Tsarina, a novel about Peter the Great’s wife, Catherine, was alternately horrifying in its depiction of brutality and tedious in its monotonous descriptions of the Russian countryside, Moscow and St. Petersburg.  The novel was set in the early 1700’s, when Peter the Great was fighting the King of Sweden to gain territory that would allow Russia to have a port for its growing navy that would be free from ice in the winter.  The book focuses on “Marta,” (later named Catherine) who suffers multiple rapes, witnesses others being tortured, and is eventually discovered by Peter the Great, who falls in love with her.  I almost quit this book at the 25% point, but forced myself to continue as I had received an ARC copy from NetGalley and felt duty bound to read the book in its entirety before offering a review.  Unfortunately, I only made it to 55% before I finally gave up.  

As mentioned previously there were horrific descriptions of multiple rapes, as well as creative forms of torture, followed by tedious passages describing what Marta/Catherine wore and ate, the parties she attended, long journeys by sled and horseback, as well as detailed descriptions of sex with Peter the Great which left nothing to the imagination.  For the latter reason, the book read more like a “bodice ripper” as another reviewer described, rather than a true historical fiction novel.   In conclusion, if you are seeking an interesting historical fiction novel, look elsewhere.

Tsarina by Ellen Apsten is an expansive tale of the events and culture of early 18th century Russia.  It is excellent historical fiction, obviously well-researched with attention to detail that brings the settings to life.  There is also enough passionate romance and intrigue to satisfy readers of those genres, also.  
This novel chronicles the life of Catherine I of Russia, someone of whom I knew very little.  Born out of wedlock as a serf in Livonia (Baltic states), Marta, as she was known, grew up in an area that was in turmoil, fought over and ruled at various times by powers like Sweden, Germany and Russia.  War and hardship were familiar and frequent.  We follow Marta’s journey from her childhood (late 1600s) through her teen years as a servant.  Then, with this as background, the meat of the novel chronicles her meeting and subsequent romance and life with Tsar Peter the Great.
Told by Marta in the first person throughout, her energy, enthusiasm and resourcefulness are apparent.  The times were extremely difficult for a woman and a serf, and Marta sustains herself by any means she can to survive and elevate herself to the consort of the Tsar Peter.  In times when men ruled absolutely, she ultimately gained their respect.
This time in Eastern Europe apparently was very dark and, it seems, lagged behind the cultural advances of early 18th century Western Europe.  The author includes the frequent disputes, killings, war crimes, palace intrigues and the abject poverty of the serfs.  According to history books, Tsar Peter and Catherine began the process of modernizing Russian practices and education.  Ironically, she remained illiterate all her life.
The author’s descriptive abilities are outstanding.  I really liked the first person narrative of Marta/Catherine.  It gave the whole story a liveliness and believability that this woman was really someone remarkable:  a survivor, a passionate lover and supporter of her husband Peter the Great, and ultimately, an Empress.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A remarkable rags-to-riches story.  Tsarina is the story of Catherine 1 of Russia., a fantastic political survivor  Born a peasant, she never learned to read or write.  She's noticed by Czar Peter the Great and becomes his mistress then his wife.  She partied just as hard as Peter, and could drink most others under the table and had a huge appetite for life, which kept Peter's interest.  She gave birth to 12 children, but only 2 survived to adulthood.   This story chronicles tumultuous times when Peter dragged his backward country kicking and screaming into the (then) modern age.  Russia was a very backward country.  Peter was a progressive and had no problem brutally forcing the aristocracy to move to his newly built city of St. Petersburg, built at a staggering toll on human life in a swamp, as well as making them abandon old-fashioned customs of dress and living.  When Peter dies at the age of 52, Elizabeth makes sure she takes the throne, the first time a woman has ruled Russia.  There will be other Empresses that rule Russia, but she was the first and most improbable.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

NOTE: I received early access to this novel in exchange for writing an impartial review.

An absorbing and detailed historical novel about Russia's first Tsarina, Catherine I (not the Great) who took over after the death of her husband, Peter the Great. It's well-researched, deeply engaging, and a fascinating glimpse into the great divide between the peasant life into which Catherine was born and Peter's hedonistic and opulent court. 

While little is known about Catherine's (born Marta) early years, Alpsten has done an admirable job of breathing life into her history by drawing on documentation of the life of serfs Russia in the late 1600s and early 1700s. Born poor but beautiful, Marta is not surprisingly treated as a commodity, abused by men with power or money or both. Happenstance places her in the orbit of a powerful man at the Tsar's court, which is how she eventually comes to the notice of the Tsar himself. 

By contrast, Peter the Great's history is well-documented and Alpsten's portrayal is quite nuanced. While known to most of us as the great Westernizer of a backward country, Peter does NOT come off as a hero. He is single-minded, egotistical, impulsive, and brutally violent. But as it turns out, Marta's kindness, loyalty, and love seem to moderate Peter at times, which the author seems to suggest is responsible for both Marta's 20 year hold on the ruler and her rags-to-riches rise to the exalted position of Tsarina. 

You will also meet the expected cast of supporting characters -- power-hungry boyars, women exchanging their beauty for financial security, a disappointing first-born heir, and clueless doctors administering poisonous treatments. There's also plenty of war, famine, and infidelity in this male dominated world. So, lots of drama.

My criticisms of the book are few. There are a few places where the narrative seems to jump awkwardly. And I was disappointed with the contrived device the author used to cover the entirety of Catherine's actual reign as Tsarina.  But I learned a lot about a little-known woman who exercised great power at a time when most women were powerless. And I enjoyed nearly every minute of the read.

From the description of the plot it sounded interesting to me and was excited to read it since I haven't read much Russian history. I had to force myself to continue and all of the rape scenes were too much for me, I skipped over them for the most part. I also felt like it was very repetitive and just a slow boring read. 

Thank you Netgalley for providing this eARC

I had never heard of Catherine I of Russia before this book, and talk about an incredible woman. Catherine was born Marta, a poor woman who chanced to meet Peter the Great during the Swedish/Russian war. She quickly won over his heart and became his consort, for better and for worse. And like most men in power, he became more and more tyrannical.

I found this history and story fascinating. There were a few little things that bugged me - like referring to stomachs as tummies, for example, but it was overall a great read. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my fair & honest review.

Free review copy. I had to quit this book at 25%. Normally scenes of sexual assault and rape I can handle but there were several of these scenes in the few pages I finished. I understand the time period and station of the main character often led to such brutality the scenes depicted were just too over the top.

Ellen Alpsren did a magnificent job of keeping this reader entranced throughput the entire book. I knew basically nothing about Russian history going in and I learned so much while reading this historical novel about Catherine. This is a must read for anyone interested in history and  what women endured to try and survive in a “man’s world”. Definite page-turner. Thank you for my requested copy of an ARC and all opinions are my own.

Tsarina tells the story of Catherine the I, who started life as a serf named Marta and rose to the dizzying heights of Tsarina and Empress of All the Russias. This book is not for the faint of heart. It is raw and seems realistic, but it is brutal. There is rape, murder, rape, torture, rape, sexual depravity, rape, more torture, more rape, more murder, and around and around we go.

I was really engaged in the first part of the book where we learn of her origins and learn about life as a serf in late 17th current-day Lithuania. It's brutal, it's depressing but fascinating.

As she gets a little bit older and is bought by Peter Tsar of Russia, the narrative changes a bit and I wasn't as engaged. We spend more time learning about Peter, the founding of St Petersburg, the war with Sweden and the drunken debauchery and sexual depravity that was the Russian Court of the early 18th century. I felt less connected to Catherine and totally disgusted by the way Peter treated everybody and the violence that permeated that life. Sadly Catherine wasn't much of a flushed out character for most of this.

I thought the narrative with alternating past and present worked well and the suspenseful opening is left in suspense until quite late in the book leaving us wondering until the end. Unfortunately I wasn't invested in Catherine anymore so I didn't care as much as I would have liked, but I learned a lot about someone I didn't even know existed.

Love this tale of a rags to riches queen!  I could have done without tha sex scenes tho.  Learned so much Russian history. Unbelievable this is based in facts.

The cover is eye catching and vibrant and hints of a violence inside its pages.  What's not to draw you in with the promise of seeing a Tsarina's life, thorns and all!? This left me feeling sad. What a tragic life she lead with repeated abuse. This is repetitive and there are several parts that could have been glossed over so that the reader keeps flipping those pages. This was not captivating and that disheartens me because I absolutely love history.  This lacked a steady pace and it needed more to keep you wanting to know how things turn out.  I really don't have more to say.  I think that this had tremendous promise.  Thank you for allowing me to read and review this title.

Tsarina is one of those big, sweeping, epic novels that gobbles up a weekend and leaves you wanting more. After a slow start, the narrative really takes off when Peter the Great, Tsar of All Russia arrives: even prefigured in a portrait, he is a commanding and terrifying presence. Ellen Alpstein skillfully evokes Marta, the Lithuanian serf who, after much travail, becomes his consort, then wife, and Russia’s first empress to rule in her own right, Catherine I. Through smarts and no small measure of boudoir diplomacy, Marta rises, and her story is engrossing and exciting throughout. The author’s command of the period is assured and detailed. Minor characters are as well expressed as the protagonists. Tsarina is a love story, as lusty as the tsar himself, complicated by plots, lethal dynastic struggles, and the emergence of Mother Russia as a modern, Western state. Catherine Alekseyevna is an astonishing heroine, one the author calls “a woman who overcomes every obstacle, even if fate rages against her.” No less than Voltaire thought her story nearly as extraordinary as that of Peter himself.

Tsarina is one of those books that sold me on the premise alone. I find the histories of Peter and Catherine the Great fascinating, so I was intrigued by the life of the lesser known Catherine the I (better known as Marta for much of the book). And while I did find the history in the book good (as much as I can remember at least; I'd need to dig a lot deeper into my research to more accurately assess this), I was less satisfied with the story.

I should have known from the cover and a review blurb what I was getting myself into, as this supposedly "makes Game of Thrones look like a nursery rhyme." Never having seen the show, I'm aware of its violence. And Tsarina has that in spades (to be fair, life in Peter's Russia was not for the faint of heart). The cover reveals its other characteristic: bodice ripping galore. And not just consensual sex: Marta's early life is a repetitive onslaught of being raped/becoming someone's maid, being raped again/becoming someone else's maid and so on and so forth. And it's all very gratuitous. The author/editor/publisher could have cut the incest scene and really, I wouldn't have missed a thing.

What I found just as difficult to overcome was the repetition (of phrasing, of description, of events as noted above). Example: on one page the reader is told multiple times that someone had "slanting, green eyes." And we're beat over the head that Marta is quite possibly the most gorgeous woman these men have ever seen. I've seen her portraits. I've seen portraits of many a powerful man and woman in history. What they lack is classic Hollywood beauty. What am I even trying to say with this? I'm not sure, except that people can be powerful and captivating and whatnot without being reduced to their looks.

And so I found myself racing ahead to get to the end, and not in a good way. I just never connected to this one. I wanted more history, but got a soap opera. And I was never much into those.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for making this ARC available to review.

This book gave an interesting look at Russian history in an unsettled time. The writing was excellent and the characters well developed. It was difficult to always follow the story because of the jumps in time and numerous characters. I found it difficult to finish because towards the end it felt to heavy and tedious. I received a free copy from Netgalley for my honest review.

Tsarina is the story of Catherine the 1st, the 2nd wife of Peter the 1st.An intense story following Catherine, born Marta, from vry humble beginnings, being sold by her family, and eventually being noticed by Peter 1 to become his second wife. Life was not easy even then but, she become a leader in her own right at a time when it was very hard for women to do so. I confess to not knowing as much about Russian history as some, but, this book was wonderfully written, intense and kept me engaged. There are some troubling scenes some readers might not care for such as rape so I am just letting you know ahead of time.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC for review.

This is a book full of interesting tidbits about the life of a great empress. Well, not really. It is a book about the life up to the point of becoming a real empress. Alpsten's prose made me lean into it. Even the harsh parts of rape and violence. 

The beginning of Catherine I's life is created. Alpsten mentions that in the beginning. Nothing is truly known about the washermaid of Russia until her appearance as the servant of a Russian noble. Then Peter becomes attracted to her. Much of their life is with her as his mistress/companion. Alpsten has drawn a character portrait of Catherine as dedicated to Peter as any wife up until certain events.

But Catherine is not free of flaws. I appreciated that Alpsten allowed us to see what might have been the true face of this immensely overlooked royal figure. Too many focus on the second Catherine--the one they called Great. 

We see into the royal life through the eyes of a woman not born to royalty but determined to do her best in the position she finds herself in.

The book bounces back and forth between timelines so you do need to pay attention. I was eager to learn what happened after Peter died, but the story ended there. I was supremely disappointed as I wanted to know more about her as the ruling Empress of Russia. Perhaps Alpsten will pursue that part of this great woman's life.

All in all, I'd have to give this four stars. It did cause me to tell my husband to leave me in quiet because I was reading a very good book.

An excellent book at first I thought this was about Catherine the Great but was about Peter the Great’s wife. The detail surrounding him and the building of St. Petersburg was very interesting. The going back and forth between past and Marta’s present was a bit disjointed but I found the book on the whole fascinating.

I only made it through the first 15 chapters of this book. There were some inconsistencies in the story and some unnecessary details that made it difficult to focus on what could be a great sgory. In all honesty, I was reading an uncorrected ARC of this novel. I hope they issues are corrected before publishing. I may attempt to re-read this at a later date.

This was the description [part of it] I read prior to requesting: Before there was Catherine the Great, there was Catherine Alexeyevna: the first woman to rule Russia in her own right.... 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.... 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." {Perhaps "sensuous pleasures of a decadent aristocracy" should have sounded the warning.]

OK. I have loved reading about Imperial Russia since Nicholas and Alexandra [1967]. And, I'm a fan of historical fiction, BUT.

Plus, the original cover [which I've tried  unsuccessfully to copy] was much more conducive to my reading  this book than the one I later saw --basically two large breasts--yes, you can judge a book by a cover].

I so wanted historical fiction, not the bust or thrust--which was far too frequent--where was the history?! Too much of a soap opera. And too many moments where I just knew it would spiral downward.

What did I like? The instances where I learned something--e.g., the building of St Petersburg. The court intrigues and dramas. The descriptions of the palaces [I've  been to Peterhof, the Amber Room, and the Catherine Palace.] The settings of Moscow and St, Petersburg. Not nearly enough,

This book was not at all what I expected--or wanted. If this is what you want--somewhat of a bodice ripper--go for it. I agonized over what to rate, 3? But then one might be inclined to read it. I'd say no. Much unrealized potential, So, 2.5, but not rounding up.

From where she ended up I would have never imagined what Catherine Alexeyevna, then Marta endured growing up. The story paints the harsh reality for a young, beautiful peasant woman in the time that is heartbreaking and horrifying. However in doing so I gained a respect and love for her that couldn't have been forged on an easier path. Still, the hardships piled on so heavy I feared she would surely break. One after the other, abuse, loss, hopelessness, and yet, she wasn't hopeless. There is a turning point in her thoughts that occurs when her path crosses with a Russian general who gives her a piece of advice that she takes to heart. While things are still not easy, there is change and the feel of the story also shifts as you are taken from poverty to another side of life in those times.

Catherine Alexeyevna's life is a story I wasn't aware of in a historical sense, so can't attest to any accuracies but judging it just as a story, it is gripping and will tug you through a range of emotions as you discovery the epic life of a woman who refused to be held down by her circumstances or beaten by the cruelty of the monsters that are men.

Highly recommended. 

Please note this story doesn't shy away from abuse and might trigger more sensitive readers.