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I loved The Winter Palace. I loved it so much that I convinced my book club to read it. They loved this book. We had a great book club because Ms. Stachniak was gracious enough to join us on Skype and answer some of our most pressing questions: How did you research the book? Did Varvara really exist? Is there going to be a sequel (actually, many, many sequels… we loved it THAT much). We had so many questions and she answered them all. What a great author!
We did find out that there would be a sequel to The Winter Palace and the focus of the book would be the Empress Catherine the Great. We were so excited to hear and we have been anxiously awaiting the second book.
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I am happy to let you know that day has arrived and Empress of the Night is being released this month! Whoo hoo… I was happy to be asked by Random House Canada to participate in the #EmpressofTheNight blog tour. I am the first to publish today but I encourage you to visit the other blogs throughout the week for their reviews of Empress of the Night.
Synopsis: Empress of the Night begins with Empress Catherine suffering a stroke. As this occurs, we are brought back to the beginning, as she reflects on her life. Russia in 1796 is a world that has many players with many conflicting ambitions and an even greater number of ‘moving parts’. Her arrival as Princess Sophia of Prussia and her troublesome mother, her marriage to Grand Duke Peter, the barren years, the seduction by powerful men and her ascent to the throne are all expertly described by the author. The Russian court is full of spies, innuendos and treacherous friends and servants. All reasons to keep you turning the page just to find out what happens next.
Empress of the Night takes us through the years and helps us understand the driving force behind how Catherine reigned Russia in the 18th century. In The Winter Palace, we find out more about how she came to court and became the Grand Duchess and wife to Peter III. In this book, the Empress rules alone (after her lover’s brother kills Grand Duke Peter). We see how different people want to advise and control Catherine… she is after all…only a woman. None of them could possibly understand the strength and moral fortitude that she possesses.
Empress Catherine has many lovers and favourites that play important roles in her life. The story revolves around these relationships and those of her grandchildren. The Empress is in her golden years of a 34-year reign. She has conquered Poland and stands strong against the Prussians. She is working hard to modernize Russia and continue to build its empire. Eva Stachniak explains in this short video about how modern Catherine was for her time.
Empress of the Night can at times seem disjointed. I had trouble keeping her lovers and favourites straight in my head. I am not sure if it is because I read the first book and had forgotten too many of the details or if I was familiar with those intricate details and knew that there were things missing that glued the story together. If I had not read the first novel, I wondered whether I would get confused. Maybe not. I have to assume that the author had to condense the details in order to keep ‘new’ readers interested without boring those that were familiar with the story. After all, this was the story of Catherine, not her maid Varvara Nikolayeva. Once the ‘preliminary’ cast of characters, and how they got to be part of Catherine’s life, were established, the story flowed much better.
The relationship between the Empress and her grandchildren was so interesting. I have to say, I did want to know more about why her relationship with her son and heir apparent deteriorated. Was it because of how Empress Elizabeth (her predecessor) had brought him up? Or was the bond with her firstborn never to be mended? You really have to read The Winter Palace to understand that a bit more…
I loved the delicately composed dialogue between the characters. Empress of the Night is more about how the Empress dealt with people and situations on a day-to-day basis in the 18th-century Russian court. It is about relationships, the royal court and all the behind the scene players. This is not a book about political manoeuvring and military strategy.
Following Catherine throughout a small part of her reign is both interesting and entertaining. This book is a great read and easy to enjoy. You can pick it up and get through it on a vacation trip or over a couple of weeks if you read leisurely. I would recommend giving it a read.
Empress of the Night
by Eva Stachniak
Published 2014
Random House Canada 
Rating: 4 out of 5
Available in Trade Paperback and e-book.
If you want more reviews on Empress of the Night be sure and follow the blog tour this week.
Social Note: First and foremost, I need to let you know that I love that Eva Stachniak is active on Twitter (@EvaStachniak) and she certainly interacts with her readers.
Disclosure: I received a copy of EMPRESS OF THE NIGHT by Eva Stachniak for review purposes only from RandomHouseCanada.ca. No other compensation was received. You can follow them on Twitter at @RandomHouseCA
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Thank you, Margarita, for a very thoughtful and insightful review. I like to give my readers the experience of history, not just the facts. A novel can re-create the world of the past, better than a biography does, because a biography has to provide information.
I am glad you mentioned Catherine’s experience of being a grandmother. She was so cruelly separated from her children that it was a pleasure for me to give her the experience of having and loving her grandchildren–although being Catherine the Great, she manipulated them all the time! Looking forward to our chat tonight!
Eva
It sounds like an interesting book. Interesting topic for sure. I don’t typically read much historical fiction but I did enjoy the Winter Palace and Wanda’s twitter chat for that last year. This author impresses me for a couple of reasons – she is active on twitter and seems to understand social media which is crucial to publishing currently. Also she is a speedy writer and she tackles hard topics. That’s pretty awesome. I love that she joined your book club via Skype.
Mine has to wait until the 27th! It’s all ready to go, but I’ll wait to put it up. We say some similar things though – one thing for certain is that she was a formidable woman! I’m quite interested to see what the next in the series brings about.
Penny: I can hardly wait to read your review. Make sure to stop by again and add your link to the comments. Did you see Eva’s blog post on the Retreat by Random House? Here is the link… all very interesting.
Guest Post: Eva Stachniak – What do the memoirs of Catherine the Great reveal? http://www.retreatbyrandomhouse.ca/2014/03/guest-post-eva-stachniak-what-memoirs-catherine-great-reveal/