Soția imperială

by Irina Reyn, Edith Negulici (Translator)

Povestea fascinantă a împărătesei Ecaterina, femeia care a domnit într-o lume a bărbaților

Tanya Kagan, specialistă în artă rusească la o casă de licitații din New York se pregătește pentru cea mai importantă licitație din viața ei: un medalion cu Ordinul Sfintei Ecaterina.

Pe măsură ce apar tot mai multe întrebări legate de acest Ordin și febra licitației crește, Reyn îi poartă pe cititori prin lumea fascinantă a Ecaterinei celei Mari, faimoasa împărăteasă din secolul al XVIII-lea, care a deținut medalionul și care, surprinzător, se confrunta cu aceleași tensiuni și probleme ca o femeie de azi.

Este o poveste despre căsnicie: ce se întâmplă cu un cuplu, sau chiar cu o întreagă națiune, când soția e mai puternică decât soțul ei?

„Reyn împletește fermecător povestea Tanyei cu a Ecaterinei. Amândouă au de suferit pentru calitățile lor: ambiția, hotărârea, sângele-rece, pe care societatea le așteaptă de la bărbații puternici, dar care par suspecte când e vorba de femei.“
Vogue

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Russia, Art, Historical, Adult Fiction, Literary Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 2016

About the author

Irina Reyn is the author of the forthcoming novel MOTHER COUNTRY. She is also the author of THE IMPERIAL WIFE and WHAT HAPPENED TO ANNA K.
She loves to hear from readers. Check out her website www.irinareyn.com.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of The Imperial Wife through the Giveaways on Goodreads. My thanks to St. Martin's Press and to Irina Reyn for the opportunity.

"You were meant for greater."

A woman with a gift. Simply acknowledged or magnificently complicated. A bold step into the light or a retreat into the familiar shadows of obscurity.

Irina Reyn presents her story with the paralleled lives of Catherine the Great of Russia and present-day Tanya Vandermotter of New York City. Tanya is a Russian art specialist who authenticates Russian paintings and artifacts for renowned auction houses. Her Russian/Jewish immigrant background heightens her talent for a very discerning eye.

Up for auction: The Order of Catherine, a glorious medal worn on a sash by Catherine the Great herself. Peter the Great established this honor for women marrying into the royal family. And it is Tanya who is privy to the authentication process of this highly sought after relic.

Ironically, Tanya from a working class Russian family, has married into the Vandermotter family of New York. Her husband, Carl, has a doctorate in Russian Studies from Columbia. Carl struggles with his latest undertaking of a book on the life of Catherine the Great. The world of academia and the world of breath-taking art collide.

Reyn lays out her story in a side by side fashion of chapters set to Tanya and to Catherine. The similarities between the two women and their powerhouse ambitions are uncanny. Does the end justify the means? "Killing the ineffectual husband" in words and/or in actual deeds?

I enjoyed The Imperial Wife. You don't necessarily need to have a special interest in Russian art and aristocracy in order to read this. It does speak to the historian and art lover within. I would not classify this as light reading, although Catherine's story will keep you turning pages. It may be your cup of tea served in a glittering Russian samovar.

[Jessica (Odd and Bookish) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Bookstr’s (formerly The Reading Room) giveaways.

I give this 3.5 stars which rounds up to 4.

I liked this but I wasn’t in love with it. I really liked the historical aspects of it. It was fun learning more about Catherine the Great since I knew very little about her. The way her story was told reminded me of how Mary Queen of Scots’s story was told on the show Reign.

The present day story, on the other hand, was good but it wasn’t satisfactory. It was missing that spark to make it truly remarkable. One thing I did like about the present day story was how it touched upon the immigrant experience.

Overall, I thought this was a solid book especially if you are interested in learning more about Russian history.

[Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC received courtesy of Goodreads.com First Reads Giveaway

This is the parallel story of Tanya, Russian art expert, and Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. I've never known much at all about Russian history so the story of Catherine the Great's rise to power was fascinating to me! To come from Germany as the bride of the Crown Prince of Russia, then depose her husband and take control of the country! She was truly a fierce woman! Tanya is the art expert at an auction house in New York. Because she immigrated here as a child, she struggles with the juxtaposition of the two cultures. By placing Tanya's story next to Catherine the Great's story the author allows the reader a glimpse of the weight of being a Russian woman then and now.

[Amanda - Mrs B's Book Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

*https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com

Book #19 in the #20BACKLISTIN2020 challenge

Two dominant forces, separated by time and distance, share parallel experiences on the pages of Irina Reyn’s The Imperial Wife. A story of the auction house world, money, power, authority, royalty, careers and marriage, The Imperial Wife links two unlikely lives together in an ambitious dual narrative style tale.

Two stories featuring Tanya Kagan in the present day and Catherine the Great, the eighteenth century empress, collide in The Imperial Wife. Tanya the modern day central protagonist, is the daughter of Russian immigrants. Tanya has worked hard to gain a position at a New York auction house. Tanya is about to embark on the most life changing auction of her career, while at the same time dealing with the demise of her marriage. As Tanya prepares for this lucrative sale, she is drawn back into the past. A story gradually unfolds linking to a famous medallion that is currently up for auction at Tanya’s place of employment. Secrets of the precious medallion are exposed, which in turn helps Tanya to gain some much needed clarity in regards to the troubles she is facing in her own life. What becomes clear is that despite the passage of time, the heavy burden of marriage versus ambition is just as much a problem for this modern day woman as it was for a very famous female ruler in the past.

The Imperial Wife is a book I purchased some years ago when it was first published due to my fascination for both Russian culture and the auction world. The Imperial Wife managed to cover both bases perfectly from the synopsis. The lure of a dual timeline narrative, crossing present day New York, with Russia in the eighteenth century greatly appealed to me. I couldn’t wait to lose myself in the pages of Irina Reyn’s novel.

I was quite taken with this novel in the beginning. I was soon invested in Tanya Kagan’s present day issues. I could sympathise readily with Tanya’s inability to reconcile her ambitions and career with her faltering marriage. I really did feel for this woman. Equally, I liked the focus placed on the experience of being the daughter of immigrants to America from the former Soviet Union. Reyn does a good job of illuminating this difficult experience in terms of achieving acceptance and assimilation, without casting aside your family roots. I have really enjoyed a number of other novels that have looked at the work of auction houses and the art world. I think this segment of the book was outlined well by Irina Reyn. I did feel as though I had gleaned something new about the business of high end auctions.

In terms of the historical narrative I did feel as though I wanted more. Catherine the Great is such a strong a commanding force from history, but she just didn’t shine for me on the pages of The Imperial Wife. Catherine was a character we seemed to get a glimpse from at a distance. This arm’s length style perspective was not quite what I was expecting. Historically, Irina Reyn manages to covey the key aspects and facts from this time well, with a good air of authenticity. However, I felt like I lost my way a few times during the course of The Imperial Wife.

The medallion, the order of Saint Catherine which is both the subject of the sale and Catherine the Great’s set piece, was my main source of motivation for continuing to read on. I was inspired to look up the medallion online, just to see if for myself. This detailed, complex and often multi layered book presents the reader with a barrage of information in regards to Russian royalty, politics, culture, society, customs and language. I consider myself quite the fan in regards to anything Russian history related and I did find this element of the novel interesting.

All in all I was left at odds with this one. Whilst I appreciated the rich tapestry of detail in regards to Russia, the auction world, art, culture, royalty, marital problems across the ages and ambition, I can’t say that I completely liked or disliked this one. The Imperial Wife wasn’t a triumph and it wasn’t a complete disappointment either.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be for anyone who has an interest in Russian history or art. It is very well researched. The book has a dual storyline set in present day New York and in Russia during the 1700s during the life of Catherine the Great. The connection between the storylines is the Order of St. Catherine.

The New York storyline is set in one of the top auction houses in the city if not the world and the main character, Tanya, is a Russian art expert. Tanya works at authenticating the Order of St. Catherine in order to put it up for auction. The author gives the reader an excellent of overview of how art auctions work as she tells Tanya's story. The excitement and the glamour of the auction added a few thrills to the storyline.

The Russian storyline tells the story of Catherine the Great's arrival in Russia and continues through her rise to power. Much of her story involved her marriage and the issues involved in it which made her decide to depose her husband. This was an interesting parallel with Tanya's troubled marriage caused by her professional success. Both women has problems in their marriage due to the threat that they posed to their husbands' egos.

I was given this book by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written novel that alternates time periods between present day New York and Catherine the Great's reign (and just prior to it). The Russian art auction world (and its associated oligarchs) as well as Catherine the Great's history are two areas I knew nothing about. Loved this and kept me googling for hours.

[Emily Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really enjoyable book. I had the chance to talk with Irina at Golden Notebook Bookstore, to ask her about this book's genesis, and it was so interesting to hear her talk about wanting to read fiction about women in the working world. One thing she mentioned was that one rarely reads about married women in the workplace--and this book's main character, Tanya, is an intelligent, competent woman, who nevertheless finds it complicated to navigate both her job and her marriage. I enjoyed reading her story, its intersections with Catherine the Great's story, and the marvelous surprise of the book's ending. I really recommend this book.

[Lyd's Archive (7/'15 to 6/'18) · Rating 3 out of 5]

What to Expect
Good writing, but not as good plot and characters. However, I'm writing my own book right now and a lot of my complaints about this one relate to areas I struggle with writing. Nevertheless, I did feel the lacking parts of this story and I will talk about them.

Trope Check
*historical artifact links history and modern times
*MC has marriage problems and weird in-laws
*lives of the rich and famous stuff
*brand-name-dropping to indicate how rich people are
*the unnecessary rich mean girl type

I've detested Nadia since she first set foot in Worthington's dressed inappropriately in a white Hervé Leger bandage dress and strappy gold pumps for her first day of work as a summer intern. The girl was everything I dreaded, a lithe, sexual creature, an entitled exhibitionist posting pictures of herself dancing at some Art Basel party or on a yacht in the Maldives... Her very presence announced her as Nadia Kudrina, enfant terrible, fulfilling her global Russian destiny, and no one would stand in her way. When she left the company, I was relieved, assumed Kudrin whisked her away to an internship in fashion or public relations. Except Nadia emerged as the head of Russian art at Christie's and her first auction, a terribly uneven selection from her father's personal collection, raised fifteen million dollars. "The One that got away" is how Marjorie referred to her in my presence. A rueful glance at me as the one who stayed.

*"I'm not a snotty rich person"

Other Thoughts
There was some witty writing in this book at the beginning, but the problem with it was it all revolved around the same theme: that Tanya isn't a rich snotty kind of art dealer and that she's doing her job because she likes it and stuff

[The Financial Times] portrayed art dealers as jet-setting glamour pusses that engineered million-dollar deals at Art Basel by day but fly back to their London town houses just in time to bake their children perfect biscotti from scratch. Who say things like "Heli-skiing really helps me unwind."... Always photographed in black against a somber background or their noses dipped into the rim of a wineglass

That was a good line. Tanya has a distinctive voice, but as I got further along into the book, I realized she doesn't have a lot of defining traits. I was also immersed in the novelty of Russian Jewish immigrants in the later 20th century and the world of art dealerships. I like a little bit of glamour in moderation so long as it doesn't get cheesy or overpower the plot. That it did not do, but the novelty wore off a bit after a while. The Catherine parts at the time were dry because I do know the basic story of Catherine, but I don't know it well enough that a fairly generic account didn't really annoy me and the Catherine chapters were shorter. However, when the Catherine chapters got better, the Tanya chapters started to become dry and I found that the dual narrative slowed the pace and there wasn't a lot of buildup to the climax in either story. The artifact thing was supposed to connect both sides and there were a few parallels, but I don't feel there was enough connection to keep the story going. Catherine's story doesn't really seem to change Tanya and the ending climax thing of her story is confusing. However, it was quite well-written, so I enjoyed most of it despite this.

[Billiebumblebee · Rating 2 out of 5]

So it starts out really promising. A Russian art specialist, a marriage in drama, an epic auction about to go down and glimpses into the past of Catherine the Great, the longest female ruler or Russia. But the more I read, the less excited I got.

To begin with I really liked Tanya, our present day heroine. I like how she thinks and feels about art, her ambition and drive to become something, her relationship to everything Russian and her thoughts on immigration. But as the story went on I felt more and more suspicious of her behavior and I slowly fell "out of like" with her.

I usually always tend to lean towards the historic part in an alternating story like this, but this time around I grew less fond of it for every chapter. First of all, I felt like it was hard to keep track on time in those parts, sometimes scenes within the same days would drag on, and then all of a sudden years had pasted. Since I know absolutely nothing about this royal story in history it's not like I could piece things together on my own. It left me confused. Secondly, the more I read about Catherine, the more indifferent I became towards her fate. It just didn't intrigue me.

The connection between the two women, our today's Tanya and our past Catherine, I didn't feel it at all. And that's one of the best things about historical novels. In a way I can't help but to think that maybe this book should have focused solely on Tanya and excluded the Catherine part, since for me it didn't really contribute.

But there were some interesting things about this book. I loved everything Russian, especially the nicknames. I'm definitely stealing those. And I thought Reyn's description of marriage was accurate in some ways. Of how hard it is to keep a balance in a relationship between honesty and necessary lies, ambition and superiority. How easy it is for small things said to infest and spread like a disease if not taken care of.

What I wanted from this book was a cosy historical read. I didn't really get that and perhaps it's my fault for putting those expectations on it.

I suppose the ending of this book is suppose to surprise and clarify, but I felt not closure to this story. It ended very sudden and very flat.

[Anca Adriana Rucareanu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soția imperială” este povestea fascinantă a împărătesei Ecaterina, femeia care a domnit într-o lume a bărbaților. Imediat după ce am terminat cartea, chiar și acum câteva minute, am căutat informații despre Ecaterina cea Mare, așa cum mai este cunoscută Ecaterina a II – a a Rusiei.

Romanul scris de Irina Reyn mi-a ațâțat pofta de a ști mai multe despre istoria Rusiei și despre femeia care a reușit să învingă bariere. Ecaterina a avut o viață încărcată de evenimente, a iubit, a născut copii care nu erau ai soțului ei, a fost izgonită și a revenit trumfător. Sincer, după câte informații am găsit în mediul virtual, mă gândesc că autoarea i-a făcut o nedreptate Marii Împărătese. Zic eu că toată agitația din viața acesteia, toate deciziile importante pe care le-a luat, cu sau fără voia ei, meritau mult mai multă atenție.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story explores two very different lives that have all things Russian in common. You have Tanya the Russian antiquities art dealer and Catherine the Great. Catherine is the recipient of The Order a pricey imperial award and Tanya handles it's sale. Suprizingly the two women have many things in common: immigrant status, feeling trapped in a role, ethical concerns, troubled marriages, inaffectional husbands, and a quest for something more. I loved this book at first but it dragged near the end and I lost interest.

[Olivia Ard · Rating 4 out of 5]

True Rating: 3.5 Stars

Classic Russian literature is one of my newfound loves, but other than the bits of Napoleonic trivia I gleaned from War and Peace and the period surrounding the Bolshevik Revolution, I know shockingly little about Russian history. I've heard of Catherine the Great, of course, but the details of her life and the reason she was considered great was an unanswered question. I was excited to pick this book, hoping it would at least temporarily sate my ever-growing curiosity about the magical mystery that is Russia.

Surprisingly, I found myself enjoying the current day story of Tanya much more than the historical aspect. Perhaps this stems from Sophie/Catherine's sections being written in third-person compared to the first-person of Tanya's story. The high-end nature of Tanya's career juxtaposed with her own humdrum living situation and the unexplained tension between her and her husband Carl provided a much more intriguing mixture of conflict than the politics of 18th-century royal matchmaking. I also appreciated the post-Soviet attitudes and ideas that inundated Tanya's story.
The writing is overall beautiful, although the frequent use of sentence fragments made the editor inside me twitch at times. Reyn is clearly a skilled writer and painted a delicate, detailed picture of both intersecting plotlines.

The reason for the 1.5 star deduction--The pacing was slow, especially in the beginning, and I did not feel connected or sympathetic to either of the main characters. I can understand why Catherine acted as she did, given her own situation and the time, but Tanya's actions revealed at the end-- rewriting her husband's entire manuscript without his permission and then presenting it to him as a present--are unthinkably selfish. It was an intriguing story, but I wished there was some positive emotional connection made with at least one of the main characters.

If you enjoy historical and women's fiction, intersecting plotlines, and Russian influences, I recommend that you pick up a copy of this book. Despite the issues I had with it, it's a beautifully written story and definitely on my list of top 10 reads of 2016.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Svetlana Petrova · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very intrigued by the promise of this book. Being Russian, I am always interested in books about Russian history and Russian art. This book promised both but unfortunately did not deliver. It was interesting to read about young Catherine on her way to become Catherine the Great. However, various historic inaccuracies threw me off a bit. To give an example, Catherine's ladies in waiting were given historically inaccurate names, Victoria and Evgenia (Zhenia). These two names appeared much later in Russia (in XIX century). It sounded so wrong. Imagine a novel about George Washington using female names like Beyonce or Roksandra.
Overall, the part about Catherine was good, but the part about the Tanya left me somewhat disappointed. It started so well. Tanya is a first generation American. She arrived from Russia as a 7 year girl with her parents. Tanya's immigrant story was beautifully written, detailing her childhood challenges, navigating her way in a new country. However, her relationship with her American husband left me irritated, did not feel believable enough, and lowered my rating from 3 stars to 2.
All Russian oligarchs were very stereotyped. Moscow, of course, was the criminal capital of the world with a murder happening in a high end restaurant, and the establishment did not even close for an investigation/calling the police. According to the book, the waiters just changed the blood stained table cloth and continued with their day. Seriously? This part left me laughing.
I was disappointed with the ending of the book. The way Tanya reacted felt so out of character, and left me with the feeling that I have no idea why Tanya did what she did, what was the reason to react in this extreme way, to throw away her entire professional life.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book perplexing and the ending was completely unsatisfying. The Imperial Wife tells two stories--the first is the story of young Catherine the Great, the second, the modern day story of Tanya Kagan Vandermotter, a Russian American art Specialist who works for one of the elite auction houses in New York City, dealing with art collectors and wealthy Russian oligarchs. What unites these two stories is the historic artifact medal of the Order of St. Catherine, which has come into Tanya's auction house and could prove to be her career making sales coup.

Both Catherine and Tanya are intelligent, driven, ambitious women. Both Catherine and Tanya are married to weak men. But this is where the similarities end. Catherine is determined to rise above her bad marriage and create her own destiny, while Tanya seems crippled by the irrational behavior of her estranged husband, Carl. I enjoyed the Catherine segments far more than the Tanya segments. There are some odd twists and turns in the Tanya story -- trips to Monaco and Moscow. And the reader can't help but wonder why Tanya is so reluctant to cut the strings to her dud of a husband and live out her potential while enjoy the perks of a jet setting existence.

[booksbydorothea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of "The Imperial Wife" from NetGalley for an honest review. I wish to thank NetGalley, Thomas Dunne Books, and Irina Reyn for the opportunity to read this book.

First of all, let me say that I adore the Russian period between Catherine the Great and the Romanovs. It is fascinating and filled with so much intrigue! So the juxtaposition of the two main characters was right on point for me.

The author writes so beautifully with lovely prose that evokes a picture of the scenes in all five senses. I truly felt like I was present in the book. Just perfect!

The only hard part for me is that I know little to no Russian so the sprinkled Russian in the novel was hard for me to follow at times. For some reason, Google Translate was not cooperating so I couldn't translate directly on my Kindle.

I definitely look forward to more period pieces, novels, or anything at all by this author. She has a gift for world and stores - I cannot wait to see what she has in store for all of us!!

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. At the outset--thrilled. This is my kind of book. Dual story line with an interesting historical period. Present day art/auction scene and Russian "capitalists" paralleled with imperial Russia--Catherine the Great. What a fabulous premise!

But. This book never really captured me. I found the descriptions of the inner workings of the contemporary art auction scene fascinating and illuminating. The sections on Catherine and her infantile husband and the court also were interesting but as a whole, not so much.

Tanya, the contemporary character never did much for me. Nor did I care for her husband or his family [though truthfully, maybe not supposed to]. Her parents were somewhat interesting. I did find the sections on the Russian oligarchs highly amusing.

In all, I though Reyn nailed it with her descriptions of the various goings on but the book didnt do it for me. Because it was well written and I thought I learned something, 3 stars.

[Amy Strolle · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at pg 71. This was just too dry of a book with some unlikeable characters. I kept waiting for it to get interesting but it didn't.

[Dana Booth · Rating 1 out of 5]

With nothing else to read, I kept trying to make this work, but in the end - just could not stomach it. I do NOT recommend!

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this one a lot. The ending was not expected!

[Charla Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book that takes the reader on a trip through modern day NYC, as well as to Russia during the time of Catherine the Great (Sophia Agusta Frederica). The transition between the two time periods flow flawlessly. During the modern era in NYC, the protagonist is Tanya, a Russian expat. Tanya works for a high end auction house in Manhattan. She is an expert on Russian Art. Of course the protagonist in Russia during the 1700's is Sophie, the future Catherine the Great.

The auction house that Tanya works with comes into possession of a priceless Russian artifact, which
Tanya becomes responsible for. It is at this time the two stories begin to merge. While Tanya is trying to make sense of her husband's disappearance, Sophie, the future Catherine the Great is facing a new life in Russia. She has gone to Russia to be married. Both Tanya and Sophie are having marital issues that seem to stem from their determined inner strength and their husbands' egos.

This book is beautifully written. The two time periods blend together perfectly. The way Irina Reyn was able to blend the two time periods together is reminiscent of Kate Morton's work. Anyone that loves history, art, and romance will likely enjoy this book.

[Jennifer N · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this and I finished it hoping that it would get better but it never did. IT started out well - a woman working at an auction house comes across an important item that belonged to Catherine the Great. She is also having marital troubles with her author husband. The books goes back and forth between the present day and the time of Catherine the Great. Usually I am much more interested in the historical story but it was not done well at all. It may have been interesting if you knew a lot about Russian history but I know only the basics of Catherine the Great. It jumped around so much that I really wasn't sure what was happening and I did not understand the connection to present day until the end. I ended up skimming the last half of the book to find out what happens as I was so bored and confused.

[Anthonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book that has an interesting representation of historical Russia in modern times by two character in the book. The story about Catherine the great and Tanya kagan in character perspectives. I enjoyed it a must read

[Jane]

okay I had this on my tbr forever bc of hearing about it on npr and finally bit the bullet and got the ebook for my kobo.

It was fine? I thought I remembered it being more of a historical fiction about Catherine, but this had the dual POV going to the present day with Tanya. Maybe it's my mood from everything being terrible, but Tanya was...really dumb. Like - she was kind of a chronic NLOG which I kind of get with being an immigrant, but I strongly felt that Anya's Ghost delved into this kind of thing so much better (as another story with a Russian immigrant). Like, Nadia seemed fine? Tanya just had this constant chip on her shoulder about her and every other woman of the primarily men she worked with and if the narrative or even Tanya herself would like. Explored that more deeply or at least acknowledged some of that then it would have landed better, for me anyway.

So, with a toddler, baby, and incredibly needy dog, I cannot really devote time and brain power to reading! So I'm often scrolling instagram or reddit in my downtime which usually means a lot of relationships and AITA posts. I say this bc omg Tanya felt like such a dumb aita poster, especially with the reveal that she basically rewrote Carl's novel for him. Her being shocked that it upset him - like there are nuggets of dynamics that could be explored more deeply. It's kind of like Peach Mom, something very banal and inane and stupid could spur discussion about not just relationship dynamics but why do women often feel the need to martyr themselves, etc etc.

Not that that justified Carl's behavior because he was also just an asshole. Like they both felt like cardboard cutouts in their own relationship, I didn't really understand why Tanya was so desperate to preserve it other than like, being expected to aspire to marriage bc of society and elites. Like Carl's family also really sucked but she was so like. I thought it would be revealed Carl was actually adopted or something, which would explain the chip on HIS shoulder, but it wasn't. He was just mad he came from wealth I guess? And wasn't a naturally gifted writer. His behavior towards Tanya's clients though and expectation of getting to see the Order was insane though. That was when it really felt like I was reading and AITA post. It's also weird like. He was kind of fetishizing her for being Russian? I mean you do you girl, I guess.

So with all that, this is probably more like a great book club book. If I was reading this to shit talk with friends, that would be more fun. I don't feel the historical parts were necessary, really, but it did make me want to listen to the Great Comet again.

[Jacqueline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the parts with Catherine the great in this book. But overall I did not like the main character Tonya. This book is kind of advertised to be about female ambition. For Catherine the great it is. But I don’t feel like it is for Tonya. That was a little disappointing to me. Also, I didn’t think the end made a ton of sense. I enjoyed the history aspects and the art aspects, but this novel left some to be desired for me.

[Puiu Mirela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este un roman complex deși la prima vedere nu pare. Deși aveam în minte un alt scenariu atunci când am văzut cartea pentru prima dată - iclusiv titlul cărții mi-a creat această senzație - , în realitate totul a fost diferit. Diferit, dar într-un sens pozitiv

Recenzie:https://www.delicateseliterare.ro/sot...

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, know that i love Russian history and admire Catherine the Great.
This book bounces between the trials and tribulations of present day Russian auction expert, Tanya Vandermotter , and the married life of Catherine to Peter. The Order of Catherine ( a be-ribboned medallion) is what connects the two storylines

This book? Could have been better..... could have been worse!

[Claudiia Țuțuraș · Rating 4 out of 5]

De obicei nu sunt adepta pasajelor descriptive lungi, dar în aceasta cartea mi-au plăcut, nu m-au deranjat.
Mereu am "fugit" de cărțile a căror acțiune se petrece pe două planuri narative, ma oboseau și ma pierdeam. Nu și cu acest roman. Cred că totul are un început.

[Clarisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: This was a light, fast read with great parallel storylines, but an unsatisfying ending.

"Tanya Kagan, a rising specialist in Russian art at a top New York auction house, is trying to entice Russia's wealthy oligarchs to bid on the biggest sale of her career, The Order of Saint Catherine, while making sense of the sudden and unexplained departure of her husband." (source) As we learn more the provenance of the order and its ownership by Catherine the Great, there are clear parallels between the challenges she and Tanya each face.

The chapters in this book are short and the writing engaging. I found myself flying through, eager to know what happened to both protagonists. And I was equally interested in both protagonists, always something I look for in a dual narrative story. Likewise, the parallels between the two stories added depth to both, but were subtle enough not to feel forced. As a dual narrative, this had everything I look for.

The ending of this book was the only part that didn't do it for me. Something that I think was supposed to be a big reveal was obvious to me, while other aspects of the ending struck me as too unbelievable. The ending was also too open ended, with the protagonist having done something unbelievable that I think would have ended incredibly badly, but the author gets around that issue be stopping before she has to face the consequences.
This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey

[Paige York · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read. Terrible ending.