Empress of the Night

I just finished a very interesting novel about Catherine the Great, Empress of the Night by Eva Stachniak.  It's a sequel to The Winter Palace.

My Goodreads review is below.....

This novel was very different from its prequel, The Winter Palace.  It's told from the perspective of the main character, Catherine the Great, and is a series of long, disjointed flashbacks of her life.  

I remember my Russian History class and was always interested in this powerful female monarch, mainly because of how people sought to scandalize her.  The book doesn't go into all the rumors, thank goodness, but it does talk about her many loves over the years.  The Romanov family dynamics were very interesting, as well, especially those of Catherine's grandchildren.  


This is a very well written and engrossing read, though I enjoyed the first novel much more.