I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The sprawling Kazan Cathedral, the symbol of Russia’s victory over Napoleon, of freedom and sacrifice, of bravery and spirit, sported a red revolutionary flag.

Count Dmitry Orlov is throwing his Countess Sophia Orlova a lavish twenty-third birthday party but it's March of 1917 in Petrograd and the only people who show up are the Bolsheviks. Arrogance kept Dmitry from leaving the city when Sophia wanted to leave with their friends and now their home is being ransacked and the men surrounding them are calling for their blood. Before Sophia is struck down, a man enters and with his authority he saves them. Nikolai, Dmitry's younger banished brother because of his ideals, is a Bolshevik and manages to keep them alive in the home that isn't their own anymore. However, revolutions are never easy and Russia is not done with her turmoil, as the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and Imperial Army all vie for power, Sophia, Dmitry, and Nikolai are all tossed around by the winds of fate and love.

Her crime was having everything while they had nothing, having been born into luxury while their whole lives they had struggled to put bread on the table.

Told from Sophia's point-of-view, this hit some of the big moments and followed along the broad strokes of the revolution during 1917-18. Sophia was younger and previously very privileged, as the story goes on, reader's get to know Sophia and see that ennui was starting to creep into her life and she wanted to care more about things other than balls and jewels. She had worked as a nurse and helped Russian soldiers coming home injured from World War I, so she has some taste of the outside world. It seemed pretty instant her attraction to Nikolai (there are a lot of “twinkling” eyes in this) and what pulls her to him is his caring and passion for something that seems big and important. Dmitry seems to only care about his cigars and keeping up appearances, so when Nikolai talks about his vision for the new Russia, he seems more interesting and her attraction to her brother-in-law grows.

‘Tsar Nicholas abdicated in favour of his brother, who refused the throne and surrendered the power to the Provisional Government. As of today, there is a new order in Russia.’

The danger of the revolution and the forbidden love developing sets the story up for some great emotional dramatics but Nikolai never developed beyond a good-looking guy who writes speeches and while the historical events and people are mentioned and Sophia has to run and sometimes interacts with them, I never completely felt the depth of it all. The story and characters read like New Adult historical fiction to me, not quite delivering the emotional depth for me. Sophia likes that Nikolai cares about something important but it's more from a fangirl pov, she doesn't necessarily agree, disagree, or thinking deeply about it all and Nikolai seems to just travel around saving her at moments and write speeches; we never see what he is doing for the Bolsheviks. The romance between the two was pretty weak for me.

The newly established regime saw danger everywhere. And it endeavoured to eliminate this danger at all cost.

The story did have Sophia traveling from Petrograd, to Kislovodsk, and then to Tambievskii in the mountains to be with the Cossacks and we get a glimpse of Andrei Shkuro. With the war, we of course get the drama of her trying to hide her feelings for Nikolai from Dmitry and her bestfriend Regina. Regina develops a liking for Nikolai too and is convinced he is going to ask her to marry him. For a long time, the reader isn't sure if Regina is making something up in her own mind or if Sophia's feelings are one-sided. It's around the half-way point that Nikolai makes his feelings known but then he's captured as the Mensheviks are taking power and his fate becomes unknown to Sophia for a while.

He was her husband’s brother.

The second half has things deteriorating between Sophia and Dmitry and it becomes harder for her to hide her feelings for Nikolai. The last twenty percent hurried along with betrayals, seemingly betrayals, and Sophia finally making a choice. The chaotic and dangerous atmosphere of Russia at this time was felt, all the running from city to city, Nikolai getting arrested and then Dmitry and Sophia getting arrested, the changing regimes in power but the romance between Sophia and Nikolai felt like teenagers in the throes of hormonal first love, which didn't really fit with the real life dangerous times. The epilogue also didn't fit for me as it was from Dmitry's point-of-view and while it gave an update on how things worked out for Sophia, the tone of it didn't work as the story had previously been all from Sophia. This had some interesting moments but the overall mood felt more like, easier, on the surface New Adult historical fiction. ( )