Overview

This sweeping novel takes readers behind palace walls to see the end of Imperial Russia through the eyes of Olga Romanov, the first daughter of the last tsar Grand Duchess Olga Romanov comes of age amid a shifting tide for the great dynasties of Europe. But even as unrest simmers in the capital, Olga is content to live within the confines of the sheltered life her parents have built for her and her three sisters: hiding from the world on account of their mother's ill health, their brother Alexei's secret affliction, and rising controversy over Father Grigori Rasputin, the priest on whom the tsarina has come to rely. Olga's only escape from the seclusion of Alexander Palace comes from the grand tea parties her aunt hosts amid the shadow court of Saint Petersburg--a world of opulent ballrooms, scandalous flirtation, and whispered conversation. But as war approaches, the palaces of Russia are transformed. Olga and her sisters trade their gowns for nursing habits, assisting in surgeries and tending to the wounded bodies and minds of Russia's military officers. As troubling rumors about her parents trickle in from the front, Olga dares to hope that a budding romance might survive whatever the future may hold. But when tensions run high and supplies run low, the controversy over Rasputin grows into fiery protest, and calls for revolution threaten to end three hundred years of Romanov rule. At turns glittering and harrowing, The Last Grand Duchess is a story about dynasty, duty, and love, but above all, it's the story of a family who would choose devotion to each other over everything--including their lives.

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An entrancing tribute to a Victorian lass of tragic grace. -- Library Journal

"An entrancing tribute to a Victorian lass of tragic grace. -- ""Library Journal"""

Author Information

Bryn Turnbull is a writer of historical fiction with a penchant for fountain pens. Equipped with a master's of letters in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews, a master's of professional communication from Ryerson University and a bachelor's degree in English literature from McGill University, Bryn focuses on finding stories of women lost within the cracks of the historical record. She lives in Toronto. The Woman Before Wallis is her first novel. Mary Jane Wells (a.k.a. McAllister Lee) is a British actress, writer, voice-over artist, and Earphones Award and Audie Award-winning narrator. A graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, she held a recurring role on the BBC's Half Moon Investigates and narrated the BBC Three television show My Children, which won a Scottish BAFTA.

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