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Natalie Tereshchenko - Lady In Waiting
Natalie is no ordinary Lady In Waiting ~ she is a niece of the Tsar of Russia ~ but it is a secret that no-one will admit. She works for Tatiana, second eldest of the daughters of Nicholas II, a family that lives in luxury while the citizens of Russia starve. But revolution is in the air, and things are about to change.
Natalie's only friends are the twins ~ Polya, shy and nervous, and Rada, the tough one. Together, they follow the family into exile as the country descends into civil war. When Polya is threatened, Rada and Natalie plot a murder to protect her.
As she chronicles the decline of the Russian monarchy, Natalie also candidly reveals her own insecurities and longings, her friendships and loves. She tells of the men who loved her and the one who deceived her, and, when the family is slaughtered, shares the agonising decision she is driven to make.
Natalie's only friends are the twins ~ Polya, shy and nervous, and Rada, the tough one. Together, they follow the family into exile as the country descends into civil war. When Polya is threatened, Rada and Natalie plot a murder to protect her.
As she chronicles the decline of the Russian monarchy, Natalie also candidly reveals her own insecurities and longings, her friendships and loves. She tells of the men who loved her and the one who deceived her, and, when the family is slaughtered, shares the agonising decision she is driven to make.
414 pages, Paperback
First published February 9, 2013
8 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Audrey Mills
20 books5 followersYou can download free ebook editions of all my books from my website www.itsliz.net
I am so lucky. I have lived a full and interesting life, been to places, done things, and forgotten most of them. If I were to die tomorrow I would not feel cheated.
I was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, of gentle, loving parents. My childhood was undistinguished: I was expelled from posh school, and found my level in the state secondary education system, emerging with just enough basic skills to enable me to get a job … then another job … then another … and so on. At some point, I married and divorced a few times, producing two children, who are now adults and whom I love.
Writing was always a hobby, followed intermittently, until I shook off the shackles of the capitalist slavery system and gratefully accepted retirement. I developed my writing skills by reading and analysing the work of others. From some, I learnt how to write, while others showed me the mistakes to avoid; I am grateful to all of them.
At the age of sixty, as retirement loomed, I reinvented myself. I was able to write full-time, to become Elizabeth Audrey Mills, now author of seven novels, plus two sci-fi novelettes for older children.
I am so lucky. I have lived a full and interesting life, been to places, done things, and forgotten most of them. If I were to die tomorrow I would not feel cheated.
I was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, of gentle, loving parents. My childhood was undistinguished: I was expelled from posh school, and found my level in the state secondary education system, emerging with just enough basic skills to enable me to get a job … then another job … then another … and so on. At some point, I married and divorced a few times, producing two children, who are now adults and whom I love.
Writing was always a hobby, followed intermittently, until I shook off the shackles of the capitalist slavery system and gratefully accepted retirement. I developed my writing skills by reading and analysing the work of others. From some, I learnt how to write, while others showed me the mistakes to avoid; I am grateful to all of them.
At the age of sixty, as retirement loomed, I reinvented myself. I was able to write full-time, to become Elizabeth Audrey Mills, now author of seven novels, plus two sci-fi novelettes for older children.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 29, 2013
In Natalie Tereshchenko, Elizabeth Audrey Mills presents us with a likable and engaging heroine-- Natalie is everything that we’d expect from a good protagonist and a good narrator. She’s observant, she’s intelligent, she’s compassionate—and above all, she’s just an ordinary person.
Despite her royal blood (she is the illegitimate daughter of Tsar Nicholas II's brother), Natalie is a servant to the princess Tatiana. The book covers the last days of the Romanovs, opening in March 1917 and ending just after their execution in 1918. Mills takes us from the grandeur of Alexander Palace, with its chandeliers and shining parquet floors to the suffocating squalor of Ipatiev House, where the deposed royal family and their few remaining servants suffer through scarcity and terror.
Mills tells the tale in refreshingly disciplined and precise prose. Presenting the tale from Natalie's point of view specifically was a very good decision. Some of it is sheer narrative, but Mills also throws in Natalie’s diary entries as a device. (Incidentally, as far as I can tell, Natalie is a fictional character—but the fact that this book sent me into research mode, I think, is a very good sign.) Natalie’s voice keeps the story very accessible, but, more importantly, she is in the unique position to give us both sides of the conflict. In every possible sense, she is an outsider, straddling two worlds. She is more educated than most servants, and somewhat sheltered, so the rest of the palace staff distrusts her. Yet her intimate knowledge of the royal family helps Natalie see them for actual people, with personalities and foibles. They are not mere figureheads, and they most certainly are not evil. But as a servant and a virtual orphan, Natalie also identifies with the plight of the common folk in a way that the royal family could never hope to.
Mills’ style fits both Natalie as a character and the story overall. A historical piece should be straightforward and linear—we all know where this is going to end up, so the question becomes, how are we getting there? Are we taking the scenic route?
In this case, the answer is yes and no. Mills gives us some lush historical details, like descriptions of palaces and villages. But then, there are the less appetizing aspects: bleak Russian winters, gunfire, wounded soldiers, piss, rotting meat.
Mills tells the story in present tense, which also serves the story well. It keeps the extraordinary events plausible—not just the grand historical drama (revolution, attempted escapes, a coup d’etat) but everything, from Natalie’s personal dramas to the rather fantastical appearance of Myriam, a spirit who appears, claiming to be Natalie’s guardian angel.
Incidentally, the Myriam subplot worked for me because it is told with the same matter-of-factness as a group of drunks stumbling into an alley to relieve themselves. Ditto the lovemaking scenes, or the scene where Natalie and a fellow servant girl take revenge on a Bolshevik soldier for rape. I felt it illustrates Russian culture so well—a culture that accepts the worldly and the otherworldly with equanimity. Natalie herself is not a particularly spiritual creature—she attended mass every day because the Tsarina insisted. Later, when Natalie finds herself hiding out in a convent, she doesn’t have some sort of religious epiphany but, instead, she feels rather ruefully like a fraud. She accepts the situation, just as she accepts Myriam’s guidance.
As Natalie and her fellow servants go about their daily lives, carrying out their duties, bickering, falling in love, and, ultimately, getting swept up into events greater than themselves, it reminds us that historical drama is really about people—just people, working, eating, talking, making friends, having sex, getting hurt, picking themselves up and dusting themselves off.
Nature and natural urges are a recurring theme: Natalie takes great joy in being out-of-doors (the closest Natalie ever has to religious moments). Even in the dead of winter, she goes outside to feed the birds. Invariably, in a time before indoor plumbing was widespread, and injury and disease run rampant, bodies and bodily functions are a recurring image as well. In the opening pages, in fact, the reader finds themselves plunged into a Sapphic interlude, which made me sit up and say, “Hello!” Hey, when you’re a lady-in-waiting, the dating pool is somewhat limited . . . er, until the Revolution comes and you find sexy wounded soldiers waiting to be tended on the royal doorstep.
The thing is, history and historical fiction is about people getting confronted with impossible decisions. Not just the tsar, but Natalie and people like her—one of the other servants has the option, towards the end, of leaving the royal family. If he had, his life would have been spared. He chose to stay with his masters, who were, after all, the only family he knew. I can’t help but wonder what decision I would have made in his shoes.
My only quibble with this book is the mention that Natalie is keeping her journals in the hopes that she will one day publish her memoirs—again with the writers writing about writers writing. Stop it, people. Seriously, why can’t Natalie just keep a diary for its own sake? But Natalie’s literary ambitions don’t really receive more than a passing mention, given that she has more pressing concerns, like survival.
Ultimately, this book is about self-discovery. From the beginning, when Natalie learns about her birthright, she struggles to find a way to reconcile it to the life she’s been living. I think she succeeded.
This book kept me engaged until the surprise ending. I won’t give it away, except to say it explains why you never heard of Natalie, the last Romanov. But Mills makes you wish that there was such a person, and that you’d heard of her sooner.
Despite her royal blood (she is the illegitimate daughter of Tsar Nicholas II's brother), Natalie is a servant to the princess Tatiana. The book covers the last days of the Romanovs, opening in March 1917 and ending just after their execution in 1918. Mills takes us from the grandeur of Alexander Palace, with its chandeliers and shining parquet floors to the suffocating squalor of Ipatiev House, where the deposed royal family and their few remaining servants suffer through scarcity and terror.
Mills tells the tale in refreshingly disciplined and precise prose. Presenting the tale from Natalie's point of view specifically was a very good decision. Some of it is sheer narrative, but Mills also throws in Natalie’s diary entries as a device. (Incidentally, as far as I can tell, Natalie is a fictional character—but the fact that this book sent me into research mode, I think, is a very good sign.) Natalie’s voice keeps the story very accessible, but, more importantly, she is in the unique position to give us both sides of the conflict. In every possible sense, she is an outsider, straddling two worlds. She is more educated than most servants, and somewhat sheltered, so the rest of the palace staff distrusts her. Yet her intimate knowledge of the royal family helps Natalie see them for actual people, with personalities and foibles. They are not mere figureheads, and they most certainly are not evil. But as a servant and a virtual orphan, Natalie also identifies with the plight of the common folk in a way that the royal family could never hope to.
Mills’ style fits both Natalie as a character and the story overall. A historical piece should be straightforward and linear—we all know where this is going to end up, so the question becomes, how are we getting there? Are we taking the scenic route?
In this case, the answer is yes and no. Mills gives us some lush historical details, like descriptions of palaces and villages. But then, there are the less appetizing aspects: bleak Russian winters, gunfire, wounded soldiers, piss, rotting meat.
Mills tells the story in present tense, which also serves the story well. It keeps the extraordinary events plausible—not just the grand historical drama (revolution, attempted escapes, a coup d’etat) but everything, from Natalie’s personal dramas to the rather fantastical appearance of Myriam, a spirit who appears, claiming to be Natalie’s guardian angel.
Incidentally, the Myriam subplot worked for me because it is told with the same matter-of-factness as a group of drunks stumbling into an alley to relieve themselves. Ditto the lovemaking scenes, or the scene where Natalie and a fellow servant girl take revenge on a Bolshevik soldier for rape. I felt it illustrates Russian culture so well—a culture that accepts the worldly and the otherworldly with equanimity. Natalie herself is not a particularly spiritual creature—she attended mass every day because the Tsarina insisted. Later, when Natalie finds herself hiding out in a convent, she doesn’t have some sort of religious epiphany but, instead, she feels rather ruefully like a fraud. She accepts the situation, just as she accepts Myriam’s guidance.
As Natalie and her fellow servants go about their daily lives, carrying out their duties, bickering, falling in love, and, ultimately, getting swept up into events greater than themselves, it reminds us that historical drama is really about people—just people, working, eating, talking, making friends, having sex, getting hurt, picking themselves up and dusting themselves off.
Nature and natural urges are a recurring theme: Natalie takes great joy in being out-of-doors (the closest Natalie ever has to religious moments). Even in the dead of winter, she goes outside to feed the birds. Invariably, in a time before indoor plumbing was widespread, and injury and disease run rampant, bodies and bodily functions are a recurring image as well. In the opening pages, in fact, the reader finds themselves plunged into a Sapphic interlude, which made me sit up and say, “Hello!” Hey, when you’re a lady-in-waiting, the dating pool is somewhat limited . . . er, until the Revolution comes and you find sexy wounded soldiers waiting to be tended on the royal doorstep.
The thing is, history and historical fiction is about people getting confronted with impossible decisions. Not just the tsar, but Natalie and people like her—one of the other servants has the option, towards the end, of leaving the royal family. If he had, his life would have been spared. He chose to stay with his masters, who were, after all, the only family he knew. I can’t help but wonder what decision I would have made in his shoes.
My only quibble with this book is the mention that Natalie is keeping her journals in the hopes that she will one day publish her memoirs—again with the writers writing about writers writing. Stop it, people. Seriously, why can’t Natalie just keep a diary for its own sake? But Natalie’s literary ambitions don’t really receive more than a passing mention, given that she has more pressing concerns, like survival.
Ultimately, this book is about self-discovery. From the beginning, when Natalie learns about her birthright, she struggles to find a way to reconcile it to the life she’s been living. I think she succeeded.
This book kept me engaged until the surprise ending. I won’t give it away, except to say it explains why you never heard of Natalie, the last Romanov. But Mills makes you wish that there was such a person, and that you’d heard of her sooner.
April 4, 2014
The first chapter pulled me in with its mysterious opening. As the book is written in first person narrative, we see everything unfold from Natalie’s perspective. On the one hand, that limits the story a little because we don’t get to know much about the overall situation in the country and about how others suffer during the Russian revolution. On the other hand, it adds credibility to the story and makes it different from all the factual, comprehensive accounts that can read more like teaching material than like a novel. The diary entries are a nice touch.
What I really like about "Natalie Tereshchenko – Lady in Waiting" is that as soon as the characters experienced some happiness or receive positive news and I as a reader leaned back a little and tried to enjoy the ride, something sad, shocking or cruel happened. And I was right back to being glued to the screen and wanting to know what obstacle needed to be overcome now, and how on earth they would manage to survive. Whenever I realized how impossibly young the protagonists, including Natalie, are – of an age where we are occupied with school and making friends and how to spend the weekend, as opposed to being recruited as a soldier, getting married or working hard – I felt a lump growing in my throat. All the violence and struggle for power and the lengths people have to go to in order to survive stayed in my mind after I finished the book. All through it, I felt for Natalie, I understood her and I wondered how important her role in it all really was.
The author lets the reader know quite early on that Natalie will find her true love in a man who can help her, then throws quite a lot of men into the girl’s path. It becomes an interesting guessing game who could be the special one; though in the end, like Natalie, we simply know it when we meet him.
I like Elizabeth Mill’s use of language and the descriptions and details with which she sets the scene as the heroine travels from one place to other, ever deeper into chaos and change. Speaking of change, I think that is the main theme of the book, in regards to the people as well as to the country. Sometimes, the words the protagonists use seemed too modern to me, but then again, I’m certainly no expert on the time and place of the novel.
There’s no room for real romance, which is disappointing but understandable when the country around them is in such upheaval and Natalie never gets the chance to really be herself and settle down. However, we are treated to some steam and emotional scenes just at the right moment. I just wish the author had included even more information on the background of the revolution as well as on the customs and traditions, because I love learning about other cultures and about the past.
As for the end: The first novel in the Natalie Tereshchenko series ends on a huge cliffhanger that is the perfect grand finale. I’m glad that I finished the book at a time when the sequel, "Natalie Tereshchenko – The other side" – has just been released, because I definitely want to know what happens next.
What I really like about "Natalie Tereshchenko – Lady in Waiting" is that as soon as the characters experienced some happiness or receive positive news and I as a reader leaned back a little and tried to enjoy the ride, something sad, shocking or cruel happened. And I was right back to being glued to the screen and wanting to know what obstacle needed to be overcome now, and how on earth they would manage to survive. Whenever I realized how impossibly young the protagonists, including Natalie, are – of an age where we are occupied with school and making friends and how to spend the weekend, as opposed to being recruited as a soldier, getting married or working hard – I felt a lump growing in my throat. All the violence and struggle for power and the lengths people have to go to in order to survive stayed in my mind after I finished the book. All through it, I felt for Natalie, I understood her and I wondered how important her role in it all really was.
The author lets the reader know quite early on that Natalie will find her true love in a man who can help her, then throws quite a lot of men into the girl’s path. It becomes an interesting guessing game who could be the special one; though in the end, like Natalie, we simply know it when we meet him.
I like Elizabeth Mill’s use of language and the descriptions and details with which she sets the scene as the heroine travels from one place to other, ever deeper into chaos and change. Speaking of change, I think that is the main theme of the book, in regards to the people as well as to the country. Sometimes, the words the protagonists use seemed too modern to me, but then again, I’m certainly no expert on the time and place of the novel.
There’s no room for real romance, which is disappointing but understandable when the country around them is in such upheaval and Natalie never gets the chance to really be herself and settle down. However, we are treated to some steam and emotional scenes just at the right moment. I just wish the author had included even more information on the background of the revolution as well as on the customs and traditions, because I love learning about other cultures and about the past.
As for the end: The first novel in the Natalie Tereshchenko series ends on a huge cliffhanger that is the perfect grand finale. I’m glad that I finished the book at a time when the sequel, "Natalie Tereshchenko – The other side" – has just been released, because I definitely want to know what happens next.
August 11, 2013
I love historical fiction and Lady In Waiting had me engrossed up until the very last word - And the last word is what you'll want to read. Shocking Ending! I love it when a book surprises me. Elizabeth Audrey Mills has done it again.
August 11, 2013
An intriguing take on the Romanov story, told from the inside by a young girl who experiences and learns a great deal in the course of the book. A well-written story that's sure to please fans of historical romance. Recommended.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews