I found my copy of "The Romanov Sisters" in the mailbox a few days ago. I receive books almost every day, but this was one of those rare occasions where I unwrap it, flip through it, begin to read it, and am unable to put it down. I've read through Chapter 11, and cannot say how much I'm enjoying this book. The writing is great, and it's a rare page where I don't come across an intriguing new detail about the four sisters that I have not read in 40 years of reading about this family. The book offers a wonderful new perspective on the day to day lives of the sisters, their relationships with one another and with their mother, and their views of the outside world. The author cuts through the idealism and romanticism generally surrounding these four young women and presents them as very human, oftentimes even coarsely so.
The book also clarifies a hodgepodge of well-known but seemingly unrelated details, and ties many of them together in ways that offer continuity and help bring the family eerily to life. For example, I've watched the b&w footage of the girls helping their mother distribute Easter eggs at Livadia in 1912, and have read about the 1912 Tsarevich egg, but have never thought of the two together. How interesting it is to think of the moving footage, and know at the same time that Alexandra had opened the egg the night before. All must have marveled at it, and perhaps one or more of the girls were even thinking about it while they were being filmed distributing eggs that morning.
I do have one question. On page 130 the author describes "the old summer palace of Livadia, 53 miles south" of Yalta. Then, on page 153, she describes Yalta as being 2 miles from Livadia Palace. Am I missing something?
