I absolutely LOVED this book, The Hollow Queen by Sherry Ficklin. It is the first book I have read by this author and I will definitely be reading others by her, This is the story of Elizabeth Romanov, who was stripped of her title, her wealth and her power and her relationship with her half-nephew Peter II who became King. I loved the relationship between the two and the strength this woman had to arise above all adversity.

I loved this book so much I finished it in one day as I couldn't put it down - even having my 8 month old granddaughter couldn't keep me away - I was reading parts of it to her!

I promise you will not be disappointed in this book at all! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free e-book copy.

I was dumb and didn’t find out until just before reading that this is actually the fifth book in an existing series, so my review will be strictly about The Hollow Queen only. Any references to the previous books flew right over my head. Despite that, I still loved this book and did NOT care about any of the historical inaccuracies!

Elizabeth and Peter’s romance was so sweet, even steamy at certain points. I’ll be honest and say though I didn’t care for Peter nearly as much as I did for Elizabeth and a few of the minor characters, but I really enjoyed Peter’s progression from a new and inexperienced king to a respected one—with Elizabeth’s help, of course. Royal politics was a huge part of this book, and with enemies all around him, Peter needed all the help he could get.

I loved Elizabeth! Stripped of her title and power and vulnerable to her enemies, Elizabeth didn’t hesitate to use what power she could, even if that meant using Peter. She was all in with her deception and secrets. I was actually really impressed with how committed Elizabeth was to the truth and revenge. She was intelligent and knew what she had to do to keep herself safe. Elizabeth’s friendship with one of the minor characters was also fantastic. I was stunned by the twist!

The character I loved the most, however, was Sergei. I ADORED Sergei, to the point where I would’ve been completely fine if the romance was pushed aside for more of him. I’m an absolute sucker for loyal characters, and Sergei was exactly that. His loyalty to Elizabeth was bottomless. It was so sad for what he sacrificed of his life to remain loyal to her. The trust that Elizabeth and Sergei had for each other was amazing.

Special mention of Prince Menshikov, who I hated. I was extremely pleased with his fate.

The ending for The Hollow Queen leaves Elizabeth in a very desirable position, which should make for a thrilling beginning to any future books in the series!

I wasn't aware that this was a book in a series. In order to review properly I'll need to read the other books before I can leave a full review, but this sounds so good