If you liked John Boyne's The House of Special Purpose...
...why not retire with one of these Russian-related reads?
The Tsarina’s Daughter: A Novel by Carolly Erickson
Here, Carolly Erickson imagines a similar scenario to Boyne, but this time with the survival of the Grand Duchess Tatiana.
It is 1989 and Daria Gradov is an elderly grandmother living in the rural West. What neighbours and even her children don't know, however, is that she is not who she claims to be - the widow of a Russian immigrant of modest means. In actuality she began her life as the Grand Duchess Tatiana, known as Tania to her parents, Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra. And so begins the latest entrancing historical entertainment by Carolly Erickson. At its centre is young Tania, who lives a life of incomparable luxury in pre-Revolutionary Russia, from the magnificence of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to the family's private enclave outside the capital. Tania is one of four daughters, and the birth of her younger brother Alexei is both a blessing and a curse. When he is diagnosed with haemophilia and the key to his survival lies in the mysterious power of the illiterate monk Rasputin, it is merely an omen of much worse things to come. Soon war breaks out and revolution sweeps the family from power and into claustrophobic imprisonment in Siberia. Into Tania's world comes a young soldier whose life she helps to save and who becomes her partner in daring plans to rescue the imperial family from certain death.
The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry
Steve Berry’s 2004 novel relates the adventures of lawyer miles lord in post communist Russia on the hunt for descendants of the Grand Duchess Anastasia. After a string of weak governments, the Russian people vote to bring back the new tsar and lord is tasked with investigating those who claim their inheritance to the throne.
History is being made and Miles Lord has a ringside seat. The people of Russia have voted to bring back the tsar, a ruler to be selected from the distant relatives of Nicholas II, who was murdered along with the rest of the Romanov family in 1918. Miles has been asked to run a background check on one of the candidates. But excitement turns to terror when Miles is nearly killed by gunmen. Suddenly, he is racing across continents with only a cryptic utterance by Rasputin, made at the time of the Romanov massacre, as his guide. The implications of this prophecy are earth-shattering -- not only for the future tsar and mother Russia, but for Miles himself.
