Queen of Someday by Sherry D. Ficklin
Clean Teen Publishing © 2014
Kindle Edition
Historical Fiction
Reviewed by Leah
***SPOILERS***
***SWEARING***
Seriously, abandon review now if you wish to avoid them.
Not kidding.
Still here? Okay then…
Summary:
Princess Sophie of Prussia is her family's last hope. With their finances drifting away year by year, a wealthy and advantageous marriage is their only saving grace. And Duke Peter of Russia is her last hope; for if she cannot have him, she is forced to accept the hand of her lecherous uncle. A fate she is saved from by the Empress Elizabeth's kind invitation to visit St. Petersburg for Peter's sixteenth birthday.
When she arrives, however, it is made clear to Sophie that she is not welcomed by everyone. While the empress extends every kindness, Peter plays games of hot and cold that leave her feeling anxious. To make matters worse, however, there are two other gentlemen who do not play such games. And whose tenderness for her forms a bond deeper than should be allowed.
In the end, Sophie must decide which future she will choose: Duchess Catherine, future Queen of Russia … or Helen of Troy.
Initial Thoughts:
Okay, we're just going to start with that cover. It is gorgeous. Stunning. Historically accurate? Not in the least. Fitting for the contents of the book? Eh, maybe. But that tagline… "One girl will bring an empire to its knees." Since I know absolutely nothing about Catherine the Great, I can't judge that. But based on the Princess Sophie of this novel? Nope, can't see it. And that drives me bonkers.
Characters:
(Reviewer's Note: We're saving Sophie for last. I think that one is going to be a rant.)
Peter is childish, passionate, temperamental, and arrogant in all the wrong ways. At first, he appears charming and endearing in his headstrong desire to do what he wants. But he lacks the wisdom and judgement to make good use of such qualities. Instead, he is very much a spoiled boy who hasn't learned to share his toys. And when he comes to see Sophie as one such possession, you will hate him. Especially when it becomes apparent just how cruel he can be.
Sergei has no idea what decorum is. Seriously, there's no touching of the royalty. So stop: grabbing her hand, pulling her close, touching her shoulder/arm/whatever. I'm not kidding. It's not allowed. Stop. Also, stop winking at her and shooting her sly smiles. It is not helpful, and you're too damn good-looking not to make it an issue.
(In case you were wondering, I was berating him for about half of the book. Until I learned that he was/is a part-time lover of the Empress Elizabeth. Then I finally understood why he thought it was okay and was totally comfortable with it. Right about then is when I started to forgive him. Started.)
Rina is probably the nicest person in the entire book, and I was suspicious of her the whole time. I know there really are some sweet people in the world. But in a world where politics is the name of the game, I kept waiting for her to turn bad. It just made no sense to me how she could side with Sophie so suddenly and so completely without an ulterior motive. I shall remain watchful, but I don't think this character is going to change now. Still…
Empress Elizabeth is someone I actually understood really well. She has goals. Desires. Needs. And the top on all of these lists is: get an heir from Peter. It is the number one thing that she requires and Sophie is her best chance at getting that. Which is why she is willing to do anything to ensure that future. Sophie sees this as cruelty. I see it as necessity. At this point, Empress Elizabeth is very much the queen Sophie will need to be in order to survive at Russian Court.
Alexander… I nearly grind my teeth just thinking about this little … pest. Does he love Sophie? Yes. Is it adorable? Absolutely! Did I squee when he offered to be her secret mistress? You bet your ass I did! And did I want to throttle the fucking life out of him when he proposed? Do you really need me to answer that?
It's not that I had a real problem with Alexander and Sophie's relationship. They wrote cute notes and stole a few kisses. Nothing went too far and they were discreet enough to where only Rina was aware of what was going on.
Not until we got into "I will give up everything for you" territory did I begin to feel the bile rising. If they hadn't been so stupid as to want to run away together, I could have endured them sneaking around behind everyone's backs. Secret liaisons: fine, it's royalty, I can deal. Let's run away together, even though it will destroy my entire family: NOPE!
Which of course is my way of leading into…
THE SOPHIE RANT
Okay, first off, I was really rather okay with Sophie. I understood what the point of her was. As in: this book is about the young, poor girl before she became Catherine the Great. Being the first book in the series, this obviously was about her as a very young girl, with a lot of issues. Not the least of which is the fact that there are two assassination attempts on her in the book.
Anyway, in the beginning, Sophie is young, naive, and understandably worried. Unfortunately, she does not have her priorities in order and when the teenager hormones hit her, they do so with a high dose of stupidity.
Going into this, Sophie was sweet and endearing, but she knew how to handle herself in a physical fight. (I mean, she appears to be a total badass when she has to rescue herself from would-be assassins.) Though the encounter with Sergei tipped me off a bit as to how this might turn out, I was still kind of hoping Sophie would keep her head in the game and her eyes on the prize. (Asshole Peter, in case you were wondering; though we weren't aware he was an asshole at the time.)
Again, in the beginning, Sophie knew what she had to do: win Peter. At any cost. Destroying any and all competition. Of course, when she starts taking advice from his best friend, that's when things get murky, and she just can't keep her thoughts off the mysteriously sexy Alexander. (No, really, I get behind that one. Again, their love story wasn't the problem. It was their decision making skills that flunked everything.)
Somewhere along the way through this secret affair (sans sexy times), Sophie loses her mind. I mean that quite literally. She's fighting off a fever-inducing poison which sort of cripples her priorities. After all, if she's facing death, she wants to leave no regrets. Yeah … that kind of thinking.
So her sneaking around with Alexander is a heartwarming balm to her over wracked nerves. Until she decides that it is okay to risk everything, destroy every relationship she has, in order to be with him.
Let me place this quote here that I actually came up with because of these two:
Those who claim love makes of them idiots, are really just idiots looking for an excuse.
Yes, I went there. Why? Because I know what I am talking about.
I get to make that call because I really am in love with someone. And while at times it will make me push myself to do things I normally wouldn't, it has never once compromised my judgement or my priorities. Which is to say, a good healthy love is not about doing everything for another person. It's about doing what is best for you both, in any situation.
I could have respected Sophie if she had called it off with Alexander. I could have respected her decision if she agreed to allow him to be her secret mistress. (I still grin when I think about that line.) But when her family is counting on her to make this match, in a time when it really is her only choice, then I cannot respect her when she throws away being queen of Russia to run away with a man whose family might be wealthy enough to keep hers afloat a few years longer. (Assuming they will help in the first place, instead of feeding them to the wolves for pissing off the empress.)
Yes, I understand this is a romance novel and it's all about doing whatever it takes for love. But when politics and thrones are the end goals here, there's no such thing as personal desires. At least, not the kind royalty are allowed to indulge in.
I guess what I'm trying to say in this rant is: Sophie is not Catherine. Not now. She is nowhere near the woman she needs to be. Maybe she just needs to grow up a little and learn to trust people less, I'm not sure. But as a character, she was definitely my least favorite in the book.
Plot & Setting
Okay, not too much of a setting here, but I understand why. Sophie is an unreliable narrator when it comes to things like her surroundings. Not really an issue, considering any massive description would have taken us into boredom territory, so no points lost on this one. I'm okay with characters not describing everything when their mind is on other things. (Though really, Sophie, you need to focus!)
As far as the plot goes, I guess I just wish it had more politics and less romance. I was at least consoled a little by people trying to kill Sophie, plus a little Lady-scheming with Asshole Peter. But I knew this was a romance going into this, so I can't blame the book for that either.
Though, really, that ending was beast. When I remember how conniving and sneaky Sophie--excuse me, Catherine ends up being, I immediately wanted to pick up the second book. By the end of this book, you can see the road that is being paved and I just really hope we get a good follow-through as Sophie grows into her role and place as Catherine.
Writing Style:
Barring the few editing flaws, this book was wonderfully written. It is always a mark of the author's skills that it took me basically a day to read the book. I was well over 60% before I realized I was half-way through the book. And when I got into the 80s and 90% zones, I kept trying to figure out why my kindle was lying to me, because I could not be that close to the end. I just couldn't. It felt like I'd barely started.
For the writing alone, this book gets high marks. Because it was so easy to fall into, that you forget there's a landing at the end of this.
Overall Opinion:
Okay, so all of my reviews suffer this little stigma: they all sound bad. I admit, when I'm doing a review, I get even more critical than when I am reading the book. Unfortunately, I was very critical while actually reading this book and I'm afraid it shows through in my Sophie Rant.
That being said: I still want the sequel. Badly. As in: give it to me now!
This book was not my favorite. At times, it outright pissed me off. But it was oh so cute and now I'm invested. I want to know what happens to the characters. (Even Asshole Peter.) If a book makes me that invested in a series, then it has done its job as the first of its kind. Which means this is getting a solid 'like' out of me. My emotions were involved, and that is what counts.
