I read the Coryne Hall book recently and greatly enjoyed it. It gives a good description of the differences between Alexandra and Marie F.I think it's one of the top Romanov books. It doesn't say Alexander III was an alcholic. It states drink contributed to his death a bit- which was from nephritis. Alexander III didn't have a drinking issue- that was something that was a common inaccurate belief in the Soviet era, wasn't it? I don't feel this book says he had a drinking issue per se, although it states that some drinking may have played some role in his death. It doesn't ruin the book though, or play much of a role in the book. Overall, Alexander III is portrayed in a positive way here. There might be some inaccuracies describing his death scene- but it doesn't mar the book.
The book is quite accurate in it's description of the Imperial family's lives and personalities, and gives a an excellent overview of MF's life. It's kind of expensive sometimes, but it really should be more widely read. I had read Coryne Hall's other book about Xzenia and found it somewhat boring- the style wasn't that interesting. This book is totally different- very fast, interesting, reading although a long book. The Xzenia bio was coauthored so obviously it must have been the coauthor who had a hand in making that book less interesting, as Coryne Hall by herself is excellant. Because of the previous Xzenia bio, I was afraid this might be like that, but it's totally different. Not that that book is bad- it just isn't as riveting as this one. This book does kind of portray the more negative view of Alexandra though that fits as MF was Alexandra's opposite and may have taken the more negative view of her. I would highly recomend this book.
