My Review
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I started reading this. The cover is absolutely beautiful, and I won’t lie – it definitely made me want to read this. Then I read the description of the book, and it made me want to read it even more. So I was pretty excited to start this one.
The story is of Catherine the Great’s younger years, before she gets married. She goes by the name of Sophie, and she is the princess of Prussia. She is traveling with her mother to Russia, to possibly wed the prince, Peter, to one day become Queen. She has another agenda of course – her family is poor, and her marriage to the prince will help them live the life of luxury she believes they deserve. So she tries to win the prince’s heart, while pleasing the empress (who takes a liking to her, for the most part), and dealing with her mother, even though she is pretty sure her mother doesn’t have the type of love for her she wishes she did.
Well, Sophie has to work to keep the prince interested, because there’s a Saxon princess who is looking to wed him, as well. While the empress essentially would choose who Peter marries, she wants him to want her. She doesn’t really love Peter, who is pretty much a drunk who has no one’s feelings at heart except his own.
Yeah, and through all this, Sophie is in love with someone else. And then someone else.
Wow, this girl has problems.
This book was like a roller coaster of emotions. I love historical fiction like this (even though the author states in the back that this is pretty much a made up account of Catherine the Great’s early years), and I found it to be completely captivating and enjoyable. The only thing that annoyed me about it was how quickly Sophie could fall in love with all these guys at once. It felt like instead of a love triangle, we had a love square, here, but I got over that pretty quickly because I loved the book. If you love young adult historical fiction, you should probably grab a copy of this and check it out. It’s a quick, light read that’s exciting and different.
Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
