My Thoughts
I love historical fiction, particularly when it is based on a real person. I also enjoy reading Russian history and I have read fiction and non-fiction about Peter the Great, Tzar Nicholas II and family, Rasputin, and Catherine the Great. So, a book about Peter the Great’s second wife definitely piqued my interest. Here are my pros and cons for Tsarina:

Pros

1. I enjoyed the history. Even though this is fiction, there are real historical events in the story, and I enjoyed learning more about this time period. Although the first part of Catherine’s life is not well-documented, I thought the author did a good job of creating a beginning for her by creating plausible scenarios where there were gaps. I actually enjoyed the first part of the book depicting her life because it felt more like it was about her, rather than just about Catherine as the wife of Peter the Great.

2. I think the author did a good job of capturing the atmosphere of late 17th/early 18th century Russia, particularly regarding how women and serfs were treated and what was expected of them. The levels of poverty and the violence women were subjected to was disturbing to say the least.

Cons

1. Here is a note I took while reading this book: “Rape, murder, rape, orgy, sex, sex, sex, incest, violence, rape, pregnancy, death, pregnancy, death, pregnancy, death, pregnancy….”. Honestly, it felt like there was no story after a while and it was just rape, sex, violence, babies, and death nonstop. I lost almost all interest in the book after Catherine met Peter for the first time. I almost did not finish reading it.

2. The writing was strange to me. Sometimes if felt very verbose and formal and other times the words flowed more easily and the story was easier to read. I honestly wondered if there were two separate authors writing different parts of the book because the style differences were very noticeable.

3. There were also some weird similes in the book that really stood out to me. For example “…the sun was shining, dull as a copper coin”. Shining dull? And “… my life changed course, like the weathervane on the monastery roof spinning in the first blast of a sudden storm.” A spinning weathervane is directionless! I know these are nitpicks, and there are more like this in the book, but these types of things really stood out to me as not only strange, but often verbose and unnecessary.

4. The book was way too long.

Summary
I disliked this book more than I anticipated, most particularly because it seemed to be extremely focused on sex, manipulation, and violence. I am very aware that history is rife with sex, manipulation, and violence; however, this book included it so much that it started to feel a bit gratuitous. I wanted more history and less focus on everything else.

I’m not sure if the intention of the novel was to show the reader how great Catherine was, or to show how much of an opportunist she was. The woman definitely wasn’t a saint and she liberally used the only weapon in her arsenal (sex) to get what she wanted/needed in life. One could debate all day long whether what she did was right or wrong. One could also argue that she had no choice in her actions unless she wanted to continue to live her life as a serf. Perhaps it was simply survival to do what she did, perhaps it was the hunger for power she knew was within her grasp, or perhaps it was something else entirely. Either way, the book at least made me think about life at that time and what it would be like to a woman then. For that reason, I bumped my original rating of 2 stars to 3 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an ebook, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

I really enjoyed this book! When you think or read about the Romanovs, you only ever really read about their fall. This was an interesting delve into the rest of this family’s history.

This did the job of historical fiction well. Filled with obvious factual events, but made relatable and entertaining through Alpsten’s mastery of prose. I would recommend this to anyone interested in Russian history, royalty in general, or just a story about a strong woman.

Books like these are why I live for historical fiction. There was romance, violence, alliances, danger, and best of all – just a really good story. Think, Game of Thrones but based on real peoples’ lives.
This is the story of Catherine Alexeyevna, the first Russian Empress to rule. I was so amazed by her background, rife with poverty and labor. She never received a formal education, let alone learned to read. But somehow, she charmed a tsar and survived a court that saw bloodshed and betrayal daily.
Ellen Alpstein weaves an incredible story rooted in history but was honest in sharing that Catherine’s early life was shrouded in mystery and therefor liberties were taken. But no matter, the story she created was marvelous. I still learned quite a bit about 1700s Russia, and eagerly read up on the nonfiction version of Catherine’s life.
At times I did feel a little grossed out by some of the violence and bloodshed, but I was too fascinated to see the juxtaposition against the opulence of the court and the intrigue to stop reading. It felt like Catherine was sitting in monster’s dangerous mouth, camouflaged to look like a palace.

Catherine is only a young child when we are first introduced to her. We follow her as she goes from a serf, to a murderess, to the empress. Catherine is a brave woman. She goes through torments, abuse, fear and, eventually, love. Her life will never be easy, but destiny calls her to keep going, to keep moving towards her purpose in life. There are battles and hearts to be won and lost. With unending courage, Catherine faces them all and one day is known as empress. What starts as a love story with the tsar eventually becomes a nightmare. She never knows what he will do next. Russia is a brutal but stunningly beautiful court to live in so long as you stay on the tsar's good side.
The scenery is described in just the right amount of detail without taking away from the plot and characters. All of the characters are well defined and fleshed out so that you find yourself bonding with them. This was an excellent example of how historical fiction should be written. While the story has a focus mainly on Catherine and the love aspects, there is gruesome battle, torture in detail and death. There is a little bit of everything in this book, so long as you are not faint of heart or squeamish. I would definitely recommend to any of my friends who enjoy a good historical fiction that removes some of the fluff and gets a bit gritty.

All in all, this is a fascinating look into the life of Catherine I of Russia. Although a slow start, readers who stick with this a rewarding with a portrayal of a strong female historical figure in Catherine. Her rise to power as the wife of Peter I is told in a non-linear format and can be a bit hard to follow at times, but the story that is fleshed out in this novel is sweeping and dramatic telling. This will appeal to fans of historical fiction, strong female characters and lovers of Russian history.

I had a hard time getting into this book. I was confused and stumbling over the names. I ended up not finishing it. Life is too short to spend it on books you can not get into. Sorry, just not for me.

*** I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ***

First of all, I love Russian history, especially imperial Russian history! I knew very little of Catherine I before reading this Tsarina. I really enjoyed this book, though some parts are rather disturbing, but that's how people were back then- brutal! This is the story of Catherine (originally Marta) and her life from a peasant woman to the Empress of all Russia. It is a story of strength, perseverance, love, power, greed, and of course, scandal. There is of course, a lot in this book about Peter the Great and his reign and legacy as the tsar that brought Russia into the modern age, built the Russian military up, and founded St. Petersburg. Though this book was maybe a tad long, I did miss learning more about the details of Catherine's reign after Peter the Great died, as the book ends at that point. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is a history buff. It is so interesting and very well written.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

TW: violence, violent sexual content

I thoroughly enjoyed this read! I don't have an in-depth knowledge about Russian history, but this book did a great job at laying out the characters for novice historians. The author does a great job at world building and expounding upon the characters. In addition to the history, there is juicy drama. Overall, a great read!

Tsarina, by Ellen Alpsten, is the story of the wife of Peter the Great, Catherine I, written as historical fiction. It follows her from her rough life as a young peasant girl named Marta, to her rise as the second wife of the mercurial Tsar.

The book seems meticulously researched and is rich in detail. While apparently the facts of her very early life are not well known, the story reads like a soap opera recounting Marta’s ambition and determination in the face of some very horrific experiences.

A warning, however, as there are several explicit sexual encounters in the book. If that is not a concern, readers should find the book engrossing, and will hold the interest of true fans of Russian history.

Tsarina sounded like a great read, but unfortunately fell a bit flat for me. The writing was engaging, but the content seemed gratuitous, even for a fan of Game of Thrones it was a bit too much. Still, if that doesn't bother you then you'd probably enjoy this wild ride through Russian history.
St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advance copy.

I honestly forgot I read this book. It was that unmemorable. I'm not sure if I even finished it. I'm so very sorry.

This book was terrible. It was sexually violently and gratuitous to the point of tedium. I honestly couldn't wait to put it down. If I hadn't already had great experiences with historical fiction this book would have ruined the entire genre for me.

Escapist and engrossing and an absolute page-turner. The kind of book that makes you wonder how long it will take Netflix to develop the miniseries. Absolutely a treat - thank you!

Quite an extraordinary picture of a peasant woman brought into the spotlight through her relationship with Peter the Great. Wanting the crown for herself, she plays the game of life and death for this great prize. Impressive historical fiction at its best!

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tw: captivity of animals and humans, rape (repeated), slavery, suicide, corporal punishment, murder, drug use, war, miscarriage, incest, assault of a child, beheading, abortion, death of children

This book wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I was a bit misled by the synopsis. I had thought it was going to be about how Catherine I came to power after her husband’s death. I thought I was going to see a struggle with her daughter, Elizabeth. But what I got was the entire life of Catherine up until the point of her husband’s death with a few pages of what happened afterwards. Which wasn’t bad, don’t get me wrong but it wasn’t what I expected. This was a bit of a miss for me which is sad because I love St. Martin’s Press so much.

It also didn’t help that was very confused as to who Catherine was. I had thought for the longest time that it was about Catherine the Great but come to find out, there was more than one Catherine. Monarchs really need to switch up their names. I had to do a google search in order to understand. Because Catherine the Great’s husband was also named Peter. I was just a big mess. So it was a very confusing 50 pages or so.

I think one of the reasons why I didn’t completely love this was the formatting. I got an eARC from Netgalley which I know is bound to lead to some formatting issues. However, I found out that this was a re release so I thought the formatting would be a lot better. There were huge walls of texts.I’m talking just pages and pages of text with no paragraph breaks. It was hard to read at times. I had to turn on Netgalley night mode just so my eyes wouldn’t burn to death. I also had to read it on my phone because when I brought it up on my iPad, the formatting didn’t take into account the bigger screen so it was absolutely miniscule on my iPad.

Beside the formatting issues, I actually enjoyed this book despite the rather less than rave review up until this point. Of course, that was after I figured out who it was about. It’s nice learning about different tsars than the usual ones like the Romanovs, which is what I usually gravitate towards. I admired Catherine for her strength and her cunning. She truly did whatever she could to make sure she would survive. Which I know can be rough considering what she was up against.

One last thing before I wrap this review up. I know I posted my trigger warnings at the top of this review but I wanted to make a separate paragraph especially for this. This book was rough to read in terms of the content. There are a lot of places where Catherine is raped and it’s described pretty graphically. It was hard to read at times because your heart just bled for her. She didn’t deserve that. Not one bit. There is also so much misogyny and it’s often unchallenged as it usually is where historical books are involved. So take care while reading this book because it gets pretty rough.

Overall, this was a good book hence the 3.5 star rating. I think I would have it rated it higher if the formatting hadn’t been such an issue. Also I think the synopsis needs to be changed. It’s kind of misleading. But other than that, I did enjoy this book but it just wasn’t one of my favorites. I’m not discouraged though. I’m sure St Martin’s Press has many more books for me and just waiting to be discovered.

This is the story of Catherine I of Russia. It’s the story on how she rose from poverty to power. I loved this book so much! From the beginning of the story of a young and innocent girl Catherine, you can see that she has a fighting spirit. Here are some of the things that stood out for me in the book:

-There is never a dull moment, it’s fast paced, and so much has happens from the start.
-There is war, romance, and the scenes leave nothing to the imagination.
-Well written! I love the descriptions of the cities and the people in that time of history.

I can't wait to read more from this author!

I tried to enjoy this book - the subject matter is fascinating and I wanted to know more about Catherine after seeing Hulu's Catherine the Great show. But I couldn't slog through it - despite trying multiple times. I eventually put it down, and didn't pick it back up. The prose is beautifully written, but it wasn't for me.

This historic fiction is set in the early 1700s in Russia and has a strong female protagonist as the name of the book suggests. We go through Martha’s story from when she was young, through her trials and tribulations to when she rose in ranks to become the Tsarina of Russia. It started off strong, and then there were moments in there that I didn’t know or rather couldn’t fully empathize; it’s all the intrigue and back stabbing and the behind the scenes scandal type of deal. The book brings to light issues of friendships and loyalty. Yes, this is a rags to riches story, if you like that sort of thing. Some of the sexual circumstances and scenes were graphic and had me raise an eyebrow or two. If you love Russian historic fiction, and you love stories about the struggles to rise to power, then this one is for you.

Thank you to NetGalley for offering this book. I requested this book as I love historical fiction. This book surely read like fiction, but according to the author, it events are all based on well documented history. That made the book even more incredible. The beginning was a bit slow but once it took off, it was a great rollercoaster ride. The writing/story was a bit disjointed at times, but easy enough to follow. I love when a book doesn't follow a linear timeline. This goes back and forth between Marta's humble beginnings and Catherine's unbelievable rise. I'd recommend this to anyone with a love of history. And romance ;-)

I loved the feeling and vibe of this novel. Ellen Alpsten does a wonderful job not only created the lush rich palaces of Russia, but the snowy cold villages of Tsarina's youth. You feel as if you are there with her through each twist and turn.