Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

Valentina Ivanova is the eldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II’s financial minister. At seventeen, she is pretty and a gifted pianist, often playing for the elite of Russian society. But her world is changed forever when a bomb explodes at one of the family’s homes, paralyzing her sister and announcing the foundation of a revolution.


The consequences from that explosion also propel Valentina onto a new path of her own as she discovers what lives are like for the majority of the people, the hatred against her and the aristocracy that is seething in the air of St. Petersburg and how far the revolutionaries will go in order to succeed. Although her father needs her to marry a wealthy army captain (for his own financial reasons), Valentina’s heart belongs elsewhere and she fights for the opportunity to make something more of her life and to be useful in society.

Valentina’s life becomes more complicated when she realizes the family’s household has been infiltrated by a revolutionary – a cold blooded killer who nonetheless struggles with his conscience and feelings towards members of the Ivanko family. The two of them play a bit of a cat-and-mouse game and the balance of power shifts back and forth as they each play on the other's weakness.

I don’t read much set in the 20th century but I generally make an exception for books set during the Russian Revolution. This is the first book by Furnivall that I have read and my understanding is that it is a “prequel” of sorts to The Russian Concubine, which continues Valentina’s story. Set mostly in the years leading up to the revolution, for the most part I found the storyline interesting and engaging and I enjoyed Valentina's story as she tries to understand and survive what is going on around her. The workers have long suffered from low pay and dangerous working conditions and the book does a decent job of explaining their plight and anger.

But there were parts – the initial love story between Valentina and the Danish engineer seemed sudden and without any real basis and Valentina’s decision/desire to become a nurse – that just seemed a little off. Why is it that the main female character of books set during Russia’s Revolution want to be a nurse??? Although it does provide a gateway into some of the consequences of the violence, it has also been so overdone. As a pianist myself, I was initially intrigued by the pianist component of Valentina’s character, but it really wasn’t as big a part of the story as I expected it to be. Mostly it became a ploy of identifying Valentina as part of the aristocracy since her hands obviously did not look like those of the working woman.

There was one other thing that drove me nuts (and is something I have pointed out as an issue in other books set in a country where English is not the native language) – the addition of Russian words either proceeded by or immediately followed by their English translation. I’ve said it before and I will say it again – people do not talk that way when speaking with others from the same country. I’m not really sure what the purpose of including these words and phrases is – maybe the author is trying to impress the reader with her knowledge of the language or maybe it’s an attempt to add authenticity. In both cases, it fails and annoys the heck out of me.

A matter of conscience: "The revolutionary severs all links with the social order and its moral codes because only the exclusion of such values can bring about radical change."  Arkin in rationalizing a response in his head to Valentina’s question of “have you no conscience?”



In case the FTC asks? Got this one from the publisher.