The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, in fact this book inspired me to read up more on the last imperial family of Russia. After I finished reading it I ordered "Nicholas and Alexandra" by Robert K Massie and his second book on the same subject " The Romanovs: The Final Chapter". A review coming soon.

Ok, in my opinion The Romanov Prophecy has some good points and some main bad points. First, I really enjoyed the historical information in the book, you could tell that the author has extensive knowledge on the subject. I also enjoyed the idea of monarchy returning back to present day Russia, it is something that makes you think what if. The things I didn't like about the book is its main character with his superhuman capabilities to escape, outsmart, dodge and get out of the way just in time from one of the most dangerous outlaw groups in the world the Russian mafia .

Miles Lord who is an American lawyer was sent to Russia along with his boss to help coordinate the delegation and to become part of history in the making of an election to pick the new Tzar of Russia. During his stay in Russia, Miles opens a Pandora box and gets mixed up in a twist of events that lead to many assassination attempts by the Russian mafia to kill him. Miles escapes about five murder attempts in one day and continues on all the way through the book outsmarting and making the Russian bad guys look like dumb fools. In this book the author exaggerates about Russia and Russian poverty and the mafia.

Without giving too much away the plot sounds very cheesy and unrealistic, even for historical fiction I expected more from this book. As I mentioned before the historical facts mixed with fiction about the demise of the Romanov family is written very well and captures the readers imagination and again the "what if" pops up when reading these events.

At some point in the book the author uses Russian words to give the reader the feeling that the events are happening in Russia, however these words are not accurate. For example the word chernie is used to describe Miles Lord an African American. The word cherni means black, chernie is plural and means blacks which does not make sense when you only talking about one person.

I think the story had great potential if it was better written but lost me a little in its unrealistic plot. Besides all that, I think the book is readable and is a page turner. A recommendation for readers interested in Russian history with a Davinci code twist.

3 out of 5 stars