1 STARS

"Against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution and World War I Europe, Zoya, young cousin to the Tsar, flees St. Petersburg to Paris to find safety. Her entire world forever changed, she faces hard times and joins the Ballet Russe in Paris. And then, when life is kind to her, Zoya moves on to a new and glittering life in New York. The days of ease are all too brief as the Depression strikes, and she loses everything yet again. It is her career, and the man she meets in the course of it, which ultimately save her, as she rebuilds her life through the war years and beyond. And it is her family that comes to mean everything to her. From the roaring twenties to the 1980's, Zoya remains a rare and spirited woman whose legacy will live on." (From Amazon)

Originally when I read Danielle Steel novels I would have rated them 3-4 STARS, but now I would classify them as 1-2 STARS. These are great for those who like mild sex, unrealistic dramatic romances and grand plots.

I’ve read different renditions of the Romanov family but nobody did it like Danielle. Zoya’s story was one that stayed with me for weeks, my heart ached because I didn’t want the book to end. It’s the best Danielle Steel book I’ve ever read.

There were so many things that I didn't like about this book and even though Zoya's first husband and her's age difference was accurate for that time in history it still made me sick how they talked about it. Clayton often referred to her as a child and Zoya said something to him in regard to their age gap along the lines of: "it wouldn't matter if you were 10 years old, I would love you just the same," and that was just plain gross in my opinion. I would have been more tolerant of the age gap if the author didn't say "child" so much and have Clayton, Zoya, Zoya's grandmother, and her grandmother's friend all agree that he was too old for her but they all did nothing to stop the relationship from happening anyway. I really didn't like Clayton's character and I often felt that his main reason for liking Zoya was for her looks. I was honestly a bit glad when he died but I think the way he died was kinda weak on the author's part.

Also the whole stock market crash part of the book takes to me my next point: way too many bad things happened in this book and I became numb to it very quickly. The word "death/died" lost its meaning about 60 pages into this book. I never read a book where a character had this much bad luck. It didn't even make me sad, just tired.

The pacing in this book was also horrible. I really liked how the book started out and I liked the detail that the author included about the escape from Russia and the revolution. I liked how we got updates on how everything was going while she was living in Paris. What I didn't like was that the second half of the book was so rushed in comparison. I wanted more detail about Zoya's husband Simon and I'm sad that I never got that. Their relationship felt rushed. I felt like so many characters were introduced just for nothing but death to become of them and it made me question why they were even added in the first place.

There was so much name dropping and it was pointless and not relevant to the story at all. Considering a decent chunk of this book took place during WWII I expected more detail about its big events and the anxiety that it caused Zoya but once again the detailing was just not there. So many great concepts were introduced only to be brushed over which made this book a very disappointing read.

To sum up, this book was so frustrating and so much happened, a little too much actually, and it's a book I'll complain about for years to come.

Loved this book in high school. My friends and I passed it around. We all thought czars and their families were fascinating. We all loved this story and thought Zoya must have been the most beautiful name in the world. One of these days I would love to read it again. Maybe I can find a copy to own. ❤️

I first read this years ago, and although Danielle Steel has a rambling, repetitive style of writing that sometimes annoys the English teacher in me, there is no denying that she can tell a story.

Meh, it was okay. I buy absolutely 0% of the romances here, and the fourth cover spoils too much of the story (not as badly as in Jewel's case, though), but it's still decent, I guess.