The Tsarina's Daughter - Carolly Erickson

[Sarushka]

Erickson has written some historical fiction already. I've not read it myself, but the reviews are decidedly mixed:

Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette
Last Wife of Henry VIII

[Joyann1]

im not a fan of those  fictional novels but... i love to read about tatiana so im definetly going to read it.

[helenazar]

Erickson has written some historical fiction already. I've not read it myself, but the reviews are decidedly mixed:

Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette
Last Wife of Henry VIII

I read both and thought they were ok... Nothing to write home about. But I kind of think she is a better fiction writer than non-fiction.

[helenazar]

Well, The Tsarina's Daughter does appear to be historical fiction! Hopefully it will be good, I'm quite excited!

Oh yes, it definitely is fiction, it says "novel" on the cover.

[Lalee]

I actually have The Hidden Diary Of Marie Antoinette and I'm going to start reading it very soon.

I've noticed that Carolly Erickson's historical fiction is often written in first-person, like in the form of a diary - so maybe this will be a fictional diary of Tatiana, perhaps....

[Divia]

The Hidden Diary was written in first person and in the form of a diary.
The last wife of Henry VIII wass in first person but not in diary format
The Secret life of Josephine was in first person as well, but not in diary format.

Hidden Diary was OK. Main drawback for me was that it was written in diary format. I didn't think this suited the story. The Last Wife of Henry VIII was my fav. I enjoyed that a lot. The Secret life of Josephine was rubbish and quite bad. I hope this book is far better than her last attempt. She is churning them out quickly enough, which makes me worried. Still, I hope its good becuase there is so little HF when it comes to Russia.

[Lalee]

I have just only finished reading The Hidden Diary Of Marie Antoinette. I thought it was quite a good read, just may have been slightly better, but nonetheless, it was lovely. I am actually wondering how long it took Ms Erickson to write The Tsarina's Daughter, because her last novel was published not so long ago. But I love reading historical fiction and it is exciting to see that a book on Tatiana Nicholaievna (who isn't as often written about as her sisters Anastasia and sometimes Olga) will be released in four months - so this book is definitely on my wish list!

[Divia]

As previously stated, I am worried about the quality of this book. LIke you noted it didnt take her long to write her fourth book, and I believe The secret life of Josephine came out last summer. I'm hoping the book came easily to her and thats why it was written so quickly. *prays*

If you like histoircal fiction have you gone over to historicalfiction.org. There is a forum there where we discuss HF. I love that place, since I only read HF and Victorian nonfiction.

[helenazar]

I have just only finished reading The Hidden Diary Of Marie Antoinette. I thought it was quite a good read...   

You may try "Abundance" if you haven't read it already, I thought it was better than The Hidden Diary... http://www.amazon.com/Abundance-Novel-Marie-Antoinette-P-S/dp/0060825405/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211162295&sr=1-1

[Louis_Charles]

I have just only finished reading The Hidden Diary Of Marie Antoinette. I thought it was quite a good read...   

You may try "Abundance" if you haven't read it already, I thought it was better than The Hidden Diary... http://www.amazon.com/Abundance-Novel-Marie-Antoinette-P-S/dp/0060825405/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211162295&sr=1-1

I agree with Helen; Abundance was a terrific read, and the last page --- the last sentence, really --- wonderful.

[Lalee]

Thank you Helen and Louis, for the suggestion. I will definitely keep an eye out for that book.

[Divia]

I read this over at "reading the Past"   http://readingthepast.blogspot.com/  Purist might not like it, but eh I'm cool with it, if the story is written well.

A couple posts back, people were wondering what Carolly Erickson's The Tsarina's Daughter was about. According to St. Martin's Press's fall catalog, it is indeed about Tatiana - the cover told the truth for a change - and is what I'd properly call an alternate history, although it's not labeled as such. The blurb begins as follows: "Daria Gradov is an elderly grandmother living in the rural West in the 1980s. What neighbors and even her children don't know, however, is she began her life as the Grand Duchess Tatiana, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra..." Then it describes her romance with a young soldier.

[helenazar]

I read this over at "reading the Past"   http://readingthepast.blogspot.com/  Purist might not like it, but eh I'm cool with it, if the story is written well.

Well, now that it looks like the remains for all the girls are accounted for the premise of this book loses something.. But for pure entertainment value it may be fun to read (as long as the author doesn't try to pass it off as non-fiction)...

[Sarushka]

But for pure entertainment value it may be fun to read (as long as the author doesn't try to pass it off as non-fiction)...

I don't see how she possibly could -- as you yourself pointed out, it says "A Novel" right on the cover.

[helenazar]

But for pure entertainment value it may be fun to read (as long as the author doesn't try to pass it off as non-fiction)...

I don't see how she possibly could -- as you yourself pointed out, it says "A Novel" right on the cover.

If you read my comment more carefully you would see that I didn't imply that I thought she could or would try to pass it off as non-fiction, I said that the book would be entertaining as long as she didn't - which of course she does not...