Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
    The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
    The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
    Audiobook13 hours

    The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra

    Written by Helen Rappaport

    Narrated by Xe Sands

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    A New York Times Bestseller for 12 weeks!
    "Helen Rappaport paints a compelling portrait of the doomed grand duchesses." —People magazine

    "The public spoke of the sisters in a gentile, superficial manner, but Rappaport captures sections of letters and diary entries to showcase the sisters' thoughtfulness and intelligence." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

    They were the Princess Dianas of their day—perhaps the most photographed and talked about young royals of the early twentieth century. The four captivating Russian Grand Duchesses—Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Romanov—were much admired for their happy dispositions, their looks, the clothes they wore and their privileged lifestyle.

    Over the years, the story of the four Romanov sisters and their tragic end in a basement at Ekaterinburg in 1918 has clouded our view of them, leading to a mass of sentimental and idealized hagiography. With this treasure trove of diaries and letters from the grand duchesses to their friends and family, we learn that they were intelligent, sensitive and perceptive witnesses to the dark turmoil within their immediate family and the ominous approach of the Russian Revolution, the nightmare that would sweep their world away, and them along with it.

    The Romanov Sisters sets out to capture the joy as well as the insecurities and poignancy of those young lives against the backdrop of the dying days of late Imperial Russia, World War I and the Russian Revolution. Helen Rappaport aims to present a new and challenging take on the story, drawing extensively on previously unseen or unpublished letters, diaries and archival sources, as well as private collections. It is a book that will surprise people, even aficionados.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateJul 8, 2014
    ISBN9781427260710
    Author

    Helen Rappaport

    Helen Rappaport is a historian with a specialism in the nineteenth century. She is the author of eleven published books, including Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs and Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert and the Death that Changed the Monarchy. She is also the author, with Roger Watson, of Capturing the Light. For more information, you can visit her website at www.helenrappaport.com.

    More audiobooks from Helen Rappaport

    Related to The Romanov Sisters

    Related audiobooks

    Asian History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Richest Girl In The World

      Aug 12, 2020

      The Richest Girl In The World
      10 min read

    • Article

      St Petersburg

      Sep 13, 2017

      St Petersburg
      3 min read

    • Article

      Open FOR Pleasure

      Jun 29, 2021

      Open FOR Pleasure
      5 min read

    • Article

      Walk Between The Lines

      Jun 1, 2022

      Walk Between The Lines
      5 min read

    • Article

      From Ponies To Pipes: The Personal Touches At Prince Philip’s Funeral

      Apr 18, 2021

      From his ponies’ sugar lumps pot, to a haunting Russian hymn, the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral incorporated some quirky and historical elements. A red-topped plastic container was placed on the box seat of his driving carriage. He used it to store the

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Queen’s Lost Library

      Jan 12, 2022

      The Queen’s Lost Library
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Home Stretch

      Jan 13, 2020

      The Home Stretch
      3 min read

    • Article

      Antiquarian Horror

      Nov 24, 2021

      Antiquarian Horror
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Greatest Estate

      Oct 8, 2021

      The Greatest Estate
      6 min read

    • Article

      Life In Miniature

      Mar 13, 2024

      Life In Miniature
      5 min read

    • Article

      Russia Romanov Tercentenary

      Oct 16, 2020

      Russia Romanov Tercentenary
      4 min read

    • Article

      TREASURES Of The TRUST

      Aug 13, 2021

      The National Trust looks after more than 200 historic houses, which contain over one million objects. From works of art and vast tapestries to precious personal possessions, the range and breadth of the collections is astonishing and can be compared

      9 min read

    • Article

      Weird Museums of Europe

      Sep 3, 2019

      Be prepared to have your belief in the basic goodness of humanity tested. The exhibits at the Torture Museum are mind-blowing and stomach-churning. Here are the tools public authority used to exercise its power over people in the most gruesome ways.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Hiding In Plain Sight

      Jul 6, 2022

      TWO horses, a grey and a piebald, walk gracefully along Hyde Park’s Dorchester Ride. As they glide northward, another horse comes into view, framed by the park’s iron railings. But this one and the dog accompanying it have a touch of sadness about th

      5 min read

    • Article

      Arcadian Dreams

      Mar 2, 2022

      Arcadian Dreams
      3 min read

    • Article

      Arcadian Dreams

      Mar 2, 2022

      Arcadian Dreams
      3 min read

    • Article

      Windows On To History

      Sep 30, 2021

      Windows On To History
      6 min read

    • Article

      Jane Austen’s Hampshire

      Jan 31, 2020

      Jane Austen’s Hampshire
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Not So Wild West

      May 5, 2021

      The Not So Wild West
      4 min read

    • Article

      Stancombe Revisited

      Mar 6, 2024

      Stancombe Revisited
      5 min read

    • Article

      Miscellany

      Oct 26, 2023

      Miscellany
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Fabulous Box Of Geeky Delights

      Jan 26, 2023

      YOU HAVE TO BE A particular type of geek to get excited by historic house inventories: those endless room-by-room lists of tables and beds and tapestries and cooking utensils; the annoyingly unhelpful references to pictures — “Five Portraits, Gilt fr

      3 min read

    • Article

      A House Through Time

      Jun 9, 2023

      A House Through Time
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Romanov Sisters

    4/5

    203 ratings31 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      There is a certain fascination with all things Romanov that I think anyone with a love for history holds. Their story is so tragic and the loss of what might have been has generated many a sigh. I've read many books about this period in history and quite a few of them have been focused on Nicolas and Alexandra but this is the first book to purport to speak solely for the four Grand Duchesses. Little is left to history of their private lives but what there is is well presented in this eminently readable non-fiction book.The book does not solely focus on the girls as they did not live in a vacuum. It presents the full background of their parent's love story and the struggle Alexandra had to fit into Russian society. Her "misfortune" in presenting the country with the four girls when it so needed a male heir caused her to be scorned which led her to just about hide from society. She wanted to live a life of domesticity with her husband and children. She did finally produce the heir, Alexey - but he had hemophilia. This was kept from the people of Russia at all costs so they would not know that he was sick.All seemed to be going well and then as we all know from our history the Russian Revolution occurred and the royal family was sent to live in "protective custody" for their "safety." But they were prisoners of the state. And all know their sad end.I - and I hesitate to use the word enjoyed since the story is so sad - did enjoy the book. It read like fiction as opposed to non-fiction but the tale of this doomed family. The book is very well researched and extensively footnoted. The book does not take you to their demise so you can almost hope for a different ending for these four lively women who did not deserve the ending they received. As one chapter noted - it was perhaps too much mother love that killed them for if their mother had been willing to let them go they might have traveled to relatives and survived.
    • 5/5
      "We too have to understand through it all, that God is greater than everything, and that he wants to draw us, through our sufferings, closer to Him. But my country, my God, how I love it with all the power of my being, and her sufferings give me actual physical pain." –Alexandra RomonovaI cannot stress enough what a wonderful book this was! For the duration of my reading, I was transported back in time through Russia, Finland and Britain at the turn of the century. Revolution, death and hard times were ahead for Russia and its people after 1918. Knowing that this book would not have a happy ending though, didn't diminish the pleasure I had at glimpsing what life was like for the private Romanovs, a family that incited both controversy and intrigue. Rappaport did an excellent job of relating the story of the Romanov sisters, by not focusing all of her attention on the great love story that was Nicholas and Alexandra, or even the mythical Rasputin, though they were an integral part of Russian history. Instead, by means of surviving diaries and letters from the family, servants and friends, Rappaport paints how the quiet family lived, frustrations the girls had about being sheltered from the outside world, and even the first blooms of love. From each of their births down to their tragic deaths, I came away with a deep appreciation for each of their different characters and strengths, also a profound sense of loss for what they might have accomplished had they lived. What a wonderful read; a new all-time favorite!
    • 5/5
      The Romanov Sisters is a tale that draws you in and holds you breathless as it unfolds. Helen Rappaport tells us of the daughters of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, Nicholas and Alexandra. These girls had distinct personalities under their matching big white hats and dresses, and Rappaport does a good job in separating those personalities and allowing us to get to know the girls on a personal level. Their idyllic family life comes to a screeching halt at the start of World War I, and the heart aches as we know the family's ultimate fate. In this book, the girls come alive as we get to know their daily routines, their hopes and dreams, disappointments, and the intimate world that they lived in. Recommended reading for any lovers of the Romanov genre.
    • 1/5
      I know this is non-fiction, but my goodness was this the longest book I have ever read, with details I never cared to know!
    • 4/5
      Helen Rappaport does a great job in her book "The Romanov Sisters: The lost lives of the daughters of Nicolas and Alexadra." The book is comprehensive and weighty but still is incredibly readable.I first became interested in Tsar Nicholas and his family way back in high school, when I read about the woman who was posing as the youngest daugther Anastasia. I've loved Russian history ever since and took a bunch of courses in college. Consequently, I'm not sure that Rappaport's book had a ton of new knowledge about the four daughters of Russia's last Tsar, as this is well explored territory, but it was nice to see the focus on the personal lives rather than the politics that drove to the Romanov family's unfortunate end. Rappaport takes a very sympathetic approach to the family, but not so much that she doesn't point out Tsar Nicholas II's flaws as a leader and Alexandra's thrall with the religious crack Rasputin. It is an interesting time to read about the downfall of a whole style of government... and the numerous choices that the Nicholas and Alexandra might have made that would have at least given their family a better chance at survival. I'm glad to have finally gotten the chance to read this book.
    • 4/5
      Ugh, this was so depressing for the tragedy you knew was coming at the end... but also fascinating. My interest with the Romanovs began when I was a child and the 1997 animated film came out. While based more on the 1956 live action film (that in turn was based on the Anna Anderson story), it was very much a favorite, historical accuracy be damned. The animated film doesn't spend much time on the other sisters, so I was always a little curious (especially since one of the gowns seems to be more like what Olga and Tatiana wore in a real life portrait).

      Ms. Rappaport's book draws on a variety of primary sources and details the lives of the girls from birth, their personalities, the baffling politics around their gender (contemporary sources are even a little aghast that the Russians were so disappointed with Alexandra for producing girl-children- it's the 20th century, wtf).
    • 5/5
      I mean, it's going to be downer- you have to know that going in. But at the same time it's kind of a wonderful portrait of a lost world, of a family and four girls stuck in the middle of a maelstrom they had nothing to do with. Tragic and very sad of course. Also fascinating and vivid and unforgettable. I think it would help to have a pretty solid grounding in the Russian Revolution to understand some of the why's around events like Rasputin's murder and the reasons why Nicholas II was so unpopular. Otherwise so good.
    • 4/5
      This book focuses on the lives of the four Romanov sisters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia – the daughters of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his wife, Alexandra.Though the author did try to focus on the four girls, I found that there was a lot of other information, as well, that (at times) overshadowed the girls. I suspect there isn’t as much info out there about the girls, specifically, but the author did find letters and diary entries. Much of the start of the book focused on Nicholas and Alexandra; of course, there was also a good amount of information on their son, Alexei. It did focus a lot on the family, as a whole. And, historical events were also prominent (but there’s no way around that!). I think most of the information about the girls was as they got older, especially the older two, who acted as nurses during WWI before the family was imprisoned. It was very interesting – I did enjoy the book. I listened to the audio – the narrator was good, though I did, on occasion, lose focus.
    • 5/5
      An intensely detailed book about the lives of the four Grand Duchesses of Russia. I learned so much about the lives of the sisters and the family through the vivid writing of the author. A very enjoyable book, but also one filled with sadness knowing the fate these vivacious young women would inevitable face.

    • 5/5
      This is an extremely well researched attempt to separate out the lives and roles of the four doomed Romanov sisters Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia from the familiar and often told narrative of the last two decades of Tsarism in Russia, and to give them distinctive identities. The author also attempted this in her previous book Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs, which recounted in day by day detail the last two weeks of the family's imprisonment in the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg before Tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, the four daughters and son and heir Alexei, plus the doctor and three servants were murdered. She succeeds in this attempt as far as is reasonably possible, though the sisters' own depiction of themselves as a collective "OTMA" (from the initials of their names) doesn't help. Nevertheless, she says, "The anodyne public image of four sweet little girls in white embroidered cambric with blue bows in their hair thus gave little or no indication of the four very different personalities developing behind the closed doors of the Alexander Palace". Isolated from ordinary Russian life, but within a very loving family, their upbringing was of course privileged by the standards of ordinary Russians, but nevertheless more redolent of a bourgeois English upbringing than an aristocratic Russian one. They also somehow managed to develop a sensitivity towards outsiders shown most clearly in Olga and Tatiana's nursing work during the First World War, until the first March Revolution of 1917 brought about their father's abdication and the family's house arrest in the Winter Palace, prior to exile first in Tobolsk in Siberia, then in Ekaterinburg in the Urals. While I understand the author's desire not to overlap with her previous book on the family's last days, this does mean that the book's main narrative ends rather abruptly, with a short concluding chapter covering the fate of other characters. The book contained a number of pictures I hadn't seen before and an extensive bibliography. An impressive work.
    • 4/5
      The book was interesting. I knew very little about the Romanov family except that they had been killed. The book took a while to get going, but overall it was informative and interesting.
    • 5/5
      This was a fascinating read and even though I knew how their story ended, it made me sad to read how their lives changed. They seemed to be a very close and loving family and their lives would have been better served if Nicholas had never been Tsar and the sisters could have lived normal lives and married who they had fallen in love with and raised their own families.
    • 5/5
      "The day they sent the Romanovs away the Alexander Palace became forlorn and forgotten- a palace of ghosts", 6 January 2016This review is from: Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses (Paperback)A wonderful and haunting biography, that grabs the reader from the very first page, as s/he is taken on a tour of the royal palace (as many people did), shortly after the terrible events of 1918 - the ornaments and icons, the wheelchair of the haemophiliac tsarevich..."the long leafy avenue where the Romanov children had once played and ridden their ponies...the little cemetery where they buried their pets."Establishing from the first the underlying ordinariness of this family, Ms Rappaport brings the members vividly to life, focussing particularly on the sisters who are often 'lumped together' in people's minds. This work takes us right through from the marriage of their parents until 1918, including details of what became of other important members of their household.Unputdownable reading.
    • 4/5
      While the sisters Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia take center stage in this history, it can also be read as the story of the entire family of the last Tsar of Russia. Incredibly detailed, this is a must-read for those interested in the last days of imperial Russia and the last imperial family. Also, considering how well the family's execution is covered elsewhere, I was glad this work did not dwell on it as much as some others.
    • 4/5
      Prepare to have your heart broken. Like everyone, I knew that the Russian Revolution of 1917 brought a violent end to the rule of the Romanov family and the tsars. I also knew the gruesome trivia that Tsaritsa Alexandra had family jewelry taken apart and the gems sewn into her daughters’ clothing. In July 1918, when the family was led to the tiny half-cellar room where they were shot, at first many of the bullets struck the gems and bounced away, giving the fleeting impression the girls were impervious to them. Rappaport wrote about that last horrific scene in a previous book, Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs, and she may have wanted to spare us—and herself—from reliving it. In this book, she follows the family right up to its final hours, and I found myself reading more and more slowly, trying to delay the inevitable.Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia were 22, 21, 19, and 17 at the time of their deaths. The book follows the courtship and marriage of their parents, the births and childhoods, and their maturing to young women through remaining letters diaries, and reminiscences of friends and relatives at the time. The reader comes to know these intelligent, warm-hearted, and lively young women well, and their unnecessary death is devastating.It’s perhaps inevitable to speculate about a happier outcome. What if Nicholas hadn’t unexpectedly become Tsar at the age of 26? What if he’d been a stronger, more experienced military and political leader, a more flexible one, receptive to the idea of constitutional monarchy? What if their mother had been less withdrawn, chronically ill, and mentally fragile and had fostered—rather than assumed—the love of the Russian people? What if heir Alexey hadn’t inherited the hemophilia gene? Would she not have fallen under the sway of the disreputable Grigory Rasputin? Even without any of these circumstances, what if Nicholas and Alexandra had taken one of their many opportunities to leave Russia or at least send their daughters abroad? Eventually, even England’s King George V—determined to keep Soviet Russia as an ally in the war against Germany—withdrew his offer to provide his cousins safe haven.They girls lives were closely sheltered, and they saw little of life as it existed outside their palaces or aboard the imperial yacht used for summer vacations. Alexandra often dressed them all in long white dresses, and that’s the picture most people had of them: remote, inviolate.An exception arose during the War, when Alexandra, Olga, and Tatiana trained to be nurses. Alexandra couldn’t reliably fulfill these duties because of her health, but the older two—especially Tatiana—were tireless. They wrapped bandages, dressed wounds, assisted in surgery, cleaned instruments, and did everything they could to aid the wounded soldiers in their care, including raising funds for their hospitals. The two younger girls read to the wounded and wrote letters for them. These soldiers, like everyone else who met them, repeatedly remarked how natural and unaffected the girls were, how curious they were about the lives of other people. They were not at all like what they expected Grand Duchesses to be or what their popular image was. Rappaport has written a well researched, engaging biography of these brief lives and a century-old crime. Maps and a more complete list of characters (though there is an index) would have been an enhancement.
    • 5/5
      Extremely well written.

      Reads like a novel, but is based on well-researched facts. It brings the Romanov sisters, brother and parents to life in a way that no other book on the subject has been able to.

      It does what many biographies struggle to do: bring the subject to life, make them real people, and at the same time be an engrossing as a novel.

      Exceptional book. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      An excellent highly readable history of the last czar told through the lens of the Romanov daughters. It turns out (not surprisingly) that I did not know very much about the fall of Russian Imperial rule, and it is a fascinating story, in part because Nicholas and Alexandra turn out to be not fascinating at all. Alexandra is a whiny, humorless, hypochondriac with social anxiety, and Nicholas a good dad who mostly wants to be left alone. Fresh, educational and interesting all in one, I highly recommend the read. One note, the narrator of the audiobook was a little irritating to me. Overall her reading was good, but she is very dramatic, and really pounds on "proper" pronunciation for non-English words. That would be okay, but she pronounces everything not in English with her version of a Russian accent...including Chinese and French words. It worked my last nerve. Also, when reciting correspondence in what I think was supposed to be a mournful voice, she does this moaning hoarse voice which sounds like she just had a really delicious orgasm. No insult to orgasms or to the vocal effects of same, but the word "hemophilia" should never sound like pillow talk.
    • 4/5
      Throughout the early twentieth century, the four daughters of Russia’s Tsar Nicholas II held not only royal status, but also that of modern-day celebrities. Though the details of their daily lives were hidden from the public eye, people throughout the world clamored for information about the girls’ clothing, schooling and prospects for marriage. When their young lives were cut short in 1918, portions of their history were lost as well. In The Romanov Sisters, Helen Rappaport blends diaries and letters with years of research to form a complete portrait of the four Russian Grand Duchesses.

      Continue Reading at River City Reading
    • 4/5
      The Romanov Sisters tells the story of the Romanov family from the time Alexandria, the mother, is a small girl until the family's death. It is well-written and well-researched, using letters and interviews with friends and other family members to reconstruct their life. It ends abruptly with their deaths and I would have been interested in a little more information about that. But otherwise I enjoyed this book. I was given this book as an ARC for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      The reader speaks well, paying careful attention to pronunciation, but often, with so many Russian names rolling off her tongue, I was unable to picture or fathom any of them, let alone try and remember them. Although she spoke clearly, she didn’t vary much in tone or pitch. The voice was resonant, but very soft and kind of melancholy. I believe I would have been better off with the print book, rather than the audio.The author’s excellent research is evident with the information presented on every page. It was very detailed and the lives of the Romanov daughters do come alive for the reader. However, sometimes it was repetitive, for how many times can you hear about the illness of a particular character or the balls someone attended without feeling the story should move on a bit faster. I often lost track of the children’s ages and of how much time had passed, and in the end, thought they had been in prison for years when only one year had gone by. Actually, the book only covers a little over two decades in the lives of the Tsar and Tsarina, Nicholas II and Alexandra who was of British nobility and converted to the Russian Orthodox religion to marry. The royal couple shared a deep love for each other. The children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei, the legitimate heir, who is covered in large part only with reference to his genetic illness, Hemophilia, were largely kept out of the public eye, to the dismay of their subjects who thought they should be more privy to information about them and wanted them placed on pedestals to view as they grew. Alexie’s health was often a concern since he was the legitimate heir to the throne. Rasputin was called in often, to bring him back to health, and magically, he often did have that effect on him and others.For much of the Romanov reign, they feared assassination attempts. Neither the Tsar or the Tsarina particularly liked the position they were in and therefore, seemed unfit for to handle the task of ruling the country. He didn’t seem to want or enjoy governing, and she preferred solitude to affairs of state. She was often sick, preventing her appearances, and the children were completely sheltered and protected at all times, as well. They all seemed to be naïve about what behavior was expected of them, both in public and private, and they did not perform their duties in the way their subjects considered proper or acceptable for royalty. Rather they seemed more ordinary. They were not opposed to doing things for themselves or to do physical labor. When the war broke out, Nicholas joined the fight and the children and their mother nursed the victims. Also, although they lived well, they did not live in the lavish style of most reigning nobility. Still they were pampered with 100’s of servants and guards protecting them when they moved about. Perhaps discontent for the ruler just goes with the job.From this author’s presentation, I found the ultimate treatment of the family to be cruel and brutal. The revolutionaries who overthrew their dynasty were just like all other revolutionaries. They were concerned with protecting their own positions and behaved barbarically, wantonly committing murder. The Romanovs were in the wrong place at the wrong time when the Bolsheviks came to power. They seemed completely unprepared for the way they would be treated, with unrealistic expectations and seemed utterly surprised when they were taken prisoner and treated like commoners. Still, through it all, they maintained, for the most part, an optimistic attitude, always remaining hopeful that they would have their freedom back one day. They all adapted well, or tried to, no matter what the hardship, in spite of illness, in spite of the fact that they began to show the effects of their ill treatment, as time passed. The beautiful letters that were written and the experiences documented in diaries and journals laid bare their lives for the reader who cannot help but sympathize with their plight. They were portrayed as almost guileless, and the children surely were. They had no dominion over themselves and were punished simply because of their bloodline, as were those closely associated with them. The revolutionaries, perhaps, ushered in an era of even greater oppression for the people of Russia, which continues somewhat today. The Socialists, the Bolsheviks, the Communists, Lenin and Stalin all eventually feared for their own futures as the Tsar and Tsarina had lived in fear of theirs. As Lord Acton said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
    • 4/5
      It took me a little bit to get into this book but once I did I was hooked. The bad thing about reading a book about the Romanov’s is you know the ending and this book endeared me to the family and I really wanted it to end differently. These girls were very sheltered and this book didn’t feel like it concentrated on just the girls, it’s a story about the entire family. Really what else can you say, everyone knows the story but to get some of these intimate details was interesting. And even though you know the ending it is still so sad!I am a huge fan of Xe Sands and while I did enjoy her narration it felt different than other books I have listened to by her, not bad, just different to me , that may be because it’s a different genre I’m not sure. I felt like this had been sped up compared to the way Xe usually reads. But I thought she did a great job with all the names and pronunciations this book was a huge undertaking and I will always pick the audio over paper when she is narrating.On a little aside it was neat getting a background on the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich who about 20 or so years after this book dated Coco Chanel (I recently read Mademoiselle Chanel) so hearing his name meant more to me than it would of if I hadn’t read about him and Coco.This was a good book about the Romanov’s it’s not just about the sisters but about the family as a whole and I would recommend to anyone who likes Russian History.4 Stars
    • 4/5
      Helen Rappaport's account of the lives of the Romanov sisters, Olga, Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia, is a tightly woven book that stays true to its purpose of discovering the sisters' personalities and life experience. Rappaport begins the book with a lot of detail about their mother's life. This is appropriate as Alexandra's ill health and fears shaped their lives. The girls had very little outside contact, even with their relatives and other high society Russian's, because their mother was always suffering from illness. Also, their little brother, Alexey, was a hemophiliac, and this caused the family to retreat even farther from contact with friends and family since they didn't want anyone to know. This reality leads to a problem with this book. The girls' lives just aren't all that interesting. They seem to have led very narrow lives, only having real life experience during the beginning of the war when they were allowed to do some nursing. Most of the first half of the book focuses on the two older girls, Olga and Tatiana, presumably because there is the most information on them and because at least their lives were mildly interesting. Also, Rappaport sticks to her thesis to a fault, ignoring or barely mentioning politics and social change of the time that could have been recounted in terms of its effect on the family. She sticks so closely to trying to explore the Princesses personalities and daily lives, that she really ignores all of the dramatic outside events that were tangentially shaping them. Rappaport does not dwell on the murder of the Romanov family (she's written a separate book on that) so don't expect any sensationalist accounts. Overall, it's really just a book about the family life of the Romanovs as their world collapses around them. Interesting, but not fascinating, at least it wasn't to me. I couldn't help comparing this book to a book I read last year that focused on the private family life of a royal family, Janice Hadlow's A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III. I felt that Hadlow did a much better job of making the family come to life, though they suffered from a lot of the same seclusion from society that the Romanovs did (for different reasons, of course). Overall, I did enjoy this book. I love reading about Russia and this was another piece of the puzzle for me, but I would view it as supplementary reading if you've already read some nonfiction and fiction of the time. It's a good addition, but not going to be very satisfying unless you've already read something with more political detail.
    • 5/5
      I have read many books about the fall of Russia's last Tsar, and the story always ends the same, unfortunately, However, the path that authors take to reach that point varies considerably. Helen Rappaport here deals with the Romanov children, specifically the sisters although also the tsarevitch Alexey. She has uncovered many letters that have not been gathered all in the same place previously. The book gives the reader a chance to know the girls as individuals more so than the way that they are commonly lumped together as OTMA. (A self-styled acronym that they gave themselves based on the letters of their first names) Had there been letters from Alexey, he would probably have been developed more fully as a personality also, but his education lagged due to his many illnesses. This book consistently showed up in best nonfiction lists for 2014, and the honor was well-deserved. It's a must-read for anyone with an interest in Russia history or things tsarist.
    • 5/5
      There is a certain fascination with all things Romanov that I think anyone with a love for history holds. Their story is so tragic and the loss of what might have been has generated many a sigh. I've read many books about this period in history and quite a few of them have been focused on Nicolas and Alexandra but this is the first book to purport to speak solely for the four Grand Duchesses. Little is left to history of their private lives but what there is is well presented in this eminently readable non-fiction book.The book does not solely focus on the girls as they did not live in a vacuum. It presents the full background of their parent's love story and the struggle Alexandra had to fit into Russian society. Her "misfortune" in presenting the country with the four girls when it so needed a male heir caused her to be scorned which led her to just about hide from society. She wanted to live a life of domesticity with her husband and children. She did finally produce the heir, Alexey - but he had hemophilia. This was kept from the people of Russia at all costs so they would not know that he was sick.All seemed to be going well and then as we all know from our history the Russian Revolution occurred and the royal family was sent to live in "protective custody" for their "safety." But they were prisoners of the state. And all know their sad end.I - and I hesitate to use the word enjoyed since the story is so sad - did enjoy the book. It read like fiction as opposed to non-fiction but the tale of this doomed family. The book is very well researched and extensively footnoted. The book does not take you to their demise so you can almost hope for a different ending for these four lively women who did not deserve the ending they received. As one chapter noted - it was perhaps too much mother love that killed them for if their mother had been willing to let them go they might have traveled to relatives and survived.
    • 4/5
      The book is a well researched stunning account of the family life of the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II. Whilst the focus is on the girls, the Tsar, his wife and only son, Alexy are not left out. I did not know a lot about the Romanov girls so I found this book intriguing and enlightening. Each of the sisters has their own story that allows you to understand their lives lived in seclusion and fear. The saddest part of all is that this is a tragic and true story. There is no happy ever after or knight in shining armour arriving at the last minute to save them. Having said that, you still read it, hoping that somehow they survive. Thank you Helen Rappaport for providing a very real and poignant account of this tragic family.
    • 3/5
      Even during the lifetime of the four beautiful Romanov sisters, their mysterious personal lives lead to much speculation and idolization. This book uses many diaries, letters, and other first person accounts to bring the sisters to life. The book starts when their mother journeys to Russia, a lonely bride in a strange land. It then follows the rest of the sisters’ lives, through the beginning of the first world war and their eventual murder by Bolshevik soldiers.

      I was surprised that knowing the end of this story didn’t bother me. On the contrary, the constant reminder that the sisters’ sadly sheltered lives ended in such a tragic fashion gave this book a poignancy which I think was its’ best feature. The many first-person accounts did a great job bringing the sisters’ individual personalities to life. It was hard to not feel desperately sad for the whole family as you got to know them and saw times where their deaths might have been avoided had things gone a little differently. The most interesting parts of the story, for me, were those which highlighted the times in which the sisters lived. Both connections to large events (the outbreak of WWI, the reign of George VI of The King’s Speech) and to smaller events (Russia’s first women doctors and first motion pictures), made for a fascinating backdrop.

      The details of the lives of the sisters themselves were less interesting. They led very sheltered lives, so often large chunks of the book passed with no significant changes in their lives. The constrained lives they lived in prison were boring, but no more so than their early lives sheltered by their mother. The only briefly exciting part of their story was when they served with great dedication as nurses after the outbreak of WWI. I’ve read several positive reviews of this book (including this one from Julz Reads), but it just wasn’t my favorite. Honestly, I spent much of the story waiting to reach the end, which is never a good way to feel about a book! However, I think it’s fair to say that this book has really pleased many fans with greater prior interest in the Romanovs, so don’t let my negative review dissuade you too much on this one.

      This review first published on Doing Dewey.
    • 3/5
      This novel follows the lives of the last ruling Romanov family. Although it says it is focused on the sisters, it provides an overview of the entire family. After reading the book, I only feel as if I really know Alexandra, and Olga. It felt as if the other sisters were minimized, perhaps because they were younger and lived a shorter time. I was also surprised that the author gave very little information about the families lives in Ekaterinburg. She gave in-depth information about their other lodgings and the time leading up to Ekaterinburg. Perhaps she did this because she wrote a book specifically about their time in Ekaterinburg, but I felt it was given short shrift. Although this book was very well researched, I felt that it fell short.
    • 4/5
      3.5 Although much in this book was known to me previously, I did like the way this was presented. The writing is very readable, clear and precise. It focused more on the family, their daily schedules, the people they were in contact with and their individual personalities. History of course invaded the focus, but only when necessary, and how it affected the family and what they thought about what was happening. I did feel that I received a better understanding of the girls, their individual personalities, their thoughts and hopes for the future. Their first loves or crushes, their schooling and the many people, including Rasputin, who they trusted. I never knew the extent that they were secluded, kept out of the influence of the Russian nobility and I can't help but feel that this did them a huge disservice. They were often thought to be socially awkward, abroad and by their own people. I couldn't help but think that had the two oldest girls been allowed to marry, at least two lives would have been saved. This book was extensively researched and I very much like that the book did not end of the murder of the Czar and his family but continued on to tell the fate of many of those who had supported the family. ARC from NetGalley..
    • 5/5
      Comprehensive and well documented, this joint biography of the last Tsar’s four daughters stops just short of their violent deaths at the hands of revolutionaries, but it’s a poignant and haunting story from start to finish. Lovely, intelligent, and good humored, sisters Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia were seen as a unit, even referring to themselves as OTMA, but they come alive as individuals in the chapters of this book, with (roughly speaking) Olga the most emotional, Tatiana the most responsible, Maria the best natured, and Anastasia the most spirited. Their parents Tsar Nicholas II and Alexandra come across as devoted and doting, fatalistically pious in their beliefs, but not temperamentally suited for public life, and the Tsarevich Alexei, their lively younger brother, romps through the pages as much as his hemophilia allows. Using sources that include their diaries and letters, the four sisters often get to speak for themselves. Their lives were sheltered, isolated, and privileged, but full of contradictions. They had lots of family love and idyllic summer excursions, but their mother was often incapacitated by illness, and Alexey was regularly bedridden and in great pain. The four were expected to marry well, especially Olga as the eldest, but they were kept from society so their crushes were on soldiers that guarded them, not European royals or members of their own class. They played silly child-like games far into adolescence, but during WWI spent their days tending to badly injured and disfigured soldiers, especially Tatiana who worked as a surgery nurse.Too thorough and detailed to read like a novel, The Romanov Sisters is still moving and a hard book to put down, capturing some fascinating bits of history and rescuing Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia from history’s shadows. I read an advanced review copy of this book provided by the publisher. The opinions are mine.
    • 4/5
      This book told of the Romanov family life. It described the background of Alexandra, the mother, and Czar Nicholas, the father, and their attempts to provide their children with a "normal" upbringing. Much of the book centered on Alexandra and her influence. She was often ill and this illness impacted the family, but not as much as the hemophilia of the son and heir, Alexy. The family seemed out of touch with the times and would have done well in an earlier era. They were sheltered from the public eye until the outbreak of WWI, when the older sisters, Olga and Tatiana, worked with their mother in hospitals for the wounded military. Eventually, Maria and Anastasia also would go there to help care for the patients. When the revolution occurred, the family lost any chance of leaving Russia. The girls and Alexy had severe cases of the measles and, instead of fleeing, Alexandra chose to remain and wait for the return of Nicholas, away leading the war effort, who had then abdicated in the hope of bringing peace to Russia. The chapters covering their imprisonment in Tobolsk and finally, Yekaterinburg, brought forth the difficulties the family endured and described their great faith, which sustained them. Their murders in the name of revolution still haunt history.The book was well researched and gave the reader some insight into the actions of the family. It was a good book to read to try to understand the final days for the family, but a better title would have been Inside the Romanovs or The Romanov Family, since the book was not mainly about the sisters, but about the family.I have not been compensated in any way (other than being given a copy of this book to review) and my opinion on the book is entirely my own.