Review: _The Funeral Bride:_ pages and pages of babble and inaccuracy

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I love history. I'm pretty much a nerd about it, and I find some stories to be compelling and fascinating. One of those stories is that of the Romanovs, the doomed Imperial family of Russia, and their tragic march to martyrdom during the Russian Revolution. Every now and then, authors attempt to tell the story, and most of the time, they fail. I was very hesitant about reading Kathleen McKenna Hewtson's novel, _The Funeral Bride,_ first book in her series, The Autobiography of Empress Alexandra. Having waded through quite a bit of silliness about the Romanovs, I wasn't certain if this would meet the mark. Told in first person, we meet Alexandra as a child, surrounded by her family of sisters, and especially her grandmother, the formidable Queen Victoria. After her mother dies, Alix as she is known, finds herself having to cope with adult issues. As she watches her sisters fall in love and marry, Alix learns the hard way that she is a nobody in the tangled web of European royalty -- all she has to offer is herself. But all that changes when she is sixteen and travels to Russia for the wedding of her sister Ella to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, a younger brother of Tsar Alexander III. It's a world far away from her cozy, homey life in England and Germany. Russia is a land of vast spaces, magnificent palaces, and incredible riches. At a family dinner, Alix meets a young man, Nicolas, the Tsarevich and eldest son of the Tsar. Halting and shy, Nicky is very much attracted to Alix and gives her a diamond brooch as a gift... And so begins one of the most extraordinary true romances of history. This novel covers the years 1884 to 1894, the time that Nicolas courted Alix, and the time that it took to convince her to say yes. While I liked very much that the author took the time to do her research and in places, she got it right, it was the mistakes that threw me off and made me gnash my teeth. I can not understand why authors do this. Plenty has been written about Nicholas II and Alix/Alexandra Feodorovna, right down to their servants, living surroundings and daily lives. We know what the Tsarevich gave his future bride as engagement gifts, what the brooch he gave her when they first met, and so on. Instead the author turns them into overblown nonsense. More aggrivations follow. One was the visit that Alix made to her sister Ella in 1890, and she was hoping to meet Nicolas while she was in Russia. Here, we have the Tsarevich in St. Petersburg, and apparently deciding to separate from Alix. This gets blown into the 'Big Misunderstanding' so beloved of novelists. The reality was that Nicholas was sent on a world tour from the MidEast, Egypt, India and the Far East. In his diaries, he notes that Alix was in Russia with Ella, and that while he wanted to see her, he was away. The longing in his own words is quite apparent, and the author could have made it really into something. Same thing with Nicolas finally convinces Alix to marry him. Once again, the author just skips past it, while in reality, we have plenty of commentary from those who were there, quite a few POV's and plenty of drama. Instead, it's just a few paragraphs. The novel winds up with the death of Alexander III, and Nicholas being thrust into role of Tsar. What got to me was that Nicholas being shown as a naive, not too bright, stuttering, stumbling idiot. From what I have read of his diaries, and descriptions of him by contemporaries, Nicholas may have had some problems, but he certainly wasn't an idiot. Alix is a proud, pushy character determined that she can guide Nicholas to greatness, and using her grandmother as an example, Alix is expecting to be great. Summing up, I was very disappointed with this novel, and wanted to fling it at the wall several times as I was reading it. There are no less than four sequels planned for this one and I am hesitant as to whether or not if I will read them. Two and a half stars, rounded up to three, and that with many misgivings. The Autobiography of Empress Alexandra: The Funeral Bride -- you are here The Empress of Tears The Shaken Throne Pride of Eagles No Greater Crown The Funeral Bride Kathleen McKenna Hewtson 2015; Taylor Street Books ISBN 978-1519238016