I liked and didn't like this book. I can't really explain why...It might just be that I don't mind historical fiction, even when the author takes an insane amount of liberties. I think what mainly bothered me was the overuse of irony.
The author obviously knew what she was talking about (what with all the references and "fact or fiction" bits? in the back of her book), but much of the story seemed too ironic. I won't give any spoilers or anything, but the fact of the matter is that everything just seemed too coincidental. I liked the characters--I did--though I also think they could have been fleshed out a little more.
I don't recommend this to any hardcore Romanov fans mainly because I think people might be offended by various concepts in the book. (Even I was offended by some!) But if you read it as a fiction (with familiar people as the main characters), rather than a generally historically accurate story, you might be all right. All I can say is that it's certainly not Robert Alexander's "Kitchen Boy".
