This book has mystery, intrigue, and romance all rolled into one. It is well written and keeps you guessing throughout, even after you think you have it all figured out. The main character, Isabelle, is a female architect in a male dominated career who has come home after her mother died. She discovers that there is a lot her mother has kept hidden from her. I liked this book- it is well written and has a few unexpected twists including a slight foray into the supernatural.

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This is a fun read. The ending has several twists which make the read interesting. While I enjoyed the book as a "light" read, I also feel that some of the story is unrealistic. The writing is not what I consider to be epic or beautiful.

This was a first book for me from this author. I really enjoyed. You could tell the author did her research. It was extremely well written and very rich and descriptive in historical detail. It flips back and forth in time which I loved and keeps the reader interested until the very end. Very good historical fiction novel, highly recommend!!!

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Can I just say how much I loved this story? It’s full of Art, history mystery and romance. What an enjoyable read.

The story is told of two time lines: Sofiya as a teenager in 1915 Petrograd Russia, before and during the the fall of the Russian empire. Sofiya’s mother was a teacher to the czar’s young daughters and she grew to be close friends with them. When the Winter palace is made into a hospital, Sofiya and the young duchesses volunteer to tend to the men returning from the Crimea war. While there, Sofya falls in love with a wounded soldier who has lost his memory. Having no knowledge of his name, she calls him Carpathian after the area he was found. As he heals and his memory begins to return they learn that prior to the war he was a jeweler for the famous house of Faberge. As their love blossoms Sofiya leaves the hospital work to continue her studies with one of the great masters of the Hermitage learning the painstaking process of Art restoration.
The Russian political climate continues to deteriorate and the young duchess realizes she will need to go into exile and leave her friend Sofiya soon. She gifts Sofiya with a bejeweled tiara as a token of their friendship and perhaps a way for Sofiya to buy her safety if the situation turns dire..

Alternately is the story of Sofiya’s 24 year old daughter Isobel in 1948 New York. Isobel has channeled her parents artistic streak into a career as an architect. Of course being a woman in that field in the 1940s had it’s own challenges which lent the story a “yup, cant believe we are still dealing with this crap” feeling.
Her mother emegrated to NY while pregnant, and built a successful art and furniture restoration business. When she emigrated she left her old life behind and refused to talk about anything from the old world, leaving Isobel with more questions than answers.
At the start of the story we learn that Sofiya has died in a tragic accident. After mourning the loss of her mother, Isobel decide to renovate her mother’s room and finds the tiara, of which she knows nothing about. Such begins the mystery of uncovering what it means and perhaps finding her own true love.

I really found the time periods of the story really interesting. This is a well researched book and I was constantly looking up information in Wikipedia. The book cover the creation of Faberge eggs, the fall of the Russian Empire , the Manhattan project’ OakRidge development, and the ghost Army of WW2.

This is a story full of passion, love, hope and separation. All the ingredients for a great romance. Highly recommend

MJ Rose is amazing!!!! I absolutely fell in love with her last book, Cartier's Hope, and found myself just as entranced with The Last Tiara. The historical details are incredibly compelling and it's impossible not to root for her richly drawn characters.
I wanted to savor the story, but I was so driven to find out all the secrets that I couldn't stop turning the pages!!! Highly recommend!!

I am not a fan of M.J. Rose, I have tried others of her books and her writing is not really my cup of tea, but I really think that this novel is her best job so far. Well developed character and an an interesting original theme. Also the setting was very appealing to me.

The Last Tiara alternates its plot line between two time periods: the last days of the Tsar in Russia and the 1940's in New York. The novel as a whole was readable and I enjoyed it, however the two narratives were somewhat uneven in their success. On the Russian side, we had an exciting historical novel that followed Sofiya, a young art restorer as she navigated the difficult times, first as a friend of the Tsar's daughters through nursing, a romance and ultimately an emigration to the US. On the 1940's piece, we have her daughter Isobel, a female architect, who discovers a hidden tiara and strives to unlock the mystery surrounding it and her mother. Isobel's side of the narrative is more problematic than Sofiya's. She struggles with self-worth and the incident that caused it fails to have any real impact. Her career though is an interesting choice in that time period. For me the real success of that part of the narrative, was the jeweler who helps her in her search, Jules and I look forward to seeing more of him in subsequent novels. What this novel didn't need however, was the vaguely mystical overlay involving Isobel's mother's ghost. Thank you Netgalley for providing this book free to me for my review.

I found The Last Tiara to be a very plot driven book, there is not much character development until towards the end of the book. I did question Isobelle’s lack of self confidence yet career in architecture in the 1940s. This did not distract from the story for me but just had me thinking it seemed contradictory.

I enjoyed this book and the dual timeline. I liked that the dual timelines was that of mother and daughter, living two very different lives.

I think, unfortunately this story skipped over the deaths of the Romanov family. Sofiya was best friends with Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna and yes, Sofiya worries about the Romanovs when they are taken from their home in the palace. The story mentioned that the people of Russia were not sure of the fates of the Romanovs for a while and did not want to face the truth of their fate. I expected Sofiya to think on Olgas death or disappearance a little more, the whole saga of the demise of the Romanovs is mentioned a few times in passing in the book and it seemed downplayed to me.

I enjoyed this book overall and it entertained me. I like the bit of information included in the book about the tiara that was photographed with the Romanovs jewel collection but then went missing.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction or stories about Russia during the revolution.

I received a free copy of this book by the publisher via  Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book!

Isobelle Moon finds a jewelless tiara hidden in the walls of a room she is renovating. Her search for the history behind it, the reason it is there and its mysterious journey to how it traversed across oceans will lead her on an adventure that brings healing to her in more ways than one as she discovers her parent's past and her future along the way. I flew through the book and loved the back and forth between different characters and timelines. My only reason for 3 stars instead of 4 is i wish there for a few more chapters as the ending left us with a few more unanswered questions but otherwise it is excellent and I would read it again

In this book we jump between two time periods. In 1915 We watch Sofiya Petrovitch and the Romanov sisters as they become nurses for those injured in the First World War. We see a budding relationship with a soldier who has lost his memory from a concussion. As that begins to sort out, life gets more complicated.

In 1948 Isobelle Moon is a woman architect who is trying to make her way in a male-heavy profession. She is the daughter of a now-Russian immigrant who escaped her war-torn country. Her mother, Sofiya Petrovitch was determined to start over as Sophia Moon and give her daughter the best life possible. A close friend of Olga Romanov, she was gifted a jeweled tiara that became her way of financial security.

Sofiya was never good at disclosing her past- she only wanted to look forward. Isobelle never knew her father who was sent to Siberia before she was born. As the book unfolds we learn more about this past and the secrets the tiara has in store.

I don’t mind books that take place in two time periods. I usually really enjoy watching the story flesh out. While this one was good, I had a hard time really investing in the characters. It wasn’t until the last quarter of the book that I finally cared to know how it would end up. There are a lot of side stories that are touched on, but not fully expressed, so while I understood some of the emotional trauma and frustration of the main characters, I didn’t actually FEEL it with them. I enjoyed a different look at the Romanovs and Russia during both wars, but for me it was just okay.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed reading this book, the characters were great and I really enjoyed going through his story,

It is striking from the very beginning that there is so much telling. The telling is so overwhelming. And due to lack of character development, I struggled from the beginning to connect with both characters, mother and daughter.

When it comes to the plot, I was interested in the history of the tiara. Once the daughter finds the tiara after the death of her mother, she tries to unravel its story. In the process we learn about the world of jewelers and that’s the part I enjoyed. However, at the end it turns out to be a very small part of this story.

The story alternates between daughter and mother and between two timelines. Mother, as a young woman, is a nurse at a hospital where she meets a wounded soldier, who has amnesia. And later turns out to be involved with jewelry and there is more to his story. For those who like mystery, then this part might be one of those hooks in the story.

There is also an issue of unnecessary descriptions, which don’t necessarily enforce the plot. I appreciate stories rich in historical details, but this story seems to be out of balance. It seems as tiny bits of information are thrown here and there just for the sake of history and not the plot.

A fantastic journey into life in Russia just as the revolution was beginning. This was a story of friendship, love, and heartbreak. Isobelle is sent on a quest of discovery after losing her mother Sophia. Discovery of just who she is and who her mother truly was since she refused to ever talk about her life in Russia. This is a cannot put down, page-turner of a book. MJ Rose is absolutely one of the best when it comes to historical novels.

The Last Tiara is a delightful read for fans of historical Russian fiction, mysteries and romance. It slips back and forth in time from the Russian Revolution to the late 1940s with alternating chapters telling the story of Sofiya, best friend and confidant of Tsar Nicolas' oldest daughter, and Isobelle, Sofiya's daughter after Sofiya suddenly dies with secrets of her past untold.

With a little of everything, this story has crown jewels, romance and mystery vividly interwoven into historical context of the end of the Romanoff era and post-WW2 focusing on career opportunities for women. The final chapters take good twists as the mystery of the tiara unfolds.

Thanks NetGalley and Blue Box Press for allowing me to read an ARC of this book. I really enjoyed it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5-Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book. I love reading historical fiction and coming from Russian backgrounds, I enjoy reading about the Romanovs. The story shrouded in so much inexplicable mystery. I thought that this story was going to be more about that. This story happened to alternate between Isobelle Moone’s quest to find the history of her mother and her mother’s past and also to a missing tiara once owned by the grand duchess Olga. This story was a love story and mystery. There were a lot of surprises most of which I felt were unnecessary and some felt randomly written in. I felt it was dragged out and boring during a lot of parts. I didn’t love it.

I am not always a fan of books that exist over multiple timelines, as I often feel like characters develop unevenly. With this engaging novel by M.J. Rose, however, that was never the case. One of the aspects of this book that gripped me the most was the scenery involved. Both worlds--Russia in the 20's and New York in the 40's--came to life in this story. Though the settings of the mother's and daughter's story are so different, the parallels that emerged between the two were spellbinding. Overall, this novel did a beautiful job of building two intricate, engaging stories that blended extremely well with each other.
One area where this book sometimes fell short was the dialogue. Where the descriptions of atmosphere and scenery were incredible, the conversations between characters sometimes fell flat by comparison.
On the whole, this is a memorable and engaging story that wonderfully handles an infamous period of history.

I greatly enjoyed this book, and the mixture of historical fiction and mystery. I especially liked the incorporation of the Romanov family, the Russian revolution, and the House of Faberge. It took me awhile at the beginning to really settle completely into the story and lose myself, but I did eventually sink in. The alternating and connecting timelines ended up playing well off each other.

Isobelle knows almost nothing about her mother Sophia's life in Russia before she came to New York City so when she discovers a tiara, minus most of the jewels, when she is renovating her mother's bedroom after her tragic death Isobelle is determined to learn more. Told in alternating chapters, Sophia's life in Russia and Isobelle's quest to solve the mystery, the origin of the tiara is revealed. Will searching for the secrets of the past put Isobelle's life in danger? Fans of Fiona Davis will enjoy this story.

The Last Tiara by M.J. Rose is the very best historical fiction I have read this year and I loved this book! The story is written with so much heart, emotion, and imagination for the time periods of 1915-1948 in Russia and America for Sofiya Petrovitch/Sophia Moon. After Sophia's unexpected death in 1948, her daughter Isobelle Moon finds a mysterious hidden niche in the bedroom wall as she starts to renovate the appartment. A blue leather case holds the remains of a silver tiara designed as a scepter but all the stones are missing. Why did her mother keep this hidden and what were the secrets in her life? This book highlights two very strong women who against the odds made a successful life in a very stressful time.
I won't post spoilers, but as I read more of the narration by Sofiya and her association with Olga Romanov during those perilous times, I was so completely drawn into both the stories until I kept the Kindle on my pillow so even if I drifted off to sleep I would be able to continue the story as I would awake.
Isobelle is a talented junior architech with a very presitgous firm. She is hindered from moving up due to an unfortunate relationship with her supervisor. She does not complain because positions for woman are so hard to acquire in her field during this time in America. When she meets the grandson of the jeweler who worked on the mysterious tiara for her mother nearly twenty years earlier, she is attracted to him, but will she ever be able to trust another ambitious man? He confids to her that he is a member of a secret society who try to locate and return stolen jewels to the rightful heirs. Isobelle needs to be able to trust him but he wants to acquire the tiara in order to meet a goal within the Midas Society.
The ending chapters of the story are so interesting and I felt the story was very well told from beginning through the conclusion.
Publication Date: February 2, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley, M.J. Rose, and the publisher for the opportunity to read and post reviews of The Last Tiara.

The last tiara was a magical journey. Slipping back and forth in time from 1920s to the late 40s. This has a little of everything. Mystery, romance jewels and even a little history