Becky's View: Tsarina by J. Nelle Patrick

Tsarina by J. Nelle Patrick
♦publisher: Razorbill
♦hardcover,  331 pages
♦release date: February 27th, 2014
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: ARC from publisher for honest review

Natalya knows a secret.
A magical Faberge egg glows within the walls of Russia's Winter Palace.
It holds a power rooted in the land and stolen from the mystics.
A power that promises a life of love for her and Alexei Romanov.
Power, that, in the right hands, can save her way of life.
But it's not in the right hands.

Review: In Tsarina, and under a new pen name, Jackson Pearce shows us yet another side of her writing talents as she takes us on an alternate-historical adventure set in the world of the Romanov family and Russia on the brink of war.  Some die hard history buffs may be a bit bothered by the creative license taken with a few time lines and the ages of the Romanov children, but let yourself get past that, and you’re in a for a beautifully written, lushly descriptive, and romantic tale.

Natalya is a noble, comfortable in her life of glittering parties in the palace, but also fiercely patriotic in her love of Russia. She’s grown up alongside the Romanov children and will soon be married to Alexei.  One night, Alexei tells her the family’s greatest secret: they are protected by a magical fabrege egg created by the late Rasputin.  Shortly after, the family flees and the palace is overtaken by Reds.

Natalya is incredibly brave and determined in her quest to retrieve the egg and get it back to the family. Of course, the secret egg is not so secret after all and more people than her are determined to get their hands on it.  Natalya and her friend Delia will definitely have their eyes opened to a world beyond their own as they find themselves kidnapped and crossing the country with a Red.  I love that she stays true to her ideals for Russia, but is forced to see that they are not the ideals of everyone, and she learns compassion.

There is a lot of magic running though this story, both pushing it along and tying it all together.  There is the egg itself, but Natalya’s fate also inadvertently tangles with the mystics of the land.   Their desperation to regain their magic spirals into an explosive struggle for power and control.

This story is beautifully crafted with vivid imagery of a Russian winter, wild magic, and a revolution about to happen.  It does sometimes get a little carried away and over-descriptive, but it’s still gorgeous and atmospheric and romantic in many different ways.

The author sums up the most important idea of the story she tells perfectly in her ending notes:

“When you forget that those you disagree with are people, not just your faceless opposition, you don’t end up proving who is right and who is wrong. You end up with a body count.”

Find J. Nelle Patrick online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Tsarina:  Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound