The book has 59 chapters, of which the first 7, which are the ones my patience could endure, revolve around these themes: 1. Dimitri, the protagonist, is a close friend of the Tsar and Tsarina and allows himself to be humiliated by their wife and 2. The Russians, at least those of the so-called nobility, loved to speak ill behind the backs of their equals, while they choked on gargantuan banquets. According to the impression this book gives, they almost lived on gossip alone.
An ideal book for those who have enough patience to endure all this insubstantial verbiage. Personally, I pass. There are better books in the vast sea of ​​literature..
The opinion I have expressed above is based solely on what I think and feel about this book.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed reading it the plot was interesting and the characters made me want to know more about them. I highly recommend.

A lovely historical fiction book set in Russia before the war. I appreciated the holiday element and the Jewish culture representation.

A story full of multiple intriguing plots combined with Russian nobility who are daring in their pursuits of happiness, lust, and love. Mix in a pulse pounding mystery and you have a story that keeps the reader entertained. I enjoyed the book but I have to admit it was all over the place at times which completely pulled me out of the plot.

Prior to reading this, I did not have a lot of knowledge of events leading up to the Russian Revolution. This was a very good story with some fictional characters. I loved the details of the Fabrege eggs and found that to be fascinating.
Many thanks to Severn House Publishers and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I appreciate a good historical fiction. Though the title says, "Faberge", it is less about him and his involvement, but more about Russian revolution. The author is a great story teller, very quick read.

This book surprised me. It was a really great historical fiction combined with a thriller. I often find myself drawn to this time period when looking for a new historical fiction book and was really pleased to have stumbled upon this gem. Really quite engrossing!

This book was very hard to put down, I love the Russian court history and the stories behind Faberge and his works. It was a great read, a little all over the place sometimes, but still a great read!

Thank you NetGalley, Charles Belfoure, and Severn House Publishers for the opportunity to read this book.

*Sigh*

I was so excited to jump into The Faberge Secret by Charles Belfoure. The premise sounded promising! It was the second time it was published, so I figured if there were any errors, then they would be fixed. The Faberge Secret takes place in the court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. The Court is dazzling but the people of Russia are suffering. Then there is the massacre of the Jewish people. Dimitri loves his position at court but is shocked by the treatment of the Jewish people. He then meets a female doctor who helps expose him to the atrocities committed on the Jewish people.

Trigger Warnings: Anti-Semitism, Murder, Genocide

See? The plot is intriguing and important as it shows the atrocities committed against the Jewish People in Russia. Then that cover is STUNNING. It is not my intention to rip apart this author’s work but I do want to point out the issues I had with the book. So what is the problem? First of all, the plot seemed all over the place. The pace of the novel suffered as a result. It could really use some content editing to keep the novel on track with the main plot. Dimitri is friends with the Tsar so he condemns the actions but is also still his friend? I feel like there were other ways of handling that situation.

Then, there is just the overwhelming amount of grammatical errors and strange sentence structure. For example:

“Then there were private balls like Dimitri’s and Lara’s held Dimitri liked American women.”


THE FABERGE SECRET
See what I mean? This should have never made it past the editing stage. If this book goes through a thorough content and grammar editing process then it would definitely shine a little brighter! I rate this book 1 out of 5 stars. There is also one thing I would like to state: my copy of this book had some format errors. Paragraphs were often mixed up from page to page. Since this is a formatting issue, I did not include this issue in my overall rating.

Published Date 29 Jun 2021
My review on 22 Jun 2021
Thanks to Severn House Publishers and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read The Faberge Secret by Charles Belfoure in exchange for an honest review.

The Faberge Secret by Charles Belfoure set in 1903 Imperial Russia at the time of the Japanese war, revolution, and Romanov problem with Jews.

(Queen Victoria I. grandmother) House of Romanov
I I
Alexandra (1872-1918) ________ Nicholas II (1868-1918)
I
Olga Tatiana Maria Anastasia Alexei

This is the beginning of the Russian Revolution, Tsar Nicholas II is under the pressure of revolutionary actions and blaming the Jews for that.
The story focused on Prince Dimitri Markhov (royal architect) and his beautiful wife, Princess Lara who are close friends of the imperial family. Lara and Dimitri were no longer in love, and their marriage was for appearance. So when Dimitri meets Doctor Katya Golitsyn (one of a few female doctors), they both found each other similar opinions and interests; Dimitri starts to understand and help the revolution movement.

This is the story of love, friendship, betrayal, royal family, Russian people, fabergé eggs, and jewels. Sometimes was hard to follow narration, but overall was an interesting book with a surprising ending. I enjoyed it!

Imperial Russia, 1903. Prince Dimitri Markhov is an esteemed architect and engineer, always looking for new architectural challenges, which is explained by his upbringing. His father didn’t want him to “become the usual aristocratic wastrel,” thus when noticing Dimitri’s artistic talent, he encouraged it. The Tsar greatly admires his abilities, involving him in many projects. They become close friends. The story was about Prince Dimitri Markhov and Doctor Katya Golitsyn one of a few female doctors of the time. The author provides insight in the phrases and cultural innuendo's that the reader may not be familiar with explaining them and describing the impact. There is also a cultural part of this story. The famous jeweler of St Petersburg - Peter Carl Faberge is the official jeweler to the Imperial Court, who also sets the taste of St Petersburg society. There is a tradition of creating two Easter eggs each year: one for the Dowager Empress and one for the Tsarina. Each year’s Easter egg design is the most closely guarded secret in the Russian Empire. This year’s Faberge Easter egg is called the “Peter the Great Egg” - its outside detailing miniature painting of the Winter Palace outlined in little diamonds and inside holding a miniature gold statue of Peter the Great on a horse. This cultural part and the descriptions of the eggs are very enjoyable. The Tsar’s household is filled with spies, who pass notes to each other in code by placing notes inside the famous Faberge eggs in the display room in the palace. The reader might be surprised to find out who or who isn’t a revolutionary spy.

Thank you to the author, Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for the honest review.

First, I want to clarify that this review pertains to the physical eARC I received and not to Belfoure’s writing. I requested the eARC because I had read and enjoyed two of his other books. Unfortunately, I cannot read this one. In the first few pages, large white spaces appear between many of the sentences.. I assumed this was a problem to be corrected before the final copy, and it didn't interfere with reading. I looked forward to learning about the folded paper Dimitri hid in the Coronation egg for his fellow agents to find.

However, major problems quickly arose. To illustrate, here are several samples of the garbled text that followed:

“The seven long weeks of fasting during Lent, when no hurried through the city from one house to the next making butter, milk, and eggs, and meat could be eaten, had ended at social calls to wish friends a happy Easter. Being a nobleman, midnight, and Dimitri was starving for good food. After the Count Bykov didn’t have to do any visiting; people came to Easter service, there was a tremendous supper waiting at Count call on him.”

“Other Court ladies who which servants in powdered wigs handed out along with plates had broken out their best jewelry and dresses, as Lara had, piled high with pastries. They sat on upholstered chairs and followed them. Except for the military officers, male guests sofas each with a white Louis XV-style tea table.”

“’I can’t wait to see what the Fabergé Imperial Eggs will gossip. But lately, he has a great longing for an intelligent look like this Easter,’ the Countess said enthusiastically.”

“’Our train leaves at seven, Lara. Please have the two hundred patch of dried blood on the side of his head.”

“’Wonderful. You must come to my villa in Peterhof. It has eering training, he also designed bridges and a railway station become much too small for my family; maybe we can discuss shed.”

“But the Imperial Couple always spoke rooms. But the Tsar’s private apartments on the first floor had English to each other, so Dimitri did as well.

“One could Nicholas was absolutely right. That egg from 1901 was even buy pearl and diamond-encrusted knitting needles.”

Skipping to 93% of the way through the book, I give one last example:

“God decides it’s time for bunnies to come up and be with glass of tea on the floor of the pavilion.”

Because other readers have reviewed The Fabergé Secret, the file may have been corrupted in the process of downloading to my iPad. Whatever the cause of this problem, reading this eARC is impossible. Perhaps someday I can read a legible copy.

Again, I am rating the book solely on the incomprehensible word order in my copy. I will not post this review anywhere else.

I love Imperial Russia, the story, the intrigue, the characters. Prince Dmitri was a sympathetic character, the story compelling and the characters vivid. The plot was a bit thin, but the book was still interesting. I would read other stories by Charles Belfoure. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

I really enjoyed this book. It is set 1903 Russia, the buildup to the Revolution. Based on historical information. I love that the author kept to the actual truth of the history and didn't downplay the savagery of the pogroms.. Two love stories blended here, Nicholas and Alexandra, and Prince Dimitri and Doctor Katya.
It was a beautiful telling of the Romanovs and of course, Faberge Eggs, this story is fascinating and even educational!
The writing is well done, although I found the many different plot lines a bit hard to follow at times, but in the end, it was a thoroughly enjoyable book. I would, and have, recommended it to my friends.

I'm so grateful to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Such an enjoyable book! The characters, the plot, and the ending are amazing.
The author did a great job with his writing! Simply amazing writing here!
I thought the story was very interesting and kept my attention which is a major plus!

Thank you NetGalley and Severn House Publisher for this ebook copy!

Thankyou to NetGalley, Savern House and the author, Charles Belfoure, for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of The Faberge S3cret in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I thought this book provided a good read.
The storyline was interesting and very descriptive.
Worth a read.

Prince Dimitri Markhov counts himself lucky to be a close friend of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra. Cocooned by the glittering wealth of the Imperial court, the talented architect lives a life of luxury and comfort, by the side of his beautiful but spiteful wife, Princess Lara. But when Dimitri is confronted by the death and destruction wrought by a pogrom, he is taken aback. What did these people do to deserve such brutality? The tsar tells him the Jews themselves were to blame, but Dimitri can't forget what he's seen. Educated and passionate, Doctor Katya Golitsyn is determined to help end Russian oppression. When she meets Dimitri at a royal ball, she immediately recognizes a kindred spirit, and an unlikely affair begins between them. As their relationship develops, Katya exposes Dimitri to the horrors of the Tsar's regime and the persecution of the Jewish people, and he grows determined to make a stand . . . whatever the cost.

I thought this book was really well researched. This period of time right before the Revolution was enlightening to read about. This is an eye-opening book taking place right before the time of the Nazi regime.

The problem with this book is that it had to many focuses ... the eggs, Jewish history, love stories, the Romanovs. It is just that some of the plotlines, such as the secret messages and the loyalty/betrayal of the Romanovs, were heavily featured but then never resolved or carried far enough to feel resolved. I enjoyed the abundant detail as it gives me things to look up about a timeframe that I am much interested in! The ending was optimistic but also somewhat cliché for a romance ... if it were a mini-series, I would be cheering for the continuation though.

I was so enchanted with the cover and premise of this novel and was beyond excited when I was gifted an advance copy. I love historical fiction and seek out books focused on the Russian royal family. In fact, when we were in Russia, I made it a priority to see as many of the Faberge eggs as possible. When I teach this period in history, it’s not too difficult for my students to see my passion for the subject.

This read was like a kite that couldn’t get airborne! It had so much potential. Unfortunately, the author wasn’t able to bring history alive and maintain my interest in his novel.

Things I struggled with:
- Jarring and stilted communication
- Too much information about the Princess’s bedmates
- Lack of emotional expression in the prose
- No emotional ties to the characters
- Too much focus on incidentals such as describing a gown or jewels to the point where I’d skip whole paragraphs
- Very violent

Things I really enjoyed:
- Author’s explanation of Jewish life under the threat of pogroms
- Author’s ability to show the gap between the rich and the poor
- Author’s ability to show how out of touch the Tsar was with his people.
- Author explaining Russian words
- Author’s depth of knowledge about Russian history

I was gifted this advance copy by Charles Belfoure, Severn House Publishing and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* I was actually surprised by how much i liked this book, was really hard for me to put it down!