The Gathering Storm Robin Bridges
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Release Date: January 10, 2012
St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888. As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. No one knows. Not her family. Not the girls at her finishing school. Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle. Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.
An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources . . . including two young men—George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and the dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn.
The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?
I was pretty excited for The Gathering Storm. Russian historical fiction with a supernatural twist? Heck yeah! However, it wasn't everything I had hoped for. It was still entertaining and enjoyable, but I was hoping for a tad bit more.
Once thing that I did love about this book was the Russian history. This is something that I'm interested in but don't know much about. I'm glad to see it making it's way into YA. Although, it was a bit hard to follow at times. But I'll tell you nothing about Russia is un-complicated.
Katerina. Stubborn loyal Katerina. It was hard to relate to her, but I did grow to like her. Like I said, she was stubborn, but I liked that about her. And I applauded her loyalty.
My biggest issue with The Gathering Storm is that it was slow at times. And hard to follow. It's not that there were times when nothing happened. It's just that I got a little...dis-interested in it at times. But there were times that it picked up, too.
Was The Gathering Storm enjoyable? Yes. Was it everything I hoped for? No. Will I read the sequel? Maybe. I guess I'll just have to see.
I have this one on my shelf and I had hoped it was good. However your review is one of many that hasn't been very praise-filled. I think I will still check this one out but I don't have high hopes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the honest review!
I was also hoping this would be a great read but found it a bit frustrating and hard-to-follow. To me, it seemed like the characters' personalities and goals kept changing, and I could never keep straight all the different magical beings and what side they were on.
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