus making a cure. I’m sorry but what hell did I just drop into?
Varda doesn’t believe that Alexei is the heir to the Russian throne because duh, didn’t he die like a million years ago? But then she digs out her DNA testing kit. She has a fucking DNA testing kit in her room. I’m 16 and I don’t even have an Erlenmeyer flask in mine.
Then surprise, surprise, Rasputin shows up and announces that he was Alexei’s father. Okay, for the fucking record, Nicholas and Alexandra loved each other. They were devoted to each other, so much so that Nicholas literally tore up the country he loved because he continued to listen to his wife’s advice even though they were completely wrong. So in what fucking part of the world does Alexandra cheat on Nicholas? And on the same note, in what fucking part of the world did we progress from a Romanov historical fiction to Star Wars?
After learning about the Russian Revolution, Alexei and Varda journey back to Imperial Russia to save the rest of the Romanovs. They are separated but they still have their phones so are able to text each other. For your information, cell phones need cell phone towers and based on the history that everyone in this world is taught, no cell phone towers existed during the 20th century. So how the fuck were Varda and Alexei able to text each other?
Oh right, the walkie talkie concept of their phones. Apparently, Varda and Alexei’s cell phones are able to act as a walkie talkie. Hold up, from Star Wars to Spy Kids? My, my, my, aren’t we so imaginative? Anyway, this walkie talkie thing still doesn’t explain how Alexei was able to text Varda during the last moments of his life. As far as I know, walkie talkies can’t text. They don’t even have screens, for fuck’s sake.
And then there was Varda and Alexei’s declaration of love for each other; ILUVU4EVA. ILUVU4EVA2. What the fuck? If a guy texted that to me, he would get a goddamn smack in the balls and not a declaration of love. When was this acceptable in polite society? Hell, did people really do this? Did teenagers? I don’t know which “How to understand your teenager better” book Staton Rabin pulled this from but coming from a teenager, this has never happened to me. Not the declaration of love, but the complete disregard and utter butchering of the English language. My God, ILUVU4EVA??? That defines long lasting love? That’s love that transcends time? If so, I weep for humanity.
Cheesy. Stupid. Ridiculous. These are the words that would best describe The Curse of the Romanovs.
The only thing that made this deserve a one star rating was the ending wherein the author put in the real history of the Romanovs, pointing out what she changed and so on. That was more interesting than the actual story.
I do not recommend this book at all. I’m sorry if I cursed way too much in this review but this was the only way I could really get out my feelings for this book. If you ever see a copy of The Curse of the Romanovs, kill it before it breeds.
To make things easier, let’s begin with the characters.
The only Romanov character featured here was Alexei Romanov, the youngest son of Nicholas and Alexandra and the heir to the Russian throne. At the start, I quite enjoyed the Romanov family life. Everything was in place; from Tatiana being a “governess” to Anastasia’s naughtiness. Felix Yussupov and the murder of Rasputin is also featured but that is when the pleasantness of this book ends. As soon as the third chapter rolls around, the Romanovs probably started rolling in their graves.
Alexei lands in 2010 America in a river and he starts yelling for help in Russian. Although not in the Russian that readers would have understood but in Russian as in the Cyrillic alphabet. That’s right, Alexei starts shouting in a different alphabet. How the fuck that got through the editor, I have no idea. This is where the historical accuracy of the book also ends. Alexandra, Nicholas II’s wife, was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England. Knowing that, the Romanov children would have grown up in a somewhat English speaking family and apart from that, they also had a tutor who taught them how to speak in English. So why is it that the minute Alexei arrives in America, he starts speaking in broken English? That part made no fucking sense and was the first sign that this book would turn out to be the most ridiculous thing ever printed. I should have stopped there, but I was being nice and I was hesitant to DNF a book this early on in 2014, but stopping there would have meant that I was saved from such drivel.
God, I should have gone with my guts.
An American girl by the name of Varda saves Alexei from drowning in the river. Varda is 15 and her father was a hemophiliac, meaning that she had an obsession with the disease. Alexei had hemophilia. Coincidence? Of course not. As of 2013, the CDC reports that only 1 in 5,000 males are infected with hemophilia in the United States. It’s completely plausible that Alexei stumbles upon a hot girl with a hemophiliac for a father.
On a scale from 1-10, the ridiculousness of this book shoots up to 15 following this.
Varda is searching for a cure for hemophilia. Yes, you heard that. A fucking 15 year old is searching for a fucking cure for fucking hemophilia. Now, I’m all for teenaged empowerment and portraying teens as intelligent human beings but she has a fucking DNA thing contraption in her room and has the fucking resources to conduct gene therapy or whatever mumbo jumbo. Her way of speaking was frequently littered with, “likes” and “dudes” and all the other teenager slang so forgive me if I couldn’t believe how a girl like her could have a cure for hemophilia. But that’s exactly what she has. The minute she meets Alexei, she announces that she was going to this hemophilia convention where she would be announcing her findings for hemophilia, thus making a cure. I’m sorry but what hell did I just drop into?
Varda doesn’t believe that Alexei is the heir to the Russian throne because duh, didn’t he die like a million years ago? But then she digs out her DNA testing kit. She has a fucking DNA testing kit in her room. I’m 16 and I don’t even have an Erlenmeyer flask in mine.
Then surprise, surprise, Rasputin shows up and announces that he was Alexei’s father. Okay, for the fucking record, Nicholas and Alexandra loved each other. They were devoted to each other, so much so that Nicholas literally tore up the country he loved because he continued to listen to his wife’s advice even though they were completely wrong. So in what fucking part of the world does Alexandra cheat on Nicholas? And on the same note, in what fucking part of the world did we progress from a Romanov historical fiction to Star Wars?
After learning about the Russian Revolution, Alexei and Varda journey back to Imperial Russia to save the rest of the Romanovs. They are separated but they still have their phones so are able to text each other. For your information, cell phones need cell phone towers and based on the history that everyone in this world is taught, no cell phone towers existed during the 20th century. So how the fuck were Varda and Alexei able to text each other?
Oh right, the walkie talkie concept of their phones. Apparently, Varda and Alexei’s cell phones are able to act as a walkie talkie. Hold up, from Star Wars to Spy Kids? My, my, my, aren’t we so imaginative? Anyway, this walkie talkie thing still doesn’t explain how Alexei was able to text Varda during the last moments of his life. As far as I know, walkie talkies can’t text. They don’t even have screens, for fuck’s sake.
And then there was Varda and Alexei’s declaration of love for each other; ILUVU4EVA. ILUVU4EVA2. What the fuck? If a guy texted that to me, he would get a goddamn smack in the balls and not a declaration of love. When was this acceptable in polite society? Hell, did people really do this? Did teenagers? I don’t know which “How to understand your teenager better” book Staton Rabin pulled this from but coming from a teenager, this has never happened to me. Not the declaration of love, but the complete disregard and utter butchering of the English language. My God, ILUVU4EVA??? That defines long lasting love? That’s love that transcends time? If so, I weep for humanity.
Cheesy. Stupid. Ridiculous. These are the words that would best describe The Curse of the Romanovs.
The only thing that made this deserve a one star rating was the ending wherein the author put in the real history of the Romanovs, pointing out what she changed and so on. That was more interesting than the actual story.
I do not recommend this book at all. I’m sorry if I cursed way too much in this review but this was the only way I could really get out my feelings for this book. If you ever see a copy of The Curse of the Romanovs, kill it before it breeds.
December 10, 2008
Good. I liked it a lot!
Something about the Romanovs (just like the Holocaust) has always amazed me, and I've always wanted to learn more. I really like this book, a gave you a whole different look of it all.
Something about the Romanovs (just like the Holocaust) has always amazed me, and I've always wanted to learn more. I really like this book, a gave you a whole different look of it all.
June 21, 2012
I loved this young adult novel until page 85 when the narrator, Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov (son of the last Tsar of Russia) finds himself in New York City in the 21st century with a young girl calling him "dude." To say the transition was abrupt is to call the weather in New Mexico less-than-damp. It is a fatal flaw of the novel, something that makes its entire structure inept. I would have loved a young adult novel about the Romanov family with speculation about the role of Rasputin, but the time travel device is underdeveloped and flawed here. It simply does not work. Staton Rabin is a great writer, but he needed an editor who spoke plainly about the trouble with this story. Then he might have ended up with something really good, rather than this ridiculous farce.
February 10, 2008
Great historical fiction! The author also provides a thorough section of historical notes at the end of the book.
April 18, 2008
This book would probably be good for kids between 10 and 15, but no adults. The story has some historical value but was just to smple and young. I will give it 3 for kids, but a 2 for adults
March 19, 2008
A time travel historical novel is not my first choice of book but Rabin does such a fantastic job I was really pulled in and couldn't put it down. GREAT read!
June 26, 2008
This is a great book...I love to hear about Anastasia and her family, but this has a twist.
September 5, 2009
Very good...maybe middle school appropriate. The Romanovs as seen through the eyes of future tsar Alexei. He is able to travel through time to escape certain death and teams up with a relative in the future who is interested in finding a cure for hemophelia. When he learns of his family's fate in a high school history class he travels back through time with his cousin to try to find a way to change the course of history. The author includes outstanding and thorough notes for the reader on what aspects of the story are genuine and what is imagined in addition to good historical notes, medical notes, etc. A very worthwhile read.
April 30, 2020
3.5 Stars
While most post-Romanov execution-based historical fiction likes to focus on possible alternate fates of the Grand Duchess Anastasia, Staton Rabin's The Curse of the Romanovs chooses to experiment with new life paths for hemophiliac heir to the throne, Alexei. The novel is inspired by the fact that prior to 2007, when this book came out, bones of Alexei and one of his sisters had yet to be positively identified, leading many to hypothesis that perhaps there were one or more of the family to survive the execution. All of the remains of the family have since been accounted for.
Rabin presents the novel as a journal Alexei is keeping while on his adventure, a place where he can share his family's story in his own words, with the preface of The Curse of the Romanovs serving as an opening note to the journal, explaining that in the event of his death the notebook should be sent to Varda Rosenberg for safe keeping.
The novel opens in 1916, when twelve year old Alexei is facing threats from every direction, including a once trusted family friend, the "priest" (but not actually) Grigory Efimovich, aka Rasputin. In this novel, Rabin poses the "what if" of Alexei maybe having a hand in the execution plot of Rasputin. When Rasputin himself gets wind of this, he hunts Alexei down, attacks him... but in that moment of near death, Alexei decides to try out a trick Rasputin once taught him, transporting himself to 2010 New York City. It is there that Alexei meets Varda Rosenberg, a fifteen year old distant cousin of the Romanov family, who just happens to be trying to work out a cure for hemophilia, the very condition that killed her father. Alexei time-leapt before news of the planned execution of his family got out, but once Varda gives him the unfortunate history lesson, he asks her to help him leap back to his time to try to save his family before it's too late.
In the spirit of readers being real with each other, bookworm to bookworm, I will admit this plot has its flaws. I was left with plenty of questions... just one as an example: at 15, how the heck does Varda have an ENTIRE DNA TESTING LAB just chillin' IN HER BEDROOM?!! Was it a hand-me-down from Jimmy Neutron or something?!
If you're a history purist, this particular book is maybe not your scene. But if you fall into the categories of 1) know absolutely nothing about this period 2) know just enough to keep up or 3) know ALL about it but don't mind a temporary jaunt into alternate history / historical fantasy, maybe stick around for the end credits because, taken for what it is, this is a pretty fun ride (*minus the awkward almost-romance building that, for me, just got in the way of a good adventure). Get ready for some pretty cool chase sequences between Alexei & Rasputin, one being a full-on moving train rooftop scenario!
There's a pretty lengthy but fascinating afterword on the true history that inspired scenes or discussions within the novel. Some of the topics Rabin touches upon:
* Rasputin was said to be the one person who had any sort of reliable remedy (though not full cure) for the real Alexei's hemophilia. How did his healing work? Was it prayer, hypnotism, some sort of guided meditation or visualization? Historians are still unsure.
* How are the British and Russian thrones related? Well, for one, Queen Victoria's daughter, Beatrice, was Alexei's great-aunt (and also a carrier for hemophilia).
* When Russia entered WW2, it went up against Germany, Tsarina Alix's homeland (technically). The Kaiser was "Cousin Willy" to her. People whispered that the tsarina was possibly a German spy. Though it is true she was born in Germany, after her mother (Britian's Princess Alice) died of diptheria at age 35, Alix was actually largely raised by grandmother Queen Victoria, leading Alix to feel a stronger bond with Britain than Germany for the majority of her life.
With the time travel aspect, this is a fun one to refer to to introduce early middle-grade / YA readers to the genre of historical fiction --- and the topic of the Romanov line specifically --- without overwhelming them with too much fact at once. Rabin writes a strong enough adventure story, young readers are likely to go investigating the true story for themselves shortly after they breeze through these pages.
While most post-Romanov execution-based historical fiction likes to focus on possible alternate fates of the Grand Duchess Anastasia, Staton Rabin's The Curse of the Romanovs chooses to experiment with new life paths for hemophiliac heir to the throne, Alexei. The novel is inspired by the fact that prior to 2007, when this book came out, bones of Alexei and one of his sisters had yet to be positively identified, leading many to hypothesis that perhaps there were one or more of the family to survive the execution. All of the remains of the family have since been accounted for.
Rabin presents the novel as a journal Alexei is keeping while on his adventure, a place where he can share his family's story in his own words, with the preface of The Curse of the Romanovs serving as an opening note to the journal, explaining that in the event of his death the notebook should be sent to Varda Rosenberg for safe keeping.
The novel opens in 1916, when twelve year old Alexei is facing threats from every direction, including a once trusted family friend, the "priest" (but not actually) Grigory Efimovich, aka Rasputin. In this novel, Rabin poses the "what if" of Alexei maybe having a hand in the execution plot of Rasputin. When Rasputin himself gets wind of this, he hunts Alexei down, attacks him... but in that moment of near death, Alexei decides to try out a trick Rasputin once taught him, transporting himself to 2010 New York City. It is there that Alexei meets Varda Rosenberg, a fifteen year old distant cousin of the Romanov family, who just happens to be trying to work out a cure for hemophilia, the very condition that killed her father. Alexei time-leapt before news of the planned execution of his family got out, but once Varda gives him the unfortunate history lesson, he asks her to help him leap back to his time to try to save his family before it's too late.
In the spirit of readers being real with each other, bookworm to bookworm, I will admit this plot has its flaws. I was left with plenty of questions... just one as an example: at 15, how the heck does Varda have an ENTIRE DNA TESTING LAB just chillin' IN HER BEDROOM?!! Was it a hand-me-down from Jimmy Neutron or something?!
If you're a history purist, this particular book is maybe not your scene. But if you fall into the categories of 1) know absolutely nothing about this period 2) know just enough to keep up or 3) know ALL about it but don't mind a temporary jaunt into alternate history / historical fantasy, maybe stick around for the end credits because, taken for what it is, this is a pretty fun ride (*minus the awkward almost-romance building that, for me, just got in the way of a good adventure). Get ready for some pretty cool chase sequences between Alexei & Rasputin, one being a full-on moving train rooftop scenario!
There's a pretty lengthy but fascinating afterword on the true history that inspired scenes or discussions within the novel. Some of the topics Rabin touches upon:
* Rasputin was said to be the one person who had any sort of reliable remedy (though not full cure) for the real Alexei's hemophilia. How did his healing work? Was it prayer, hypnotism, some sort of guided meditation or visualization? Historians are still unsure.
* How are the British and Russian thrones related? Well, for one, Queen Victoria's daughter, Beatrice, was Alexei's great-aunt (and also a carrier for hemophilia).
* When Russia entered WW2, it went up against Germany, Tsarina Alix's homeland (technically). The Kaiser was "Cousin Willy" to her. People whispered that the tsarina was possibly a German spy. Though it is true she was born in Germany, after her mother (Britian's Princess Alice) died of diptheria at age 35, Alix was actually largely raised by grandmother Queen Victoria, leading Alix to feel a stronger bond with Britain than Germany for the majority of her life.
With the time travel aspect, this is a fun one to refer to to introduce early middle-grade / YA readers to the genre of historical fiction --- and the topic of the Romanov line specifically --- without overwhelming them with too much fact at once. Rabin writes a strong enough adventure story, young readers are likely to go investigating the true story for themselves shortly after they breeze through these pages.
October 18, 2015
3.5 stars
Food analogy: This book was like a bag of Fritos. I liked it but it doesn't have a lot of substance. The "salt" in this book is decent action scenes and an awful lot of cheesy jokes.
For example:
"What mean this word? Foreign, anti-Bolshevik propaganda?"
"Nyet!" I said. "'Livestrong'. It mean... Long live Lenin!"
Wow.
On the Plus Side
This was a short and sweet binge-read-able book which I admit I enjoyed despite its improbabilities. I kind of learned how to suspend disbelief with this one for the most part, but if this book requires so much of that, it really should be a middle grade book. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book and I did laugh at the culture clash humor. I liked Varda and her sass and learned to get over the whole Jewish-painter thing. Rabin had enough respect for history to research well and include a note, so I'm fine with that.
On the Minus Side
The title was cheesy.
I cringed at this book's opening chapters. Alexei's second-person narration was awfully kiddish,albeit most likely historically accurate, but if she can have him travel in time, she could at least give him a better writing style. I also didn't like how "Alexei" left footnotes instead of just including what he wanted to say in the text.
The worst part of this book by far is Rasputin. We at fist think he's a villain but
Also, this book was cliche, just not in its romance. All cliches of Romanov fiction are present except a magical Fabergé egg and Anastasia having a lover. I also couldn't get over the very middle-grade escape plan, much like that in The Tsarina's Daughter. I also thought a romance between Varda and Alexei didn't work out.
Overall, though, this was a decent book. It was better than The Fetch or most any other Romanov fantasy I've read recently. Not recommended, but not something I'm against people reading.
Food analogy: This book was like a bag of Fritos. I liked it but it doesn't have a lot of substance. The "salt" in this book is decent action scenes and an awful lot of cheesy jokes.
For example:
"What mean this word? Foreign, anti-Bolshevik propaganda?"
"Nyet!" I said. "'Livestrong'. It mean... Long live Lenin!"
Wow.
On the Plus Side
This was a short and sweet binge-read-able book which I admit I enjoyed despite its improbabilities. I kind of learned how to suspend disbelief with this one for the most part, but if this book requires so much of that, it really should be a middle grade book. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book and I did laugh at the culture clash humor. I liked Varda and her sass and learned to get over the whole Jewish-painter thing. Rabin had enough respect for history to research well and include a note, so I'm fine with that.
On the Minus Side
The title was cheesy.
I cringed at this book's opening chapters. Alexei's second-person narration was awfully kiddish,albeit most likely historically accurate, but if she can have him travel in time, she could at least give him a better writing style. I also didn't like how "Alexei" left footnotes instead of just including what he wanted to say in the text.
The worst part of this book by far is Rasputin. We at fist think he's a villain but
Also, this book was cliche, just not in its romance. All cliches of Romanov fiction are present except a magical Fabergé egg and Anastasia having a lover. I also couldn't get over the very middle-grade escape plan, much like that in The Tsarina's Daughter. I also thought a romance between Varda and Alexei didn't work out.
Overall, though, this was a decent book. It was better than The Fetch or most any other Romanov fantasy I've read recently. Not recommended, but not something I'm against people reading.
April 7, 2016
Whoever wrote this book is a genius.
They somehow managed to combine three of my most favorite plots into one-and the result is amazing.
Granted, it was a lot shorter than I thought it was, and therefore it felt a little rushed. I felt like a lot of the scenes could've been explored more, but I wasn't left unsatisfied with what I got.
But that short-coming is made up for by the fact it's about Alexei Romanov time-traveling to the present and struggling to fit into modern society. My three favorite plots:
1. Romanovs.
2. Time travel
3. Someone from another time period/world trying to fit into our own
I don't think I need to get into any more of this review, because it'll just be me gushing over it excessively! I was quite glad I read this book, and even though a lot of facts were purposely made inaccurate, this author has a clear respect for the Romanov dynasty, so it was easy for me to overlook.
So, I suppose I'll see everyone in whatever my next review happens to be on?
They somehow managed to combine three of my most favorite plots into one-and the result is amazing.
Granted, it was a lot shorter than I thought it was, and therefore it felt a little rushed. I felt like a lot of the scenes could've been explored more, but I wasn't left unsatisfied with what I got.
But that short-coming is made up for by the fact it's about Alexei Romanov time-traveling to the present and struggling to fit into modern society. My three favorite plots:
1. Romanovs.
2. Time travel
3. Someone from another time period/world trying to fit into our own
I don't think I need to get into any more of this review, because it'll just be me gushing over it excessively! I was quite glad I read this book, and even though a lot of facts were purposely made inaccurate, this author has a clear respect for the Romanov dynasty, so it was easy for me to overlook.
So, I suppose I'll see everyone in whatever my next review happens to be on?
September 21, 2012
I’ll admit it. Whenever I hear about the Romanovs, the first thing I usually think of is Anastasia. And shortly after this initial thought I’m usually humming the familiar sounds of “dancing bears and painted wings and things I almost remember…” I can’t help it. I’m guilty! I think it was based on this awkwardness that when I spotted The Curse of the Romanovs by Staton Rabin in the library, I immediately picked it up. I do believe that part of me was hoping for another Anastasia type mystery story questioning her survival but, what I came out with was something much more than that.
December 12, 2008
It was suspenseful but unrealistic (and at some points frustratingly so).
What I liked most was that the author explained his research his author's note, general note, historical note (what's true, what's not), and calendar notes - which was great for me as an adult and could also motivate a young adult (this book is classified as "young adult fiction") to do further research.
---------------------------------------------------------------
"I think that if doesn't matter who betrayed her. Happiness is fleeting and must be grabbed with both hands while it lasts. Even a brief moment of it can be worth all the suffering in the world."
What I liked most was that the author explained his research his author's note, general note, historical note (what's true, what's not), and calendar notes - which was great for me as an adult and could also motivate a young adult (this book is classified as "young adult fiction") to do further research.
---------------------------------------------------------------
"I think that if doesn't matter who betrayed her. Happiness is fleeting and must be grabbed with both hands while it lasts. Even a brief moment of it can be worth all the suffering in the world."
May 16, 2012
I picked this up at an outlet store for $3, despite it being a YA novel. I've always been intrigued by the fall of Imperial Russia so I figured it might be a fun read.
Time travel notwithstanding, I felt the events were far-fetched and contrived. For a book recommended to ages 12 and up, I thought the writing was a little immature. I wouldn't recommend this for anyone above the seventh grade.
Still, the author included several pages of factual information at the end, pointing out her own inventions. Hopefully, the book will inspire readers to learn more about the history itself.
Time travel notwithstanding, I felt the events were far-fetched and contrived. For a book recommended to ages 12 and up, I thought the writing was a little immature. I wouldn't recommend this for anyone above the seventh grade.
Still, the author included several pages of factual information at the end, pointing out her own inventions. Hopefully, the book will inspire readers to learn more about the history itself.
October 9, 2014
Although not so superbly written, read The Curse of the Romanovs for the concept and the sincerity that Rabin conveys so well.
The Curse of the Romanovs cuts lots of historical detail short with its vivid reimaginations and what ifs and definitely isn't for the serious reader. Unless.... you wait till the very end for the historical and medical notes, which is thoroughly researched.
Highly recommended as an introduction to the end of the Romanov period. Fox's Anastasia animation is also pretty great too!
3 stars
The Curse of the Romanovs cuts lots of historical detail short with its vivid reimaginations and what ifs and definitely isn't for the serious reader. Unless.... you wait till the very end for the historical and medical notes, which is thoroughly researched.
Highly recommended as an introduction to the end of the Romanov period. Fox's Anastasia animation is also pretty great too!
3 stars
November 10, 2007
I've never before read a book about the Romanovs for kids. Of course, just the subject matter makes it interesting to me! I knocked off one star just because there were a couple parts that seemed a little contrived AND there was one part involving Rasputin that I absolutely did not like at all. Even so, I think this book does an excellent job relating the history of what happened to the Romanovs and I can't wait 'til I get a chance to booktalk this novel to my teens!
February 18, 2013
I FINALLY FOUND THE BOOK THAT I WAS TRYING TO REMEMBER I READ WAY BACK WHEN IN 7TH GRADE AND THIS IS THE BOOK. :D
I'm usually not into historical fiction but there was something that drew me into this story and made it good! And I loved the ending! :D
It's Recommended. And you can get some historical background on the Romanovs.
I'm usually not into historical fiction but there was something that drew me into this story and made it good! And I loved the ending! :D
It's Recommended. And you can get some historical background on the Romanovs.
April 17, 2017
There was a line comparing a girl's emotions to the quickly changing weather in Moscow.
It wasn't my favorite, even having just moved to Moscow and wanting some fiction to bring the story closer to me. Just not as special as I wanted it to be.
It wasn't my favorite, even having just moved to Moscow and wanting some fiction to bring the story closer to me. Just not as special as I wanted it to be.
January 31, 2008
Brilliantly accurate in its potrayal... and yet so enlightening
March 26, 2008
Wow! A friend recommended this book and I thought I wouldn't like it that much, but I really like it!
Want to Read
June 18, 2008five stars...i hope! Havn't read it yet, but love the story of Anastasia and the Romanovs...
November 21, 2010
The best part of this book? The historical notes at the end! Those I thoroughly enjoyed. The rest, not so much.
December 20, 2014
This book is amazing!! I was really surprised.
March 25, 2010
Alexei Romanov, hemophiliac son of last-Tsar Nicholas, learns time-travel from Rasputin. Fun YoungAdult/tween history/scifi mashup...
May 12, 2015
I loved the book! So sad at the end but a book i could not put down.
May 28, 2012
Great idea with the time travel, but then sloppy execution with home DNA testing and identifying cousins and hemophilia. If it only was that easy.
August 4, 2013
I really enjoyed the modern twist spun on the historical tale of the Romanovs. The ending definitely surprised me, and left me wanting more.
November 23, 2015
Not a bad read. Rasputin, royal family, and time travel? A weirdly cool mix!
February 16, 2025
Yes, I know, I know, this book has some serious problems, I'm not denying that; there's definitely several reasons it misses the five-star mark. But much to my surprise, I did find more to love than to loathe in this! My enjoyment level here was way higher than I expected, despite its many issues, and I've got to admit that overall I liked it a lot and that the more I think about it the more positively I feel towards it.
Also, before I get into this, I should probably mention the timing in which I've chosen to give this another chance. I've only recently finished the nightmare fuel that was Sophie Lark's Anastasia and so my Romanov accuracy outrage meter is at an all time low while my tolerance for made up BS is fairly high at the moment. There's only so much genuine disgust over the bastardization of history I can muster up at this point, as nothing can now shock me. And at least "Curse of The Romanovs" has a kick-arse, detailed author's note explaining what's real and what's not and really showing the level of research that went into this book. This went a looong way towards winning me over, unlike Lark's author note which only made me MORE furious.
Now let's get what I didn't like out of the way before I venture into its better aspects.
First and foremost, making Rasputin Alexei's father was the STUPIDEST plot-twist EVER (or should I say "eva"?). Not only is it a slap in the face to history (and to poor Alexandra Romanova!) but the reveal is just lame. Rasputin is basically like "Alexei, child, you're my son!" And Alexei be all, "Not-uh!" And Rasputin is like "Look in the mirror, we both have blue eyes! It's proof I'm your father!" Alexei: "ehmagawd! He's right!"
Me reading this nonsense: Alexei, sweetie, you're aware you're RUSSIAN right? Lots of you have blue eyes! Including the tsar...
(Not to mention, if your novel's plot depends on Alexei being illegitimate, maybe DON'T include a detailed life-like drawing of the kid that to any creature with eyeballs plainly shows his obvious resemblance to his cousin Irina who's related to him FROM HIS FATHER'S side of the family?!?!)
All I'm saying is somebody needs to get these two on Maury because I smell a rat.
(Although let's be real, if this book ended on the Maury show with Rasputin running off the stage in tears and Alexandra screaming "I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU!" At tsar Nicholas' family, while a bunch of Russian peasants gasped in the front row, I'd HAVE to give this five stars for sheer epicness, wouldn't I?)
But, yeah, the whole relationship between Rasputin and Alexei in this was way too "Boy Named Sue" for me...
🎵 I threw down my gun
I called him my pa, and he called me his son, and I
come away with a different point of view 🎶
Just no.
Contrariwise, I DID like the way Rabin wrote the relationship between Gilliard and Alexei and how she tweaked history so that they got a proper goodbye and Gilliard protected his diary. I even sort of liked the (wildly improbable) relationships between Alexei and Felix Yusupov and Alexei and that ballet dancer guy.
Though I try my best not to ponder too much on the fact that so much of the plot was set in place because Alexei was all "Okay, bye, Ma, I'm sleeping over Felix's house."
And instead of a realistic response from Alexandra who would have told him "like hell you are, get your arse back in this palace!" she was basically like, "Eh... Okay. Gilliard talked me into it. Somehow... Have fun killing Rasputin! See you in two years!"
Interestingly, despite most of this being a pure time travel fantasy with very little accuracy for the historical bits, there are a few clever nuggets tossed in, for example the name Alexei uses at the end (more on that ending later because it's a real kick to the guts) is the name of a real-life imposter and there IS supposedly a missing diary Alexei wrote in 1917 the public has never seen so it's neat to imagine him hiding a secret book for his tutor in the house of special purpose.
The writing itself, at least when it comes to the prose, is admittedly often mediocre, and it's obvious the author has a background in television as her dialogue is usually what stands out and sparkles while her narrative is just sort of THERE. Her essay skills are actually wonderful (I loved the way the notes at the end were written and arranged), but the book itself isn't exactly elegant or beautiful so much as serviceable. But because the story IS engaging and the dialogue IS in fact so snappy and engrossing and the pace is so breakneck at times, this would have made an EXCELLENT movie in my opinion. This is the time travel Romanov movie we should have gotten instead of the hypnotically bonkers "Anastasia: Once Upon a Time". I actually think, despite Robert Alexander's The Kitchen Boy being one of the best Romanov books ever written, THIS would be superior to it in terms of how well it could be adapted to screen. It's got that 90s/early 2000s fish out of water comedy vibe with a dark, sad edge.
Also, kudos to Rabin for keeping her first person prose, lackluster though it might have been at times, on track with the plot and never veering off irrelevant crap like other Romanov fiction I've read recently has...
The fish out of water humour (very reminiscent of films like Hocus Pocus, Prince Charming, and Kate & Leopold), while it can be very blink and you'll miss the joke entirely, was legitimately funny and got more than a few chuckles out of me.
Particularly the desperate housewives revolution gag (though it is strange that Alexei shows more genuine emotions over a Desperate Housewives billboard than over learning Rasputin is his father, but I digress) and this chuckle-worthy gem:
"I showed her the newspaper. “‘Paris Hilton Caught in Sex Scandal,’” she read, shrugging. “So what else is new?” “No—this one.” "
I was a little on the fence about the whole Alexei/Varda romance, not so much because they're technically cousins (that won't stop my inner shipper; my favorite classic novel is Mansfield Park for pity's sake), or the age difference, more because at first I found their interactions less than believable, even for a hokey low-brow time travel romp. Who tells their whole life story and shares every detail of their scientific research with a complete stranger? But as the book went on they really did grow on me. I came to enjoy some of their later interactions after the clunky introduction and plot exposition lines were finished with.
Lines such as "Just ice-skating, with a guy who thinks he’s ruler of the universe…." and “Hey, Romeo, you’re too young for me, remember?” “What if I told you I am one hundred and six years old?” “I would say you’re pretty spry for an old guy,” definitely had me grinning and wanting nice things for both of them; they're such cute kids.
I also weirdly LOVED the scene where Alexei bumps himself and has a bleeding attack and he thinks he has to be quiet and Varda just lets him scream his whole head off. That may be one of the most cathartic things I've ever read in my life.
Their general likableness actually made the cringe of "iluvu4eva" bearable and not half as bad as I remembered/expected.
One thing I wish Rabin had bothered to explain that really bugged me was HOW Varda got back to the future from 1918. If a proper explanation was ever given it completely went over my head and I totally missed it. I guess the idea is that because she's blood related to Alexei through his mother's side, she can also will herself to travel through time? But, then, Alexei's magic time powers in this are supposed to come from Rasputin, and I'm pretty sure Varda isn't related to HIM... So... How exactly does that work?
But the more I mull it over the more I wonder if it's an actual plot hole or if we're not told that because we only get Varda's POV at the end, when she's already home, and Alexei (who narrated the rest of the book, supposedly the diary the Gilliard family keeps for Varda) simply didn't know. In which case this book might be way more brilliant than I gave it credit for.
Now, I guess I can't avoid talking about the ending...
That damn ending.
Varda is at a hemophilia conference where she meets the world's oldest hemophiliac, a one hundred and six year old man in a wheelchair who can just barely keep conscious. The man insists he's Alexei and that he survived the basement massacre, but Varda doesn't believe him. He seems to fall asleep again after telling his story, only when Varda tries to wake him, she realizes he's stopped breathing. His hand opens as he dies and an object falls out: Varda's cellphone. With a bullet lodged in it.
This twist in and of itself wasn't super surprising. It MIGHT have been if not for this obvious moment of foreshadowing early on:
“This is a telephone. It’s lightweight to carry around, but superstrong—it’s made of Kevlar, the same stuff they make bulletproof vests from."
Geez, I WONDER what's gonna stop the bullet?
And while the fact that Varda didn't recognize him/believe his story was indeed sad, what REALLY got to me was one part of the old man's story in particular: he was in an insane asylum after surviving and was only released after he changed his name and because of scientific interest in him being so old with a disease that usually kills its victims young. Which means this poor little boy was locked up for HIS ENTIRE LIFE (at least 80 or 90 years!) until he was on death's door, unable to escape, and he FINALLY finds his cousin and she doesn't believe it's him.
Good God, that's insanely depressing!
Especially when you consider he already lost almost two years of his life via time travel.
(I mean, jebus man, at least the old version of Alexei in Mirror Mirror got to run an antique shop in relative peace! Compared to this old Alexei he had it made!)
In her excellent author note, Rabin says she decided to have him survive because she found it hard to write about him dying. Which I get, for sure, but how on earth did she manage to choose the one ending almost as bad as him dying that night in 1918?!
I haven't gotten to read the book about the life of the real "Vasily Filatov" yet (I did buy a used copy but there was a page ripped out, hopefully not an important one, but I haven't sat down and read it), but I'm fairly certain he wasn't in a madhouse for 80 years and was actually a successful teacher in a village somewhere... So why his fictional counterpart suffered so much I dunno.
But, then again, thinking it over, I'm wondering if this is secretly genius. How many books give Anna Anderson a happy ending she never had in real life and portray her as being recognized as Anastasia; if this is meant to be the reverse of that, a Romanov imposter who had an okay life in reality but got a fictional tragedy, that might actually be a brilliant trope subversion!
And I think that's what really works well about this book, at a glance it's simplistic, hokey, tragic, even a little dumb, but it has sparkling facets and odd depths to it the more you mull it over.
The Rasputin father plot unfortunately makes this pretty ridiculous, but if you can get past that, I definitely recommend this book to fans of "Risked" or "Mirror Mirror" or even Nadine Brandes' Romanov. Aforementioned Rasputin nonsense aside, I'd go so far as to argue it's a superior novel to The Fetch (in plot, if not prose) and I personally enjoyed this one more than the former.
And if like myself you were put off by the Sophie Lark Anastasia novel you might find a lot to like here! It uses some of the same tropes to slightly better effect, the pacing is better, there's no smut, the love interest isn't a horrible human being and if the plot conveniences do hit you over the head a bit, the message doesn't which is pretty refreshing.
I think the latter half of "Curse of the Romanovs" (after Varda is in 1918) is more the sort of story I was hoping for when I read Jackson Pearce's Tsarina, so if that book disappointed you too, again this book might just perk you back up.
It's not perfect, and maybe the four stars are a little excessive, but I decided to rate this purely based on my enjoyment level this time around, and frankly I'm just glad a book like this (for all its flaws) exists. We need more creative and thoughtful books like this in the world right now. I'm glad too that there is supposedly going to be a new print run of this in 2030, and I hope we get an audiobook release for it too. I'd be very curious to see who would be picked as a narrator for that if we finally do!
To sum up:
Flawed, but underrated and rather enjoyable and a surprisingly emotional read!
Also, before I get into this, I should probably mention the timing in which I've chosen to give this another chance. I've only recently finished the nightmare fuel that was Sophie Lark's Anastasia and so my Romanov accuracy outrage meter is at an all time low while my tolerance for made up BS is fairly high at the moment. There's only so much genuine disgust over the bastardization of history I can muster up at this point, as nothing can now shock me. And at least "Curse of The Romanovs" has a kick-arse, detailed author's note explaining what's real and what's not and really showing the level of research that went into this book. This went a looong way towards winning me over, unlike Lark's author note which only made me MORE furious.
Now let's get what I didn't like out of the way before I venture into its better aspects.
First and foremost, making Rasputin Alexei's father was the STUPIDEST plot-twist EVER (or should I say "eva"?). Not only is it a slap in the face to history (and to poor Alexandra Romanova!) but the reveal is just lame. Rasputin is basically like "Alexei, child, you're my son!" And Alexei be all, "Not-uh!" And Rasputin is like "Look in the mirror, we both have blue eyes! It's proof I'm your father!" Alexei: "ehmagawd! He's right!"
Me reading this nonsense: Alexei, sweetie, you're aware you're RUSSIAN right? Lots of you have blue eyes! Including the tsar...
(Not to mention, if your novel's plot depends on Alexei being illegitimate, maybe DON'T include a detailed life-like drawing of the kid that to any creature with eyeballs plainly shows his obvious resemblance to his cousin Irina who's related to him FROM HIS FATHER'S side of the family?!?!)
All I'm saying is somebody needs to get these two on Maury because I smell a rat.
(Although let's be real, if this book ended on the Maury show with Rasputin running off the stage in tears and Alexandra screaming "I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU!" At tsar Nicholas' family, while a bunch of Russian peasants gasped in the front row, I'd HAVE to give this five stars for sheer epicness, wouldn't I?)
But, yeah, the whole relationship between Rasputin and Alexei in this was way too "Boy Named Sue" for me...
🎵 I threw down my gun
I called him my pa, and he called me his son, and I
come away with a different point of view 🎶
Just no.
Contrariwise, I DID like the way Rabin wrote the relationship between Gilliard and Alexei and how she tweaked history so that they got a proper goodbye and Gilliard protected his diary. I even sort of liked the (wildly improbable) relationships between Alexei and Felix Yusupov and Alexei and that ballet dancer guy.
Though I try my best not to ponder too much on the fact that so much of the plot was set in place because Alexei was all "Okay, bye, Ma, I'm sleeping over Felix's house."
And instead of a realistic response from Alexandra who would have told him "like hell you are, get your arse back in this palace!" she was basically like, "Eh... Okay. Gilliard talked me into it. Somehow... Have fun killing Rasputin! See you in two years!"
Interestingly, despite most of this being a pure time travel fantasy with very little accuracy for the historical bits, there are a few clever nuggets tossed in, for example the name Alexei uses at the end (more on that ending later because it's a real kick to the guts) is the name of a real-life imposter and there IS supposedly a missing diary Alexei wrote in 1917 the public has never seen so it's neat to imagine him hiding a secret book for his tutor in the house of special purpose.
The writing itself, at least when it comes to the prose, is admittedly often mediocre, and it's obvious the author has a background in television as her dialogue is usually what stands out and sparkles while her narrative is just sort of THERE. Her essay skills are actually wonderful (I loved the way the notes at the end were written and arranged), but the book itself isn't exactly elegant or beautiful so much as serviceable. But because the story IS engaging and the dialogue IS in fact so snappy and engrossing and the pace is so breakneck at times, this would have made an EXCELLENT movie in my opinion. This is the time travel Romanov movie we should have gotten instead of the hypnotically bonkers "Anastasia: Once Upon a Time". I actually think, despite Robert Alexander's The Kitchen Boy being one of the best Romanov books ever written, THIS would be superior to it in terms of how well it could be adapted to screen. It's got that 90s/early 2000s fish out of water comedy vibe with a dark, sad edge.
Also, kudos to Rabin for keeping her first person prose, lackluster though it might have been at times, on track with the plot and never veering off irrelevant crap like other Romanov fiction I've read recently has...
The fish out of water humour (very reminiscent of films like Hocus Pocus, Prince Charming, and Kate & Leopold), while it can be very blink and you'll miss the joke entirely, was legitimately funny and got more than a few chuckles out of me.
Particularly the desperate housewives revolution gag (though it is strange that Alexei shows more genuine emotions over a Desperate Housewives billboard than over learning Rasputin is his father, but I digress) and this chuckle-worthy gem:
"I showed her the newspaper. “‘Paris Hilton Caught in Sex Scandal,’” she read, shrugging. “So what else is new?” “No—this one.” "
I was a little on the fence about the whole Alexei/Varda romance, not so much because they're technically cousins (that won't stop my inner shipper; my favorite classic novel is Mansfield Park for pity's sake), or the age difference, more because at first I found their interactions less than believable, even for a hokey low-brow time travel romp. Who tells their whole life story and shares every detail of their scientific research with a complete stranger? But as the book went on they really did grow on me. I came to enjoy some of their later interactions after the clunky introduction and plot exposition lines were finished with.
Lines such as "Just ice-skating, with a guy who thinks he’s ruler of the universe…." and “Hey, Romeo, you’re too young for me, remember?” “What if I told you I am one hundred and six years old?” “I would say you’re pretty spry for an old guy,” definitely had me grinning and wanting nice things for both of them; they're such cute kids.
I also weirdly LOVED the scene where Alexei bumps himself and has a bleeding attack and he thinks he has to be quiet and Varda just lets him scream his whole head off. That may be one of the most cathartic things I've ever read in my life.
Their general likableness actually made the cringe of "iluvu4eva" bearable and not half as bad as I remembered/expected.
One thing I wish Rabin had bothered to explain that really bugged me was HOW Varda got back to the future from 1918. If a proper explanation was ever given it completely went over my head and I totally missed it. I guess the idea is that because she's blood related to Alexei through his mother's side, she can also will herself to travel through time? But, then, Alexei's magic time powers in this are supposed to come from Rasputin, and I'm pretty sure Varda isn't related to HIM... So... How exactly does that work?
But the more I mull it over the more I wonder if it's an actual plot hole or if we're not told that because we only get Varda's POV at the end, when she's already home, and Alexei (who narrated the rest of the book, supposedly the diary the Gilliard family keeps for Varda) simply didn't know. In which case this book might be way more brilliant than I gave it credit for.
Now, I guess I can't avoid talking about the ending...
That damn ending.
Varda is at a hemophilia conference where she meets the world's oldest hemophiliac, a one hundred and six year old man in a wheelchair who can just barely keep conscious. The man insists he's Alexei and that he survived the basement massacre, but Varda doesn't believe him. He seems to fall asleep again after telling his story, only when Varda tries to wake him, she realizes he's stopped breathing. His hand opens as he dies and an object falls out: Varda's cellphone. With a bullet lodged in it.
This twist in and of itself wasn't super surprising. It MIGHT have been if not for this obvious moment of foreshadowing early on:
“This is a telephone. It’s lightweight to carry around, but superstrong—it’s made of Kevlar, the same stuff they make bulletproof vests from."
Geez, I WONDER what's gonna stop the bullet?
And while the fact that Varda didn't recognize him/believe his story was indeed sad, what REALLY got to me was one part of the old man's story in particular: he was in an insane asylum after surviving and was only released after he changed his name and because of scientific interest in him being so old with a disease that usually kills its victims young. Which means this poor little boy was locked up for HIS ENTIRE LIFE (at least 80 or 90 years!) until he was on death's door, unable to escape, and he FINALLY finds his cousin and she doesn't believe it's him.
Good God, that's insanely depressing!
Especially when you consider he already lost almost two years of his life via time travel.
(I mean, jebus man, at least the old version of Alexei in Mirror Mirror got to run an antique shop in relative peace! Compared to this old Alexei he had it made!)
In her excellent author note, Rabin says she decided to have him survive because she found it hard to write about him dying. Which I get, for sure, but how on earth did she manage to choose the one ending almost as bad as him dying that night in 1918?!
I haven't gotten to read the book about the life of the real "Vasily Filatov" yet (I did buy a used copy but there was a page ripped out, hopefully not an important one, but I haven't sat down and read it), but I'm fairly certain he wasn't in a madhouse for 80 years and was actually a successful teacher in a village somewhere... So why his fictional counterpart suffered so much I dunno.
But, then again, thinking it over, I'm wondering if this is secretly genius. How many books give Anna Anderson a happy ending she never had in real life and portray her as being recognized as Anastasia; if this is meant to be the reverse of that, a Romanov imposter who had an okay life in reality but got a fictional tragedy, that might actually be a brilliant trope subversion!
And I think that's what really works well about this book, at a glance it's simplistic, hokey, tragic, even a little dumb, but it has sparkling facets and odd depths to it the more you mull it over.
The Rasputin father plot unfortunately makes this pretty ridiculous, but if you can get past that, I definitely recommend this book to fans of "Risked" or "Mirror Mirror" or even Nadine Brandes' Romanov. Aforementioned Rasputin nonsense aside, I'd go so far as to argue it's a superior novel to The Fetch (in plot, if not prose) and I personally enjoyed this one more than the former.
And if like myself you were put off by the Sophie Lark Anastasia novel you might find a lot to like here! It uses some of the same tropes to slightly better effect, the pacing is better, there's no smut, the love interest isn't a horrible human being and if the plot conveniences do hit you over the head a bit, the message doesn't which is pretty refreshing.
I think the latter half of "Curse of the Romanovs" (after Varda is in 1918) is more the sort of story I was hoping for when I read Jackson Pearce's Tsarina, so if that book disappointed you too, again this book might just perk you back up.
It's not perfect, and maybe the four stars are a little excessive, but I decided to rate this purely based on my enjoyment level this time around, and frankly I'm just glad a book like this (for all its flaws) exists. We need more creative and thoughtful books like this in the world right now. I'm glad too that there is supposedly going to be a new print run of this in 2030, and I hope we get an audiobook release for it too. I'd be very curious to see who would be picked as a narrator for that if we finally do!
To sum up:
Flawed, but underrated and rather enjoyable and a surprisingly emotional read!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 25, 2012
http://theprettygoodgatsby.wordpress....
It's no secret I have a slight obsession with The Romanovs. When I saw this book on a shelf at work, I had some reservations (the cover doesn't appeal to me at all - it's hard to see in the picture, but on the pendant is a very obvious pasted-on portrait of Alexei Romanov, the author was completely unknown to me although that necessarily isn't a bad thing, and the plot seemed a little iffy), but knew one way or another I'd wind up reading it. It's an extremely quick read: the main story is only 247 pages with another 26 pages of author's notes. Had I read it on a day I was off it would have been a great afternoon read. Instead, it took all of two days.
The book opens with Alexei Romanov, heir to the throne of Russia, penning the 'true story' of his family. With a revolution on the horizon, many rumors and false truths are being spread about his family and their treatment of their people.
One thing I thought was really neat about this novel was the way the footnotes were presented. They were added into the margins, rather than the bottom of the page. This made reading much faster. Unfortunately, it seemed that after a few chapters, the footnotes stopped altogether, despite a fair bit of Russian thrown into conversations.
Nynok means belly-button!
♥ I've said it before and I'll say it again: Nicky & Alix = my OTP y'all.
War has hit Russia and the Romanovs are no longer safe. Add to this the threat of Alexei's disease - hemophilia - being discovered. No one outside the palace knows of his affliction and the only one able to heal him is Grigory Rasputin, a monk. For the first half of the book, facts presented followed the actual history quite nicely, which I enjoyed. Then the odd time-travel aspect came into play.
Rasputin lets Alexei in on a little secret: Alexei only has to close his eyes and concentrate and he'll travel through the waters of time (pretty literally in fact). However, he must only travel with his mind. Should he travel with his body, he will become stuck and unable to return home.
After as assassination attempt gone wrong (it's actually really fascinating reading about all the tries made to end Rasputin's life. The man seriously could not be killed!), Alexei finds himself at the river's edge with a none-too-pleased monk.
Alexei awakens to discover he did not drown like he had assumed. In fact, there is a strange girl kissing him. After a few confused moments, he finds out that the girl was not kissing him, she was simply administering CPR and he is in America. New York to be precise.
Varda, the girl who rescued him from the river, insists on taking him to a nearby hospital. However, Alexei adamantly refuses; no one can ever know the tsarevitch is unwell. In the end, she offers to take him to her house instead and it is at this point the book lost me.
From the very first page Alexei informed the reader he is writing in English in the event his notebook were to fall into enemy hands. The tsarina was Queen Victoria's granddaughter and she grew up speaking English. She spoke exclusively in English to her children. Alexei's writing for the first half of the book was fine, fluent. The moment he found himself in New York, however, his English (both his writing and his speech) became very stunted and broken. While it wasn't hard to understand him, I had a difficult time believing it. There are stacks of letters that Nicholas & Alix wrote to one another (that still survive to this day) that were in English. The fact that Alexei's English would suddenly be anything but fluent didn't sit right with me.
I also had a difficult time believing that Varda, a regular 15 year old girl, would have the resources to conduct her own experiments on gene therapy and have a possible cure for hemophilia. When she finds Alexei, she tells him she's set to attend a hemophilia conference where she'll announce her findings. This girl is fifteen. And with all of her 'likes' and 'dudes' thrown into her sentences, I just don't see this girl being the brilliant scientist she's purported to be.
Varda understandable doesn't believe that the boy before her is actually the tsarevitch of Russia who was murdered in 1918. However, she whips out her handy dandy science lab and runs a DNA test. Surprise! He actually is a Romanov! Double surprise! So is Varda. The two are distant cousins, but true love laughs in the face of genetics. The day after they meet, Alexei has breakfast with Varda's mother and mentions wanting to marry Varda. Yeah.
Alexei attends school with Varda one day and nearly has a meltdown in history class. The subject of the day is Russian history, specifically the revolution. Because Alexei had left his time a few years previously, he was unaware of the "new" revolution and is horrified upon finding out the tsar and his family were brutally murdered.
There's a random subplot thrown in with Rasputin. He somehow survived and follows Alexei through time. He appears at Varda's school and disguises himself as a janitor. Later - and I didn't like this part at all - he pulls the "I am your father" card with Alexei.
The pair go back in time and attempt to rescue the Romanovs. Alexei and Varda wind up getting separated, but they still have their phones and Alexei is the one to text that lovely declaration of love. There was much eye-rolling on my part.
I won't give away the ending, but I will say that part of me was surprised. I could see the story going two ways and I guess I subconsciously hadn't wanted what actually happened to happen. But it did and that's what the reader is left to deal with.
There were many overly cheesey parts in The Curse of the Romanovs, but it was an extremely quick read and the first half was far more enjoyable - and based in fact! The second half didn't appeal to me nearly as much and I had to push myself to get through certain scenes. The author has a few other books - none of them dealing with the Romanovs it seems - but I don't think I'll be reading any of them.
Favorite Quotes:
I was born in 1904 and on my nynok the fate of Mother Russia was written.
It's no secret I have a slight obsession with The Romanovs. When I saw this book on a shelf at work, I had some reservations (the cover doesn't appeal to me at all - it's hard to see in the picture, but on the pendant is a very obvious pasted-on portrait of Alexei Romanov, the author was completely unknown to me although that necessarily isn't a bad thing, and the plot seemed a little iffy), but knew one way or another I'd wind up reading it. It's an extremely quick read: the main story is only 247 pages with another 26 pages of author's notes. Had I read it on a day I was off it would have been a great afternoon read. Instead, it took all of two days.
The book opens with Alexei Romanov, heir to the throne of Russia, penning the 'true story' of his family. With a revolution on the horizon, many rumors and false truths are being spread about his family and their treatment of their people.
One thing I thought was really neat about this novel was the way the footnotes were presented. They were added into the margins, rather than the bottom of the page. This made reading much faster. Unfortunately, it seemed that after a few chapters, the footnotes stopped altogether, despite a fair bit of Russian thrown into conversations.
Nynok means belly-button!
Just then Papa's face lit up in an angel's smile. And I knew that my mother must have walked into the room.
Only she could make him smile like that.
♥ I've said it before and I'll say it again: Nicky & Alix = my OTP y'all.
War has hit Russia and the Romanovs are no longer safe. Add to this the threat of Alexei's disease - hemophilia - being discovered. No one outside the palace knows of his affliction and the only one able to heal him is Grigory Rasputin, a monk. For the first half of the book, facts presented followed the actual history quite nicely, which I enjoyed. Then the odd time-travel aspect came into play.
Rasputin lets Alexei in on a little secret: Alexei only has to close his eyes and concentrate and he'll travel through the waters of time (pretty literally in fact). However, he must only travel with his mind. Should he travel with his body, he will become stuck and unable to return home.
After as assassination attempt gone wrong (it's actually really fascinating reading about all the tries made to end Rasputin's life. The man seriously could not be killed!), Alexei finds himself at the river's edge with a none-too-pleased monk.
"Look, you can use this to reach me anytime you want. You listen here, and you talk here. Just press this button and it'll ring the spare phone I've got on me. You know - 'telephone?'"
"Of course I know telephone! I am not from Stone Age!"
Alexei awakens to discover he did not drown like he had assumed. In fact, there is a strange girl kissing him. After a few confused moments, he finds out that the girl was not kissing him, she was simply administering CPR and he is in America. New York to be precise.
Varda, the girl who rescued him from the river, insists on taking him to a nearby hospital. However, Alexei adamantly refuses; no one can ever know the tsarevitch is unwell. In the end, she offers to take him to her house instead and it is at this point the book lost me.
From the very first page Alexei informed the reader he is writing in English in the event his notebook were to fall into enemy hands. The tsarina was Queen Victoria's granddaughter and she grew up speaking English. She spoke exclusively in English to her children. Alexei's writing for the first half of the book was fine, fluent. The moment he found himself in New York, however, his English (both his writing and his speech) became very stunted and broken. While it wasn't hard to understand him, I had a difficult time believing it. There are stacks of letters that Nicholas & Alix wrote to one another (that still survive to this day) that were in English. The fact that Alexei's English would suddenly be anything but fluent didn't sit right with me.
I also had a difficult time believing that Varda, a regular 15 year old girl, would have the resources to conduct her own experiments on gene therapy and have a possible cure for hemophilia. When she finds Alexei, she tells him she's set to attend a hemophilia conference where she'll announce her findings. This girl is fifteen. And with all of her 'likes' and 'dudes' thrown into her sentences, I just don't see this girl being the brilliant scientist she's purported to be.
"ILUVU4EVA."
Varda understandable doesn't believe that the boy before her is actually the tsarevitch of Russia who was murdered in 1918. However, she whips out her handy dandy science lab and runs a DNA test. Surprise! He actually is a Romanov! Double surprise! So is Varda. The two are distant cousins, but true love laughs in the face of genetics. The day after they meet, Alexei has breakfast with Varda's mother and mentions wanting to marry Varda. Yeah.
Alexei attends school with Varda one day and nearly has a meltdown in history class. The subject of the day is Russian history, specifically the revolution. Because Alexei had left his time a few years previously, he was unaware of the "new" revolution and is horrified upon finding out the tsar and his family were brutally murdered.
There's a random subplot thrown in with Rasputin. He somehow survived and follows Alexei through time. He appears at Varda's school and disguises himself as a janitor. Later - and I didn't like this part at all - he pulls the "I am your father" card with Alexei.
The pair go back in time and attempt to rescue the Romanovs. Alexei and Varda wind up getting separated, but they still have their phones and Alexei is the one to text that lovely declaration of love. There was much eye-rolling on my part.
I won't give away the ending, but I will say that part of me was surprised. I could see the story going two ways and I guess I subconsciously hadn't wanted what actually happened to happen. But it did and that's what the reader is left to deal with.
There were many overly cheesey parts in The Curse of the Romanovs, but it was an extremely quick read and the first half was far more enjoyable - and based in fact! The second half didn't appeal to me nearly as much and I had to push myself to get through certain scenes. The author has a few other books - none of them dealing with the Romanovs it seems - but I don't think I'll be reading any of them.
Favorite Quotes:
"They will think I'm a coward if I don't fight! Father Grigory's son is a soldier! How can we ask the people to send their sons if you won't send yours?"
"Romanov family trust me some day to run whole country. I think you can trust me with telephone."
Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews