The Gathering Storm

December 5, 2011
The ideal reader for Bridges’s sprawling debut would have a love of Tolstoy and an infatuation with Twilight—perhaps an improbable combination. Determination is certainly required to track the mutable Russian proper names and family connections of an enormous cast, all of which must be understood to follow the plot. Katerina is a young duchess in an alternate-universe czarist Russia, a corrupt society secretly governed by Dark and Light Faerie courts. Katerina is an unwilling necromancer, able to raise the dead, a secret she has kept from everyone until a threat to the czarevitch, Nicholas, forces her to act and thereby reveal herself to the Montenegrins, rumored to be witches and worse. All of that is before the vampires and bogatyr (a powerful warrior-czar) come into the picture—it requires every bit of the book’s 400 pages to lay out the relationships, politics, and myth that will drive the rest of the planned trilogy. Bridges is up to the task, though, and for readers who appreciate a challenge, she delivers an imaginative, complex blend of history and magic. Ages 12–up. Agent: Ethan Ellenberg Agency.

November 15, 2011
Sixteen-year-old Katerina, a descendant of Russian royalty, is threatened with the evil sorcery of vampires in this first of a trilogy. Attending a school for young noblewomen, Katerina feels she's valued only for her potential for a good marriage but she wants a career in medicine, her true passion--not likely for a young woman in 1888 Russia. When classmates fall deathly ill, Katerina's convinced that her roommate, Elena, Princess of Montenegro, one of a long line of "blood drinkers," is causing the illnesses. Elena is also trying to force Katerina into an unwanted relationship with her handsome, controlling older brother, Danilo. Katerina possesses the dark magic of necromancy--the ability to reanimate dead things. Could that power be motivating the vampire's domineering drive to marry her? Perhaps the ring Katerina has been given by an elderly woman with her own agenda can help her fend him off, or maybe George, the tsar's younger son, an apparent ally and potential love interest, will help? The fully realized setting, a fantastical version of pre-revolutionary Russia, adds a level of believability to this debut. Many key players are well-rounded, though with most aligned with Dark or Light forces, readers may need a scorecard to keep track of all the alliances, as well as the complex, never clearly explained back story. An atmospheric and complicated vampire tale that's worth the effort of reading it. (Historical fantasy. 11 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-The court of Imperial Russia in the 1880s is the backdrop for this blend of history, the supernatural, and romance. Sixteen-year-old Katerina (aka Katiya), Duchess of Oldenburg, has a dangerous talent, necromancy, which she discovered when she was a little girl and unwittingly brought a dead frog back to life merely by wishing. After her talent is discovered by a rival family who would put it to wicked use, a conflict between good and evil, all prettied up in aristocratic clothing, luxurious balls, dinners, and secret plots, begins. The result is a complicated story involving faeries, ghosts, and vampires. Katiya is in the middle of an Imperial shakedown that provides plenty of action, but the language often sounds modern, and the faerie device seems to come out of the blue. Add to this the confusion of many characters having similar names, albeit in the Russian style, and you have a dense story that will take dedicated readers to follow it-and yet, there are likely to be such followers, as the plot is rich and intriguing. This novel will fit the bill as filler for larger collections.-Angela J. Reynolds, Annapolis Valley Regional Library, Bridgetown, NS, Canada

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2012
Grades 7-10 Katerina, Duchess of Oldenburg, is not your typical 15-year-old. She may attend the Smolny Institute, where young ladies of the right station are prepared for society and matrimony, and she may have to deal with a bully and enemy in Elena, but what sets her apart is her secret: she is a necromancer. And when her enemy discovers her secretand wants to put it to use in her family of vampireslife gets dangerous. Set in an alternate Russia of the late nineteenth century, this alluring romantic fantasy gives fans of The Luxe series a new society to enter, albeit with some fear. Authentic portrayals of Russian culture, medical practice, and religion give this novel (the first in a trilogy) dimensionality, but perhaps most intriguing are the characters, who seem to be modern spirits in historical trappings. The only thing required of the reader is a willingness to keep up with the longer Russian names and patience with Bridges as she crafts the rest of the trilogy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)