ABOUT THE BOOK
Author: Ellen Alpsten
Release Date: November 10, 2020
Before there was Catherine the Great, there was Catherine Alexeyevna: the first woman to rule Russia in her own right. Ellen Alpsten's rich, sweeping debut novel is the story of her rise to power.
St. Petersburg, 1725. Peter the Great lies dying in his magnificent Winter Palace. The weakness and treachery of his only son has driven his father to an appalling act of cruelty and left the empire without an heir. Russia risks falling into chaos. Into the void steps the woman who has been by his side for decades: his second wife, Catherine Alexeyevna, as ambitious, ruthless and passionate as Peter himself.
Born into devastating poverty, Catherine used her extraordinary beauty and shrewd intelligence to ingratiate herself with Peter’s powerful generals, finally seducing the Tsar himself. But even amongst the splendor and opulence of her new life—the lavish feasts, glittering jewels, and candle-lit hours in Peter’s bedchamber—she knows the peril of her position. Peter’s attentions are fickle and his rages powerful; his first wife is condemned to a prison cell, her lover impaled alive in Red Square. And now Catherine faces the ultimate test: can she keep the Tsar’s death a secret as she plays a lethal game to destroy her enemies and take the Crown for herself?
From the sensuous pleasures of a decadent aristocracy, to the incense-filled rites of the Orthodox Church and the terror of Peter’s torture chambers, the intoxicating and dangerous world of Imperial Russia is brought to vivid life. Tsarina is the story of one remarkable woman whose bid for power would transform the Russian Empire.
This was an incredibly hard, yet addictive and fascinating read. Though I love history, Russia’s past has never been one that has held my attention for long. I have heard of Peter the Great, but the details of his reign are hazy, as are the few tidbits I can remember about Catherine.
To grasp what she endured in her lifetime is incomprehensible. The abuse and heartache alone would’ve killed a weaker woman. To go through everything she did, including being married to the devil himself, and still be so strong and relatively grounded is shocking.
The incredibly graphic sexual depictions had my stomach churching, as I usually stick with much cleaner reads, and try to avoid graphic sex scenes. I fought with myself the entire time, debating on if I should put the book down and not read further, as there were moments I felt as if I were reading soft core porn. But instead, I chose to skip the graphic parts as much as I could (which was insanely difficult since there are SO many scenes involving some form of sexual acts) and while I skimmed the pages I thanked God that I was not a woman during that time!
If this book is a testament to the treatment of women back then, I can say with clear conviction, that they were treated just a smidge better than the animals! The way men took them with no care for their feelings or desires is grotesque, and fidelity certainly wasn’t practiced by anyone. Sex was used as a tool, a weapon, to get what you wanted, nothing more, and loyalty was out the window.
With intimate details of the wars, and the different Russian towns and countryside, I had a feel that this was well researched, though I haven’t had the time to truly see just how accurate it really is. I will say, the fact that there are not any dates does give me pause about the validity of the details.
Tsarina is clocked in darkness from the beginning, a vice growing ever tighter with each depraved sexual encounter, and every inhumane and unimaginable torture and punishment.
What kept me going was my desire to find out if Catherine herself would ever find the peace, love, and happiness that she so craved. Being the wife of Peter the Great, a man that seriously had no soul, I didn’t have high hopes, and when finished the final page feeling numb and in utter shock...well you can imagine it wasn't he happiest of endings. I couldn't stop thinking about the novel after I put it down, muttering to myself, "There is no way this all happened in real life! This is the stuff of nightmares!"
Though I rated it higher than I originally intended, thanks to the incredible writing and world building, and the fact that I seriously didn’t put it down for two days, I can’t, with a clear conscience, recommend it. Though I do believe it is a story that needs to be told, I also believe this story could’ve been told without the depravity being so graphically detailed.
Ellen Alpsten was born and raised in the Kenyan highlands. Upon graduating from the l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, she worked as a news-anchor for Bloomberg TV London. While working gruesome night shifts on breakfast TV, she started to write in earnest, every day, after work, a nap and a run. Today, Ellen works as an author and as a journalist for international publications such as Vogue, Standpoint, and CN Traveller. She lives in London with her husband, three sons, and a moody fox red Labrador. Tsarina is her debut novel.
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