The Gathering Storm (review)

As a member of the Russian nobility in the late nineteenth century, sixteen-year-old Katerina Alexandrovna is forced to attend one decadent St. Petersburg ball after another when she'd much rather be studying her father's medical books. Her mother is insistent that she find a suitable husband, and there's a rumor that the Crown Prince of Montenegro has taken an interest in Katiya; after a series of alarming encounters with dark faeries and reanimated corpses, however, Katiya realizes that the prince's attention has more to do with her secret abilities as a necromancer than her potential as a wife. She soon finds herself ensnared in a political plot that extends into the very heights of Russian royalty, pitting the Imperial Royal family (including the tsar's very handsome son) against a legion of undead ghouls awoken by vampires. The multitude of spectacularly Russian names and their associated royal titles may try the untutored reader's patience, but fans of court intrigue will find themselves utterly engrossed by this tale of shifting alliances and royal scandal. The author rewrites a fair amount of Russian history by including the Imperial Family's ties to faeries and battles with vampire, but these supernatural elements feel more terrifying than fantastical in that they are cloaked with an air of shadowy mystery. Details focus primarily on daily life among the Russian elite and the various backstabbing that often accompanies it, so that even readers with their feet firmly planted on the cold, snowy ground will find plenty to love here. A push-and-pull romance between Katiya and the tsar's son promises to bring even more drama to the sequel, but for now readers will want to grab a blanket and hot cup of cocoa and settle in for this wonderfully atmospheric blend of history and magic.