I have enjoyed Helen Rappaport’s books in the past and this one was also enjoyable, though not as gripping.

Excellent and fascinating book! This is a biography of the little-known Princess Julie, aka Grand Duchess Anna Fyodorovna of Russia. She became a Romanov by marriage when she married Grand Duke Konstantin, Emperor Alexander I's younger brother. Though she got along well with Alexander and his wife Elise, her marriage to Konstantin was a disaster. They became estranged, she left Russia, and they eventually were granted a divorce. She had two illegitimate children and lived a relatively quiet life in Switzerland. I especially enjoyed the mentions of classical music she enjoyed. It's so fascinating that people were still attending concerts of Mozart's music in the 1830s, even though he died in 1791 (I guess he's never gone out of style, hooray for Mozart!).

Anyway, this is a fabulous biography of a little-known and somewhat tragic figure. Oh, and did I mention that this Julie was the aunt of Queen Victoria? Pretty fascinating!

Thank you to NetGalley for the review copy.

Loved this one! This was such an intriguing and informative read on a subject that I love learning about! I loved getting more information on this somewhat obscure historical figure and the part she played in the history of Russia! Definitely recommend reading this book!

3.75 out of 5 stars!

While Dr. Helen Rappaport writes a compelling history of Julie of Saxe-Coburg it's not very interesting. That is no way, Dr. Rappaports fault. Julie or Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna, as she was known in Russia, was a very secretive person. At the young age of 15, she was sent to Russia to marry Konstantin Feodorovna. This marriage was political, as well as financial for the small ducy of Germany, Saxe-Coburg. She suffered a lot under her husband, Konstantin, as well as her mother-in-law, Maria. Julie was Queen Victoria's Aunt and the granddaughter-in-law to Catherine the Great. After 2 decades of trying to get a divorce from Konstantin and having to give up 2 children, she finally made a life for herself in Switzerland. Dr. Rappaport does a great job of telling her story, even though Julie destroyed most of her letters.

Publication Date April 15, 2025

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Dr. Helen Rappaport for the E-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

😊 Happy Reading 😊

#Netgalley #Stmartinspress #HelenRappaport #TheRebelRomanov #ARC

Very well-researched and well-written. I struggled to get into this book; however, it may be because I am entirely new to this era of time. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's press for an ARC copy.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I LOOOOVE anything to do with Catherine the Great so my expectations were high for this book, to say the least. And I adored it! It was fun, captivating and past faced. Would buy for friends!

Excellent history of a little know woman of the Romanov family and Queen Victoria relative. Helen Rappaport has a great way of making history come alive.

If you are an avid reader of historical texts, especially about royalty, you will probably enjoy this book. It is well researched and very dense with family trees and royal connections. When I accepted to preview this book, I thought it was written in the style of a historical novel. However, this text is written as a very precise history and the denseness of the facts and dates became a bit too much to take in. So I skipped quite a few pages and continued to read when it became more interesting. Julie certainly lived through some oppressive times, and was probably even a victim of domestic violence. So having silk gowns and gold thrones doesn’t ensure happiness. Also, she was so very young. I enjoyed reading the part where she escaped to Paris and became a woman of culture. She was an interesting figure, for sure.

In conclusion, if you are an avid reader of historical texts, especially about royalty, you may enjoy this book.

This is the story of Princess Julie of Saxe-Coburg who became Grand Duchess Anna Fyodorovna of Russia. I really enjoyed learning the history of the ties forged between the ruling family of Saxe-Coburg and Russian royalty at the time of Catherine the Great. Reading what life was like for the members of these families was very interesting.

I’m not sure we get a clear enough picture of Julie, especially during the first half of her life. There is not much information coming directly from Julie. Much of the gossip around Julie’s relationships isn’t enough to tell us what was really going on, so I was bored at times. But I think we get enough of a story to see what she was enduring at the hands of her cruel husband Grand Duke Konstantin as well as an insight into the eccentricities of many of their family members.

This is a very well researched book considering there isn’t much in the record coming from Julie herself. Her mother, Auguste, shares several details of her daughter’s life in her journal. We also get to learn about her from correspondence sent by her friends and siblings. It seems she was very depressed later in life but at the same time she got to enjoy so much beauty where she lived, and I hope, some peace.

I think the best parts of the book are reading about how connections were made through marriage by Julie’s family into the most powerful monarchies in Europe. I was amazed by the fact that she was an aunt to both Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy to review.

As a big fan of Helen Rappaport, this new story about the Romanovs was a great read! Helen Rappaport does her research thoroughly! This story about the Aunt of Queen Victoria is no exception! The arrangement of marriages among royals always intrigues me! Julie’s story was sad yet she was a strong woman and was incredibly influential in the Romanov family! Thank you for the opportunity to read this!

eBook ARC - 3 Stars
While this is clearly a well-researched [given the limited information about much of Julie's life and the absence of letters and diaries], and quite a bit of it was really fascinating, I am afraid I that overall, I really struggled with this one. Yes, I learned things [my knowledge of Russian history does not extend this far back an the only player I was initially familiar with was Catherine the Great], but it was just so dry in parts [and everyone was just SO...extra? Even more so for the Russian aristocracy I found], that by the end, I found I just didn't care that much anymore.

I will say that Julie herself was an interesting characters, in that she was FOURTEEN when she was married [to a pretty vile human being], despised bother her husband [who gave her what they now believe was syphilis, because he continually diddled in so many other ponds] AND the spotlight [which is tough when one is a Royal], and just wanted to live quietly [BUT not poorly! ;-) ], all which seemed to completely infuriate the Russian Court of Royals.

One of the things that was interesting to me was that, with all the inter-marrying [one relative on the Saxe-Coburg side married his teen NIECE - EWWWWWWWW!!!!!!], I was still surprised that Julie was Aunt to both Queen Victoria AND to Prince Albert [I had forgotten that they were cousins. Also, ew.], and that part of the book and the history reminder was both gross AND fascinating.

Overall, this book was just not what I was expecting [Julie was neither a rebel nor was she ever in line to be Empress, so the title is extremely misleading], and I was just left mostly disappointed.

Audiobook ARC - 4 Stars
I absolutely love Jennifer M. Dixon as a narrator and she does an excellent job here. There is a lot of French, German, and Russian names and places, and she handles it deftly, like she speaks both those languages, names, and places on a regular basis. I highly recommend listening to her read this book as she makes even the dry parts better and she is the reason I was able to continue and not DNF.

Thank you to NetGalley, Helen Rappaport, Jennifer M. Dixon - Narrator, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for providing the eBook and audiobook ARC's in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read a lot of history books over the years, lots for school, some for work, and many for fun. Helen Rappaport’s books have been a standout because of the rich narrative quality and conversational tone.

“Rebel Romanov” came across a lot more academic, less like I was having a conversation with Rappaport about Julie of Saxe-Coberg and more like I was listen to a very structured lecture about her life. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it wasn’t what I had expected after reading some of the author’s other works, notably “The Romanov Sisters.”

Little is known about Julie, which is explained in the book, so Rappaport has to make do with what she has and she does it well. She beautifully and clearly describes the different portraits commissioned, the different houses, the travels, etc. Everything is wonderfully detailed and helps the reader feel more immersed, something that can be hard for biographies to pull off.

Very informative read on the life of a woman whose story has been largely lost to time, but had a great impact on history. Her life was tumultuous but full and I was tantalized by her spirit and determination. Unfortunately the tone of the book suffered in the way Russian literature often does with a dryness that undid the compelling narrative. The treatment did not underscore the dramatic life she lead in the way I felt it should.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy. These opinions are my own.

3.5 out of 5 stars

I am not sure if this book is not engaging or if I am just not that interested in the subject. The book is well-researched, and the writing is well done, but I could not fully engage myself into this book.

"The Rebel Romanov: Julie of Saxe-Coburg, the Empress Russia Never Had", follows the life of Julie of Saxe-Coburg, a German princess and future aunt of Queen Victoria. As a young girl, Julie was married off to Konstantin, the second grandson of Catherine the Great of Russia. Forced to leave her home, change her religion, and marry a man she never met, Julie did not face an easy life. The hardest part came from Julie’s husband, who’s erratic and abusive behavior led her to great suffering. Julie managed to get away from her husband, but her struggles continued. Although Julies faced troubles, she was a German princess and lived a life of privilege, and under different circumstances, she could have been an empress of Russia.

Helen Rappaport takes the reader on a journey through Julie of Saxe-Coburg’s life. Even though the sources on Julie are scarce, Rappaport manages to weave a compelling narrative of her life. Because many of the sources did not come from Julie, some speculation had to be made to tell a complete story. This did not take away from the narrative. This book manages to shed light on the life of a lesser-known person. I had no knowledge of Julie of Saxe-Coburg before picking up this book. I learned a lot about the political and social drama of eighteenth and nineteenth century Russia from reading this book.

Even though I struggled to get into this book, I thought it contained a well-written narrative. Rappaport did an excellent job of detailing Julie’s life and painting a picture of the situation in Russia and other parts of Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I do not believe there is much to critique about this work. It was well-researched and informative. It just failed to capture my complete interest.

Courtesy of St. Martin's Press and Netgalley, I received the ARC of The Rebel Romanov by Helen Rappapprt. This extremely well researched non fiction book is about Julie of Saxe Coburg, who was married to Prince Konstantin of Russia at the age of 14. Covering the 18th and 19th centuries of European and Russian nobility and history, the arranged marriages created alliances of influence and property, while maintaining family loyalty. Julie, known for her beauty and graciousness, had a troubled marriage, but retained her exuberance for religion, music, and friends, seeking privacy in Switzerland. I appreciated the descriptions of travel and castles, while learning about these royal families.

I've always been a fan of the Romanovs and this was a fascinating look into 'the rebel Romanov.' As someone who thought I knew almost everything about the family and that period in history, I learned a lot. Highly recommend for fans of history!

Another amazing book by Helen Rappaport. I always turn to her for Russian or Russia-adjacent biographies. This one unfortunately wasn’t super “exciting” in the traditional sense that tons went on, but it was interesting to see how Juli and the Saxe-Coburgs were just connected to everything.

I have two negatives. I feel like having a biography about her goes against Juli’s wishes to fade into obscurity that is mentioned multiple times. I also really wish that the notes at the end of the chapter linked and we had the family tree even if this is an ARC.

Like so many other women in their mid-thirties, I'm extremely interested in the Romanov family. I didn't know anything about Princess Julie of Saxe-Coburg, and her story was fascinating. Rappaport has written great books about the Romanovs in years past and this was a great addition.

Why on Earth does Rappaport need the figleaf of "allegedly" in the book description? A very minor figure in Russian history, and invisible outside it...this is barely non-fiction, there's so much reading between the lines...who's going to troll her for "disrespecting" this nonentity?

One big reason she's been ignored by history is she didn't make any. All she did was leave a husband she detested, run off and have adventures all across Europe, and do exactly nothing for anyone not herself. Pretty much the picture-perfect spoiled princess, sort of like "Sissi" only without the heir-bearing.

Why I liked it is it gave me a fascinating glance into a family that ought to be much netter studied: The Saxe-Coburg ducal dynasty, a branch of the Bavarian royals, the Wettins. Shake a royal family tree and a bunch of 'em will fall out. I mean, a branch of 'em is still on the throne of the United Kingdom and another of that of Belgium. Their close cousins used to be rulers of Portugal and Bulgaria. They were the mothers of Romanov tsars, and countless other royals, from the early 18th century onwards.

It's thrown into stark relief that, when reading this book, the long shadow of Napoleon and more generally the upheavals in France from 1789 forward have made a heavy screen against the study and awareness of the rest of Europe's eventful history at this time. Julie's peripatetic life, though little enough noted, did leave some personal traces. These are presented in their context so I got a good grounding in events seen from the not-Napoleon side. Dynastic marriages, border disputes resolved thereby, things about the power politics of the time I hadn't really been aware enough of to know I didn't know about them, all form this story's backdrop.

What this wasn't, however, was a spicy, entertaining, gossipy book about an interesting woman who had the principles to abandon a luxe life. That's what the title suggested I was going to get; it's a good, illuminating history of a time from an angle new to me. It's not juicy or gossipy. Much about this poor woman and her life was simply not worth risking the ire of Imperial Russia to preserve. I suspect this absence of source material is a calculated act by agents of the Romanovs, to disguise the extremely awful way this poor thing was treated by all and sundry in their court, and by her own family to disguise their sale of one of their own into what amounted to slavery (albeit gilded by trappings of wealth) to save their own hold on political power.

A survivor, this lady was; a rebel, not so much based on this story as told here.
NB My blogged review has links to sources and definitions.

I love this time period in history. It just amazes me how much we actually know and how much is missing.

Julie led a very unique life. She married so very young to the an heir to the Russian Throne. She married Constantine, Catherine the Great’s grand child. But life was not easy for her. She had to deal with learning a new religion and all the new rules for an Empress of Russia. Plus, her husband was very abusive. She begged to leave on numerous occasions. She was finally granted her wish to leave Russia. Julie proceeded to live her life as she wanted.

I had no idea about Julie. She was a person who went after what she wanted when she was supposed to conform and be submissive. I loved learning about her and everything she went through to live her life.

The narrator, Jennifer M. Dixon, had some tough pronunciations to tackle. She handled it like a pro!

Need a well researched book about a woman ahead of her time…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!

I received this audiobook from the publisher for a honest review.