La Hija Del Zar / The Tsarina's Daughter (Spanish Edition) (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
I was disappointed at the lack of historical accuracy, but I won't cover that here because there are all kinds of historical fiction and not all of it has to be accurate.What I didn't like most about this book was that it was silly. I didn't feel like I was reading a novel, it felt more like what a teenager wrote as a joke. It's like characters were badly written in purpose to make some sort of point. But on the other hand, this made it entertaining. I had no idea what to expect next. This book was like fast food. Crappy, but sort of delicious. Give it a read if you're in the mood for something stupid. Well-written prose, and I love the possibility and setting. I found the heroine mediocre, however. The fictionalised Tania seems too good to be true, particularly when one considers contemporary accounts of who knew her. Personally I find Olga a fascinating character, historically, but here she is portrayed as a sour ninny, and her cleverness and passion is reduced to being a moody, bossy teacher's pet. Tania feels less real and more like the admittedly "pretty one" has been forcibly remoulded into the only Romanov with any sense, and therefore a heroine. Everyone around her seems sluggish and stupid and pitiable to the same degree, with little variation in character or Tania's contempt for them. Her multitude of virtues feel borrowed and unreal, and yet she disdains everyone else who lacks them, or who hasn't been refined by the sense of compassion allowed only for the protagonist. Tania's bratty behaviour was the only consistently real thing I noted and understood (for all her throwing bread to peasants and loving her family, she is immensely privileged.) She doesn't much examine the revolution beyond nursing a childish sense of hurt against herself and her family by faceless radicals and later blaming her father's inaction. Not unreasonably--I would fully expect Tania to be naive and spoilt, and thank goodness she was. It was the only bit of her that rang true.
What do You think about La Hija Del Zar / The Tsarina's Daughter (Spanish Edition) (2011)?
An interesting possibility of the last Tsar's daughter that might have survived (and how).
—whimsicalMedely
Average historical fiction. I liked the look into Russia but it was nothing special.
—dodo
What can I say, I'm a sucker for historical novels :)
—leahsquares
What if a different Romanov survived? Great fiction.
—kat
