The Romanov Prophecy: A Novel

I like Steve Berry books and have really enjoyed the Cotton Malone series so was expecting something similar with Romanov Prophecy however it is not quite up to the same standards. The book is very slow to get started even though it starts with a shooting scene. The characters are a bit 2 dimensional for my liking. The historical context however is really interesting and I loved the flashback scenes to imperial Russia. About a third of the way through the story takes off and it becomes much more compelling. It is true that there are lots of unrealistic escapes, information just seems to fall into their laps and the bad guys always stop to explain their nastiness instead of just shooting their victims. However it is a work of fiction and I think it adds to the pace and excitement of the story. It would be a very boring and short story if the heroes were all killed off in the first few chapters.

Whilst I have read a high number of Steve Berry’s books this one I found difficult to get into and did in fact abandon reading it. That is the only one that I have abandoned.

Really enjoyed it, felt completely gripped by the end. I really enjoyed the cuts to the past to explain the present.

This is a very cleverly crafted novel. I have read three times now and my teenage daughter is attempting. :)

Steve Berry is one of my favourites, along with Dan Brown (of course) and Tom Knox and a couple of others. This book even got me reading about Russian history afterwards!