Secure Empress Of The Night Originated By Eva Stachniak Accessible As Mobi

war das Buch weder gut noch richtig schlecht, Die erstenSeiten war es noch einmal eine Wiederholung dessen, was man im ersten Roman auch schon aus Warwaras Sicht gelesen hat,
Das Mittelstück war in Ordnung, halbwegs interessant und kurzweilig zu lesen,
Aber das Ende, wenn auch klar war, was kam und kommen musste, war wirr und ich war wirklich froh, als es endlich vorbei war.

Ich weiß, es ist von der Autorin wahrscheinlich auf Grund der Umstände so gewollt, dass das Ende so durcheinander ist, aber mich hat es unglaublich gestört.
This book is not really what I like in Historical Fiction, Most of this book was about Catherine's relationships with her various lovers, and much of it told in reminiscences with a dreamy sort of stream of consciousness style.
I'm glad that I read Robert Massie's biography of Catherine the Great before reading this, because this novel makes only brief references to Catherine's accomplishments during her reign without giving much detail or explanation.
I much preferred the first book of this pair, sitelinkThe Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great, which was not told from Catherine's POV but was a much more straightforward narrative.
DNF: I got about halfway through this book then finally decided to stop, I love the first one in the twobook series, The Winter Palace, Unfortunately though since I'm not a huge

fan of reading books that I know what is going to happen or that I feel like I've read before I wasn't a fan.
This book essentially takes the first book written from Catherine's servant's perspective, Vavara, and retells it from Catherine's perspective, Needless to say, it was a bit predictable and I enjoyed Vavara's perspective a lot more anyways, It seems that a lot of people on Goodreads are saying the same or similar things so perhaps she should have stuck with the first one as far as Catherine the Great's story.
If she did choose to write about Catherine again I feel she should have continued on with the story from where she left telling it from yet another servant's perspective, someone else in the castle, or one of her lovers.
Overall though she is an AMAZING author, As fascinating as Catherine the Greats life was, it was not portrayed well here, From the beginning, its a mess, It starts with Catherine having a stroke on the toilet and her observations while incapacitated, It is peppered with Russian proverbs that are distracting, The narrative presents Catherines life as it flashes before her eyes in her final hours, from her first days at court, to her coup to secure the throne, to her elderly years.
The title is certainly fitting, as she dwells on all of her carnal conquests, By the time I waspages in, I was exasperated that there were anotherpages to go, There are a few insights to her family life that were moderately interesting, but as a whole, this book was erratic and insipid,

I received a complimentary copy of this book via the Amazon Vine program, I finished sitelinkEmpress of the Night: A Novel of Catherine the Great yesterday, but wasn't ready to rate or write a review about it, neither did I have time to do it anyway.


My copy of this book starts with a quote written to me by my grandmother: "When I gave you your first book, I also told you something.
If you want to live a happy life, you got to read lots of books, I'm glad you remember", Why am I writing this Well, to show you that I'll be good to this book, despite all the flaws it had,

When I saw what it was about, I was thrilled, I love reading about strong women in history, the great ones who changed something in the world, Yekaterina Alexeevna, how amazing is that! The title, the cover, the theme, . . Everything had my name on it,

It took me a lot of time to read this, almost a month, So I have to say that this is one of those books you have to read fast, because if you skip one day, you might need time to focus on it again.


The writting was shallow and economical, It had really short sentences, which lead to no emotions,

The plot was boring and repetitive, This certantly wasn't the way to describe a woman as great as her, The book was focused only on her lovers, while the influence she had in arts, the politics she followed didn't get much attention or got no attention at all.
In my opinion, most of her greatness was ignored,

Why are we walking
Because we have to move,
Why
If we stop, we die,

The last few pages were interesting, There once again we get a quick look over the characters' personalities, And they made me feel sad for finishing this book that I was eager to finish,

The living always got to say the last words,

I wouldn't recommend this for the people who are looking for a book who shows the great life and politics of Catherine, but to those who want to catch only a glimpse of it.
Nachdem mich Der Winterpalast“ richtig begeistern konnte habe ich mich sehr auf diesen zweiten Teil gefreut, Ich finde dieses Buch ganz gut, aber ich hatte mir ein wenig mehr erwartet,

Im Gegensatz zum Winterpalast lesen wir hier die Geschichte um den Aufstieg und die Amtszeit Katharina der Großen aus den Augen der Zarin selbst.
Leider war die Erzählstruktur doch recht durcheinander mit etlichen Zeitsprüngen, so dass ich immer mal überlegen musste an welcher geschichtlichen Stelle wir uns grade befinden.
Ansonsten hat mir der eher ruhige Erzählstil aber gefallen,

Das Katharina so einige Liebhaber hatte ist nun zwar kein Geheimnis, aber dieses Thema steht doch etwas sehr im Mittelpunkt der Erzählung und andere Punkte innerpolitisch wie außenpolitisch kommen einfach zu kurz.
Dafür wiederum hat man einen guten Einblick in die Familienverhältnisse der Romanows bekommen,

Ich bin doch etwas hin und hergerissen wie ich das Buch finde, aber mehr alsSterne ist es in meinen Augen nicht wert.
DNF. This is a retelling of Catherine the Great's story of ascension to power, already told in the previous novel The Winter Palace this time told through the eyes of Catherine herself.
It may have sounded like a good idea in the author's head, but the result is a story the reader is already familiar with, told again without enough new insights on it to justify the retelling.
Instead of the interesting point of view of the courtiers and servants from the first book, we now only get to learn more about Catherine's love life, which does not in any way give us more information about the politics, schemes and culture of Imperial Russia.
For me, this wasn't enough to make me want to read the same story again, An interesting look at the life of Catherine the Great, For me, it was a bit off in the telling because it starts at a particular day and time and follows Catherine's moves by the minute as she is having a stroke.
As she's suffering, she drifts back in time, Catherine recounts more of her life with her lovers than of what she did politically while ruling Russia, That was ok, but I would have enjoyed the politics just as much since I'm a huge Russian history buff,

ARC received from the publisher via Netgalley stupendous!! I loved this book even more than The first book The Winter Palace!! Evocative, Inviting yourself into the world of Catherine the Great of Russia her tireless work, her life, her struggles, the court and the cast of characters will have you unable to put the book away for even a minute until it's finished.
I didn't want it to end, BRAVO EVA!! I do not feel that if one is reading about Catherine the Great for the first time, this book does her justice, The book didn't give a satisfactory answer to the question: why was she called "the Great" I was a bit disappointed, The writing was absolutely brilliant I felt as though I were in theth century court of Catherine the Great of Russia, This book was filled with atmosphere, I liked the use of present tense, which made it feel more immediate,

We are told Catherine's story through the device of her having a stroke, then inhours remembering her life from when she arrived in Russia to marry the eccentric Grand Duke Peter her horrendous marriage and the gorgon Empress Elizabeth the court the coup and her life up to her death.
I would have liked more on her expansion of Russia to the west and south, policies and cultural achievements, such as the beautiful Hermitage art gallery.
They were treated briefly or not at all, Catherine was a fullrounded character, not always loveable, I did not like her lovers or Favorites being so prominent in the story I got sick and tired of them, The author didn't give a bibliography per se, but noted which books she used in her research, I did like the epilogue telling what eventually happened to other historical characters in the novel, I am having the worst luck with books right now, I put aside a bad book to pick up this book, About fifty pages into this book, I had to put it aside, This book was not good, It wasn't completely abysmal and that is why it's getting two instead of only one,

Eva Stachniak's previous book sitelinkThe Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great was an ok book, I didn't think it was fantastic but I did think Catherine, as portrayed in that novel, had potential to be great in her own novel.
This was not the case, My biggest problem with this book was the manner in which it was written, The author is constantly jumping around without really telling the reader what is going on, There is a point where the story goes from five years into Catherine's reign to twelve years into Catherine's reign in a matter of seven pages.
It makes the book difficult to read,

I get the impression that while the author might think Catherine the Great is a fascinating women, the author does not think Russia is such a fascinating place.
It would have been nice to see a little more about what was actually going on in Russia during Catherine's reign, To be perfectly honest, I cannot tell you anymore than I already know about Russia at this time period, For those who don't know me, I know very little about Russia before Word War I, This book is about a woman who is remembered with the title "the Great", That title doesn't just get bestowed on past monarchs, It's kind of a big deal, Ask Peter. What made this woman so great I can't imagine it was the string of "lovers" she had while Empress,

If you have readsitelinkThe Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great and are looking to pick up this book thinking it will tie into the previous book, stop right now.
Varvara is briefly mentioned. She is in no way a key character in this book, nor is Darya,

I feel like this review has been as random as the writing of the book, I really just don't know what to say, It was not a good book, I am not as familiar with Catherine the Great as I am other historical figures but I am sure there are other fictional novels out there.
I am sure that most of those books are better than this one, If anyone knows of any, please let me know, Have you ever read a book because that particular subject fascinates you, so you enjoy reading more than what you've already read And then, as you are reading, the book begins to become eerily familiar like you've read it before This is how I felt about Empress of the Night.
I love historical fiction, and Catherine the Great is such an intriguing figure that I enjoy reading about her from a variety of perspectives, Sadly, this book reminded me so much of the last book I read about Catherine Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman that I literally had to check a couple of times to make sure that I wasn't accidentally repeating myself.
The only stark difference in what I read and what I recall reading was the interjections as Catherine appears to be suffering a stroke, and that it appeared to have more to do with her lovers and less to do with her fascinating ruling.


I suppose you can make the argument that, as an historical figure, there is little left to the imagination anymore, Not being a writer, I wouldn't know whether that could ever be true, But this just felt like a rehash of so much of what I have already read,

Having said that the story is written well and would be a good starting point for anyone not overly familiar with Catherine and her ascent to the throne.
I think it would be enjoyable for them, Unfortunately for me, it was a case of deja vu that was too strong to ignore, Find this and other reviews at: sitelink blogspot .

What is that old admonition If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all

It's a wonderful rule of thumb, but I'm afraid abiding by it would compromise my integrity as I wouldn't be able to write much of anything and as a reviewer, well, that's kind of a problem.


This being the case, perhaps I should take comfort in knowing honesty to be the best policy,

I came to Eva Stachniak's Empress of the Night with high hopes, Her first Catherine novel, The Winter Palace, had been an interesting enough read and I was optimistic that her followup would outshine its predecessor, Unfortunately, when face to face with the reality, I found my confidence grossly misplaced,

In all fairness, I think the idea of an aged Catherine, reflecting on her legacy as the final moments of her life slip unceremoniously through her fingers is an interesting and creative premise, but Stachniak's narrative is so disjointed and incoherent that wading through her character's musings quickly became a first class test of endurance.
After four hundred pages I should have felt connected to Catherine, but the jumbled nature of the narrative made forming any kind of attachment absolutely impossible and severely undermined the emotional impact of the novel.


To make matters worse, I think Stachniak placed emphasis on the wrong aspect of Catherine's life, Her decision to downplay the Empress' political and public personas in favor of promoting the more amorous moments of her existence was, I felt, an exceedingly poor choice.
The monotony of Catherine's steady parade of paramours left me bored and disinterested in the narrative, caring more about when I'd reach the end than how the novel would conclude.


Much of my disappointment stems from being familiar with Catherine's history prior to reading this piece as I was well aware of how much was being omitted from the story, but my real concern was Stachniak's failure to bring anything new and interesting to the table in terms of characterization and theme.


Despite my initial optimism, I can't say I'd recommend Empress of the Night and am not sure I will be continuing with the series.
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