Empress of the Night – Eva Stachniak

Format: E-book (Kindle)
Publish Date: March 25th 2014
Publisher:  Traverse Press
Pages: 400 pages
Series: #2 – A novel of Catherine the Great

The Blurb
The follow-up to the #1 bestseller The Winter Palace–perfect for the readers of Hilary Mantel and Alison Weir.

Catherine the Great, the Romanov monarch reflects on her astonishing ascension to the throne, her leadership over the world’s greatest power, and the lives sacrificed to make her the most feared woman in the world–lives including her own…

Catherine the Great muses on her life, her relentless battle between love and power, the country she brought into the glorious new century, and the bodies left in her wake. By the end of her life, she had accomplished more than virtually any other woman in history. She built and grew the Romanov empire, amassed a vast fortune of art and land, and controlled an unruly and conniving court. Now, in a voice both indelible and intimate, she reflects on the decisions that gained her the world and brought her enemies to their knees. And before her last breath, shadowed by the bloody French Revolution, she sets up the end game for her last political maneuver, ensuring her successor and the greater glory of Russia.

(Blurb from Goodreads.com)

Rating: 4/5

The Review

The novel follows the life of Catherine the Great, a female leader of Russia. Prior to reading I knew nothing of her history and had to do a little research in order to put things into place. In all honesty if I hadn’t of done research I wouldn’t really have understood what was going on in the novel. It jumped to different periods and I think maybe it should be defined more clearly. However, I think the more you got involved the easier it was to understand.

Catherine is a very promiscuous woman and it is documented several times within the novel. I think she actually wanted to find true love because no woman wants to be forced into marriage. Sadly, she keeps jumping into bed with men who she thinks love her and in reality they don’t.

When I read a historical fiction I always try and put myself into the era and imagine what it would be like. I’m not sure if I could cope without having a shower and things we have today. Does they make me sound bad? I hope not! Eva does a fantastic job at bringing you into the Russian Empire and making you believe that you’re living in that time scale.

I liked how there was a detailed list of the main characters for your reference, it gave you a better understanding of the novel.

Personally, I think your head needs to be free of any other thoughts and a brief look at the history does help. All in all, it’s a perfect historical fiction for those interested in Catherine and her ways.

Empress of the Night is available in the UK as ebook only, via Amazon from March 25th, published by Traverse Press.

You can find out more about Eva at www.evastachniak.com and on Twitter and Facebook.