Review: The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

Young Adult Fiction
Release Date: Jan. 10, 2012
Published by Delacorte
Hardcover, 400 pgs.
Provided for review by Amazon Vine

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?

Some mixed feeling on this one.  Although I did like the book and some elements I liked quite a lot, there were enough negatives to knock it down a notch for me.  


In the beginning we are introduced to many many characters and most all of them have an important role.  They all have fancy and very long names and titles and they were very difficult to keep straight.  {I hope that the finished copy has a list of the characters to refer to because it would be very helpful to be able to look them up.}  It took a good long time before I felt not completely lost as to who was what and what was who, etc.  It was at least halfway through before I stopped feeling lost.   I also wished that Katerina stood up for herself more.  There were times she would fume and her family would be afraid she'd say and do something {and embarrass them horribly} but she never really did.    I also had a bit of a hard time connecting with her.  It's told in first person but for some reason I never felt like I really felt her.   


I loved the setting, I loved the time period, I loved the idea of the whole story.  And the second half definitely picked up and was entertaining.  I also enjoyed the romance part of the story though it frustrated me a bit {not always a bad thing} and I did really wish for more.  I felt the connection between the two but wanted more.  Like more instances when she needed him or something.  I suspect that there's much more in the books to come though and I do look forward to it.  So that answers that question, I think I will read the next one because I think I got the rocky part out of the way.  I now understand the world more and the romance definitely interests me.  


This was a fairly clean read, maybe mild violence but that's about it.  It definitely has a historical fiction feel to it {even though there's loads of supernatural/paranormal elements} so keep that in mind.  


3/5 stars


I received this book free of charge for review purposes.  I was not paid or influenced in any way and all opinions expressed are my own.


I read an advance copy of this book and the final version may have changes.