Title: The Jewel of St. Petersburg (Russian Concubine #3)

Author: Kate Furnivall

Publisher: Berkley Trade 2010

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 432

Rating:   5 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Historical Fiction; Mount TBR; Fall into Reading

How I Got It: I own it!

Russia, 1910. Valentina Ivanova is the darling of St. Petersburg's elite aristocracy-until her romance with a Danish engineer creates a terrible scandal and her parents push her into a loveless engagement with a Russian count.

Meanwhile, Russia itself is bound for rebellion. With the Tsar and the Duma at each other's throats, and the Bolsheviks drawing their battle lines, the elegance and opulence of Tsarist rule are in their last days. And Valentina will be forced to make a choice that will change not only her own life, but the lives of those around her forever...

I finally completed the Russian Concubine trilogy.  It had been on my radar for a very long time, the volumes sat gathering dust in a box, and yet I bypassed them for other reads.  I forced myself to start the book and I'm glad I did.  I enjoyed this novel much more than any of my recent reads.  I even liked this one more than The Girl from Junchow.  Somehow I grew to love Valentina much more than I loved Lydia.  Valentina's struggles to survive and thrive in revolutionary Russia struck my heart more than Lydia's struggles in China.  While the previous book was gray, gray, and more gray, this one has pops of color.  The mood wasn't always desperate.  I knew what was coming but still there was hope in the story.  I loved seeing Alexei and Liev and Jens younger and full of life.  Plus, the actual historical elements of the Russian Revolution wove seamlessly throughout the story.  I definite recommendation for lovers of historical fiction and great stories.

Russian Concubine

• #1 The Russian Concubine
• #2 The Girl from Junchow
• #3 The Jewel of St. Petersburg