THE LAST GRAND DUCHESS - Bryn Turnbull
Mira
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1170-6
February 2022
Historical Fiction

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. Jani Brooks