I think if you are writing a historical novel you can invent things, but where real people are involved you have to stay in keeping with what is known about them. In my novel I do have some scenes involving the Imperial Family (my fictitious hero briefly finds himself becoming ADC to the Tsarevich). Alexei is rather a brat (he decides he must have an ADC!) but is frustrated at not being allowed to do normal boyish things like riding a bike, and wants his ADC to teach him how to use a revolver. Olga is rather serious, Tatiana a bit bossy, and Marie and Anastasia a bit silly - Marie wants the hero to show her how to do the tango when he is inveigled into partnering her during a dancing lesson. I am presuming that the girls did have a dancing mistress and that Baroness Buxhoeveden played the piano.
Going back to points made earlier, what happened to the girls was quite unpleasant enough without having to invent anything.
Ann
Personally, since i'm writing specifically on the IF i'm sure i can invent only when history have some little wholes. I see my own writing job like embroidering where history can't explain. To make me understand: i'm becoming quite mad because i always want to go into details. I only write about 2 months & a half, and i want to be as much precise as i can be. I'm buying mass of books about IF to go into details, even if the way i write is difficult to satisfy. I'm conscious i'm maybe too detailed, but that's the only way i know &love. I want pass my needle into history's wholes but carefully - i could broke the texture! One must be as reliable as possible even when inventing where history lacks. I do not like when author invent almost everything...
Writing historical fiction is an immensely hard thing to do, because you want to create a good story, but you can't stray too far from the facts, because there will always be history fanatics (such as ourselves) being picky about details. However, huge mistakes and imaginings such as these are just unforgivable and really ruin such a fascinating, but tragic story.
If people want to create good historical fiction, a lot of research into events
and people and their emotions is required. This author seemed to have researched the story well until you read huge errors, like the girls governess travelling with them, when she had been dismissed years before the story was set. He also paid no attention to the real characters and created his own.
We are hugely lucky that there are some brilliant authors out there who can write historically accurately for our enjoyment and also that we can identify such errors, as there are some who will take them as fact.
(P.S Thank you for clearing up that the quotes were imagined. It does seem feasible and would explain the exaggeration.)