The Gathering Storm: Katerina Trilogy, #1 -- Robin Bridges
St. Petersburg, 1888. 16-year-old Katerina Alexandra Maria von Holstein-Gottorp, Duchess of Oldenburg, has a secret.
She's a necromancer.
You'd think, in a world in which fairy royalty vies for power alongside human royalty—and a world in which vampires exist—that her talent wouldn't be seen as all that problematic*. But it is. So she keeps it hidden.
Her family doesn't know, the girls at school don't know, the men her mother throws her at don't know... until, at a society dinner, she uses her power to prevent another girl from casting a spell on a member of the Imperial family, and people take notice.
Suddenly, she's at the center of some serious intrigue... and romance. Even as she's being courted by the very-probably-evil Prince of Montenegro, she also keeps finding herself in the company of the tsar's cranky son, George Alexandrovich, who sees her for what she is... and doesn't approve.
Pros: Cool descriptions of fancy dresses and jewels and dances at balls. Set in Russia. Glittery cover. Cranky George doesn't get a lot of screen time, but I liked him. There are some great creepy lines like:
Princess Cantacuzene had told me of the folk tales that said vampires rose out of the earth in the spring and stalked the living between those two holy days: St. Yuri's Day in April and St. Andrew's Day in November. But I knew now that this was just a silly superstition. They stalked us all year round.
Cons: I was thrown by the occasional use of modern phrases/phrasing like "meat market" and "don't worry your pretty little head about anything". The exterior dialogue and narration kept shifting between Olde Fashioned formal to Modern Day informal, so Katerina's voice never felt like it jelled.
Cranky George can read Katerina's mind, but she keeps forgetting that he can read her mind, and then is embarrassed when she remembers that he can read her mind. I found it difficult to believe that, once discovering a Royal Hottie can read your mind that you'd forget it once, let alone twice.
While a broad strokes description of Katerina's world definitely sounds like a great setting in theory, in practice it didn't work so well, mainly because the details about the world and its political landscape were borderline incomprehensible. And I say that as someone who loves political intrigue and world-building. Additionally, a lot of the world-building information was just airlifted in and dumped into conversation, which added to my problems with the believability of Katerina's voice.
TL;DR: I stopped caring long before I finished the book. (But I did finish the book.)
Recommended to: It might work for fans of other dark historical fantasies, like A Great and Terrible Beauty or Prophecy of the Sisters. But... eh.
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*You'd also think that what with all of the paranormal action going on, that folks would be hunky dory with witches. But, no.
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Amazon | Indiebound.
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Book source: Review copy from the publisher.