Russia - 1913 and 1917

The eldest daughter of Tsar Nicolas and Tsarina Alexandra, Olga Nikolaevana, took her role as a grand duchess seriously. How she and her sisters and young brother appeared to the world must always show their devotion to Russia, as well as to each other. But, in reality, Olga just wanted a normal life where she wasn't on display.

In 1913, while attending one of her Aunt Olga's affairs, Olga meets naval officer Pavel Voronov, and her heart melts. Although they only see each other sporadically, Olga is smitten. And Pavel obviously reciprocates those feelings. But a grand duchess and a naval officer are hardly the match that Olga's mother would approve of. And there was to be another very important love that could never develop, for other reasons. He would prove to be devoted to Olga in a major way.

Olga's mother, Alexandra, had taken to an unkempt monk who, for unknown reasons, was able to control her son's bleeding issues. As a hemophiliac, Alexei's life hinged on his being protected from any sort of injury. The monk, Rasputin, held Alexandra in thrall with his chanting and prayers, as well as whatever "magical" control he had over Alexei's health. Olga and her sisters were always uncomfortable in the monk's presence.

Once the war began, Olga devoted herself to nursing the wounded Russian soldiers. But to the older daughters in the family, it was becoming apparent that royal rule was not what the Russian people wanted any longer. The royal family tried, in vain, to prove their devotion to their country, but lies and conjecture promulgated by those who now actually ran the country, left them prisoners in their estate. And worse. The tsar refused to believe that anything was wrong, until it was too late.

THE LAST GRAND DUCHESS is a fictional account of Olga and her family as they stumble through the last few years of the tsar's rule. Her father's intransigence and denial of reality, as well as his appalling ignorance of the condition of Russian citizens, led to the tragic ending of the Romanovs. The older daughters, in particular, were able to see the suffering and understand that not everything was what their father wanted them to believe. Family was important to all of them, and, in the end, it was as a family that they died.

Well researched, and beautifully written, THE LAST GRAND DUCHESS was extremely interesting.

This is the 3rd book that I have read recently about the Romanov family from Russia and it did not disappoint either. I love Russian history, especially the time period leading up to and following the revolution.

Turnbull’s new book, which releases in February, follows the Grand Duchess Olga both before the revolution and after the family was sent into exile. She tells the story on one hand, of a young girl who wants to be normal, just enjoys the comfort of her royal life. And in the same book-the story of a young girl’s last days in exile before she and her entire family are executed.

While it did have a slow start, it picked up, making it another great read about this ill fates Russian family.

Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in return for my honest review. This was a fictionalized story of the last 4 years of the Romanovs through the eyes of Olga, the eldest daughter. It made reading the historic details much more interesting because there was a human element instead of a dry retelling of the Russian revolution which led to the deaths of the Tsar and his family. A very sad story but well written.

I love reading historical fiction from the early 1900’s and I especially love reading about royalty. This is the story of the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, oldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra.

Olga is just coming of age when everything changes for her family. Due to her father’s increasing unpopularity and the rising revolution, Nicholas II feels obligated to abdicate his throne in order to keep his family safe.

Olga is dedicated to her family. She worries about her younger brother, Alexei , who suffers from hemophilia, as well as her sickly mother. Her mother is heavily involved with a mystic priest, Father Grigori Rasputin, because she believes he is able to heal her son. Not everyone understands this involvement and this increases the feelings of resentment towards Russia’s royal family.

Olga is young, and concerned with matters of the heart, elegant parties, teas, and coming out balls. There is much speculation about whom she will wed. She gradually becames aware of her family’s circumstances and begins to work as a nurse. She is soon torn between a romantic love and her dedication to her family and country. Ultimately she must make a choice.

This story is told in alternating timelines between Olga’s past and her present, 1918.

My thoughts: I loved reading Olga’s story. I really did not know much about the children of Nicholas II. It was interesting to explore the events that unfolded from her point of view. I appreciated that a list of characters with names and titles was provided at the beginning of the story. This helped tremendously because so many characters with foreign names and titles can be confusing! This is the second book I have read by this author. She also wrote The Woman Before Wallis: A Novel of Windsors, Vanderbilts, and Royal Scandal. Bryn Turnbull has definitely become an auto-buy author for me!

My thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for my advanced copy in return for an honest review.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. I knew some about the Romanovs, mostly based on Anastasia and Rasputin. But in this book, the protagonist is the eldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra; Grand Duchess Olga. We see the cloistered lives of her, her three sisters and one brother. The naivete of their upbringing. The relationship with Father Grigori, known as Rasputin, which contributes to the toppling of the monarchy. The Tsar lost the trust of his people when he made himself the leader of Russia's armed forces. The war was a disaster in casualties. People were starving. This, along with the relationship with Rasputin, led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II.

These imperfect parents, leaders of Russia, and their decisions, lead to the imprisonment and ultimately death of the family. Socialists saw the opportunity of unrest and toppled 300 years of Romanov rule. Throughout it all, Olga shows us that family and loyalty is the most important thing. It was a riveting, tragic read.

Completely fascinating. I love anything to do with the Romanovs, and this was a very satisfying read. A beautiful story with a strong and courageous heroine. I couldn't put this down! Beautiful writing kept me turning the pages!

In 'The Last Grand Duchess', Turnbull paints the heartbreaking, short life of a cloistered princess. Since this is a historical novel that keeps close to actual occurrences, there is no surprise in the predetermined plot. The novel's strength is in its strong focus on Olga, the eldest of the four sisters, the painstakingly detailed research, as well as the excellent character development, not only of Olga, the protagonist, but also the people close to her. I particularly enjoyed the author's clear and fluid style and found the glossary of Russian terms as well as the list of characters immensely helpful.

I truly enjoyed this book and strongly recommend it to other fans of well-researched and -written historical novels.

I wish to thank NetGalley and the publishers for granting me an eARC of this book and the opportunity to write an unbiased, voluntary review.

The story of the Russian Czar and his family is well documented and even today, questions arise about their fate. This book is centred on the Grand Duchess Olga and her life in the court, including her budding romance with a young man. The interference of Rasputin, the revolutionaries and court intrigue are so well written you feel like you are there. The sadness is so real that a few times I was near tears. Such a waste of a beautiful life. Although many books have been written on this subject, this is probably one of the few which takes a more poignant, pointed view of the children.

Thanks NetGalley for providing this copy. The opinion in this review is solely my own.

The story of the Romanovs has had many iterations with, in recent years, closer focus on the individual Grand Duchesses. This time, Olga has taken center stage. There were good imagined conversations here regarding what possibilities might have occurred if she had married. However, there were points in the story where it seemed as if Olga and her sisters knew what was going to happen to them. Also, the middle part of the story dragged on longer than it needed to and it may have been the back and forth structure of the story that may have been at fault. This is a good book for someone who isn't familiar with the Romanov tragedy to become familiar and emotionally connected with the horrific outcome. However, for those who are expert on the events that took place on November 18, 1918, there isn't much new here.

This is a fascinating look of the Romanov family through the eyes of Olga,, the oldest daughter. It was refreshing to see a side of the family that was not Anastasia.

A beautiful take of the last grand duchess and the turmoil that struck their country and unseated them from power. Such a moving tale. I learned so much more about the Romanovs

I really enjoyed this book and struggled to put it down. I have read every book published on the Romanov's and it was nice to see a historical fiction novel based on Olga's perspective. The focus always is on Alexei or Anastasia, not much on the eldest. Very well researched, it kept my interest the whole time.

This was a must read for me for one big reason: the story focuses on Olga, not Anastasia. I love Anastasia lives retellings, but it's nice to see a story from someone else's pov. Still, I went into it wondering how a narrative from Olga's view would work, and the answer is: rather well. Shifting in focus between 1917 when the Tsar abdicates forward and flashing back in time, we get a portrait of Olga's life that I feel is often glossed over. The Romanov sisters were often overlooked in favor of their brother Alexei, the heir whose hemophilia kept everyone in the family on guard. As such, the girls were often lumped together, they shared rooms even while living in a palace, with Olga and Tatiana often referred to as the big pair and Maria and Anastasia the little pair. They led a secluded life and rarely ventured outside their parent's sphere of influence, and even nonfiction narratives of the family tend to discuss the sisters as a group. Even so, these were teen girls (Olga was only 22 when she was killed alongside her family) and Turnbull brings this to the forefront, balancing a naive innocence and piety with the headstrong nature of a typical teenager. While about the doomed Romanov family, the big events that you may expect to see do not happen on the page. Instead we see Olga's crushes, her awkwardness at parties, her love of her siblings, and her exasperation with her mother, and that made the story stand out for me. I also appreciated the nods to Olga being more politically savvy, particularly through exchanges she has later in the book with her father. While we all know the tragic end this young life will come to, Turnbull has done a fantastic job on focusing on the life of the grand duchess

Y'all. This is the Romanov book I have been WAITING for. I read just about any Romanov book I can get my hands on (fiction and non-fiction), so I was excited to see a book with Olga as the main character. Most Romanov historical fictions focus on Anastasia (the most well-known of the Romanov sisters due to the controversy around the pretenders). Olga has long been my favorite of the Romanov sisters, and this is the first time I've seen a novel portray her in a way I think is accurate.

For those who may not be as historically informed, Olga is the oldest daughter of the last tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his controversial wife, Alexandra. She grows up cloistered in the family's many palaces, partly due to her mother's rejection of high society (and their rejection of her) and because her family is hiding a terrible secret- her younger brother, and the only heir to the throne, is a hemophiliac and is unlikely to survive long enough to rule. The only one who can help the heir when he is ill is a mysterious holy man, Rasputin, who Alexandra comes to rely on for more than just his healing powers. But Rasputin is a dark force, Nicholas and Alexandra are unfit to rule, and Russia is on the edge of a precipice.

This novel takes place in two times, going back and forth between the years leading up to the Revolution and the years following the Revolution leading up to the family's execution. It was an interesting format- most books on this topic are chronological. Formatting the book like this allows the foreshadowing and Olga's own growth to really show.

The reason I loved this book so much is because it is the first that I think portrays the Romanovs fairly. Most tend to romanticize Nicholas and Alexandra, who were TERRIBLE rulers. They made horrible decisions, both before and after the revolution. Their decisions trapped their children, first in a gilded palace prison, and later in the imprisonment that would lead to their deaths. At the same time, they were humans who loved their family. Olga is angry and frustrated with her parents, while still loving them and forgiving them because they are her parents. Historians also believe that, out of all of the Romanov siblings, Olga understood the most the danger that the family was in. This is also demonstrated well in this book.

Overall, a beautifully written historical fiction about one of history's tragical figures. Well-researched and wonderfully written, I'd recommend this to any historical fiction fan.