Review: Tsarina by J. Nelle Patrick

Title: Tsarina
Author: J. Nelle Patrick (pseudonym for Jackson Pearce)
Series: n/a
Publisher: Razorbill
Publication Date: February 27, 2014
Source: from publisher for review
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Natalya knows a secret.

A magical Faberge egg glows within the walls of Russia's Winter Palace.
It holds a power rooted in the land and stolen from the mystics.
A power that promises a life of love for her and Alexei Romanov.
Power, that, in the right hands, can save her way of life.

But it's not in the right hands.

Ugh. I hate writing reviews like this. It's always easier to write a review for a book that you either had strongly positive or entirely negative feelings toward. I always feel so inept at writing reviews for the ones that are only so-so, that evoke no real emotional response from me. So it goes.

Possibly the problems I had with Tsarina are due in part to some really high expectations I had going into the story. I've only read Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce before, but I liked it well enough to think that I'd enjoy her retelling of the end of the Romanov reign in Russia. I also really like historical fiction and anything involving Russia. And then Wendy loved it, so I thought it was a guaranteed favorite because we often love the same books.

And don't get me wrong...there are aspects of this novel that are absolutely lovely. The prose is gorgeous. The setting is stunning. The magical bits weren't overbearing. And yet it still wasn't enough to make me love the characters. I felt zero connection to them, and as that's usually the aspect that has me falling for a book -- even when the writing isn't superb -- it made it difficult to enjoy this novel to its fullest.

Also, the romance was, um, sketchy? I really liked how the relationship between Natalya and Alexei was portrayed as something so lovely and heartbreaking in so few words. But then the war between the Reds and the nobility of Russia comes to a head and nothing is certain anymore. And I don't like where things in the romantic department left off or where they picked up because of those uncertainties. Sorry I'm being intentionally vague, but it's best I not say anything further for fear of spoilers. I just think things could have been handled a little differently so that it didn't feel like a complete upheaval of feelings. That, or it's possible that my complete lack of connection to Natalya just made it feel more sudden than it was.

I feel like a total black sheep here. I didn't hate the book. But I also didn't love it in the way that I thought I would. I mean, from the outside, this appears to be a total "Jen" book: spectacular cover, historical fiction set in Russia, elements of magic that were -- for the most part -- only hinted at for much of the book. But the first half was a total snooze-fest for me, with much less dialogue than I prefer and two girls running all over the city with no clear goal. And that kind of set the precedent for the rest of the novel for me.

Regardless, I still think this novel will resonate with a lot of readers, especially fans of Pearce's other work because as I said, the writing is still pretty fantastic. And there are a lot of elements that are done well in this story. It just so happens that the ones that I regard highly did not meet my expectations in this case, unfortunately.

GIF it to me straight:

I so badly wanted to love this story, but I was pretty underwhelmed by it.

About the author:

J. Nelle Patrick lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with a slightly cross-eyed cat and a lot of secondhand furniture. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in English and a minor in philosophy. She auditioned for the circus once but didn't make it. She is also the author of a series of retold fairytales.

J. Nelle Patrick is a pen name for author Jackson Pearce.

Find J. Nelle:

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Labels: beautiful covers, fantasy, historical fiction, j. nelle patrick, jackson pearce, magic, penguin, reviews, tsarina