Everyone knows the rough story of the Romanov's and most people have at least a passing familiarity with the story of Anastasia. This book didn't deal with the myth, only briefly mentioning it near the end of the book after the facts were covered. The book deals with the Romanov family's imprisonment in the city of Ekaterinburg, a Bolshevik stronghold and their stay in the 'House of Special Purpose' which would eventually be the site of their slaughter. Each chapter covers a day - explaining the events that were happening around them, including foreign reports and the diplomatic efforts at getting their freedom (and the botched efforts and occasional lack of action by certain governments.) or at least reporting what was going on. There are brief mentions of Rasputin and his influence over Alexandra, and the history of the family and their personalities. For example, it was fascinating that Maria was the only one of the women who didn't have as many jewels in her outfit because they didn't trust her after she had had a relationship with one of her previous captors.

The book is concise, and doubly tragic because of it. The harshness of their environment and living conditions wasn't over blown, and the worsening in conditions and the cool way the executioners decided their fate, and planned it, carried it out and disposed the body was terrifying tbh. The actual execution though was awful - the cool way they lined them up and made them wait, came back and read the order, came back and read the order, then pulled the gun and shot Nicholas once, before the rest of the executioners all reacted and shot him as well, then turning to Alexandra and the rest of the family and shooting indiscriminately. Then, because they were mostly untrained, and many of them drunk, they hadn't killed them cleanly and attempted to bayonet them as well only to be prevented because of the jewels sewn into the clothes. The execution of 11 people took more than 20 minutes, and even then they still didn't kill one of the girls cleanly and she woke up screaming when they tried to move her body and had to be killed again. The most tragic aspect though was the description of how the young boy died.

The execution was supposed to be 'clean', but it was anything but and the attempts at destroying the corpses using acid, grenades and burning them were only partially successful such was the squad's incompetence. The real tragedy is that the Czechs were less than 20 miles away when the executioners acted.

It's just a tragic story and made doubly so because when you take away the politics, you really were just left with a regular family who would have been content with exile. This is definitely worth a read if you're interested in that period. Other books would maybe give a more vivid background on the extreme complexities that condemned them but this gives enough background to get an appreciation about it and concentrates more about the human issues.

well researched. i feel like i learned a lot.

Wonderful writing! I was interested to know the nitty gritty details the entire book!

Some of the middle chapters were boring to me - they seemed scattered and strayed from the actual point of the book, which is to tell the heartbreaking story of the Romanov family's last two weeks alive. Chapter 15, the chapter that describes in gory, horrific detail the way in which the family was murdered, was so disturbing that I had to stop reading and collect myself before I continued. Overall, I found this to be a well-written, interesting book with a horribly tragic end.

Interesting but depressing topic that really drags on. I know the title is the "last days", but I guess I wanted to know something more about these people before they were prisoners. As things actually start happening at the end the writing picks up, but I guess it's hard to write much interesting about the boring confinement.

I'd like a more enjoyable book on the subject since the people and the time are things I don't know much about.

-POTENTIAL SPOILERS-

I'm honestly not quite sure how to review this. I mean, not very much time is dedicated to the Romanovs at all. They all have their own separate chapters of course, minus the four sisters, who were all squished into one chapter but had separate sections for themselves. That was all fine and good, although most of the book is describing the atmosphere of Ekaterinburg, and the family's servants, and their killers, which is all fine and good since I did learn a lot of stuff I hadn't known before, like how a lot of Yakov's friends were Lithuanian and Latvian snipers, but this book is called The Last Days of the Romanovs, and I felt like I didn't really get that. At the end of the chapters, it would briefly go over what the family did on that particular day, and that was it. I felt like we didn't really get to know anything about what they did or how they felt in their final days.

And I do like how the book is structured so each chapter corresponds to whatever day that was in real life, all leading up to July 17th, the morning of their murders. I thought that was a pretty clever choice, although again, I do wish more of the time was spent actually with the Romanovs instead of talking about Lenin's backstory. Like, if I wanted to know about Lenin, then I would look him up myself. He doesn't really have much to do with the Romanovs.

However, I will address what I'm sure most people are wanting me to address: this book does talk about their murder, and it doesn't gloss anything over either. I've read books and articles and essays and whatnot about the Romanovs' execution, but I think this is the only time where I have outwardly cringed at the action. Not because it was badly-written, but of how detailed it was. It honestly does make me feel bad for adoring the five children and finding them charming and cute and lovable-I mean, I don't want to go too much into detail for anybody with weak stomachs, but let's just say, Alexei was splattered with his father's brains after he was shot right next to him, according to this book. It made my stomach turn, and I'm usually immune to such things. I will give the author props for tearing down the romanticized vision of the murder most people seem to have, and the romanticized version of the family in general.

Despite that though, many descriptions in this book were pretty boring. I don't care too much for politics, and this book was VERY politics-heavy. I could hardly keep the similar-sounding Russian names straight in my head, nor the party abbreviations. A lot of reviewers said this book didn't explain the Russian Revolution very well and that an expert would understand it better; well I'm an expert and I have no idea what's going on! A few topics were interesting, like stated before the amount of Latvian and Lithuanian soldiers that were involved in the murders, or the female Russian soldier Mariya who won several awards and even a high military honor for her work in WW1, but that was pretty much it. As stated before, this book was barely about the Romanovs, which is the reason why I read it.

Also, I'm not a fan of that cover, it looks really poorly-made. Like, separately those pictures might work, but together they just look really messy. She should've just done what every other biographer about the Romanovs does: put one of their family pictures on the cover. It's been done to death, sure, but it's obviously effective otherwise nobody would do it. Or maybe just a picture of the House of Special Purpose, or something, just not all together like that.

Overall, this book wasn't terrible, but I only recommend it for people like me who already know a lot about the Russian Empire in this time period and know a lot about the Romanovs on top of that, otherwise this book will just confuse you even more than it did me. Oh, and you must have a strong stomach, I am NOT kidding about how graphic that execution scene is. And it makes it even more disturbing when you realize that it actually happened.

I...I need something happy to think about now.



There we go. God I love that movie.

The second book written by Helen Rappaport that I absolutely loved.

This was a great read and I think part of that has to do with the fact that it's not a strictly academic or scholarly piece of work. Rappaport focuses on telling what happened to the Romanovs and how they lived during the last two weeks they were alive based on the evidence she has. Though she discusses what is happening politically outside of the house they are held captive in, she doesn't go into details and stay focused on the politics that revolve around what was to "be done with" the Romanovs. This I was thankful for because it helped me to understand the details of what happened and why without straying too far from the focus of the story - the Romanovs.

It's definitely not a book for everyone, though. If you have no interest in history or the Romanovs, you most likely won't find this to be a fascinating read. If you do have an interest in those two topics, but prefer books that are fast paced and get to the point, this won't be the one for you. It goes into a lot of details that not everyone has much care for.

Rappaport writes well and gives great, straightforward information based on the evidence she has read and seen.

After finishing The Romanov Sisters, The Last Days of the Romanovs seemed a logical choice for my next read. It picks up virtually where The Romanov Sisters left off. The book is told in a countdown form, with each chapter representing one day. It describes the background of each of the main players in the story, from Nicholas and Alexandra to their children, Dr. Botkin, and even the backgrounds of their future assassins and communist leaders. This is a very honest account of the end of the Romanov dynasty. For years the family has been painted as devoted and happy and loving and finally Rappaport breaks this down by showing their human side. I mean think about I love my family a great deal too but there are times they drive me mad and the same is true with the Romanovs. They were trapped in a house with little room to exercise, the windows sealed and painted over and in the middle of the summer heat. I'm sure more than a few tempers flared during their last days. I liked the varied perspectives given, from George V in England to Lenin in Moscow and even Woodrow Wilson in America and the introduction of a truly amazing woman Maria Bochkareva, who asked the Tsar for the right to fight on the front with the men and ending up leading an all female battalion, someone who seems to have been lost to history sadly. Day by day the story counts down and you see all sides of it. The end is not for the faint of heart for sure as it is the most graphic account of the murders I think I have read. Even the guards and the shooters were disgusted by what they had done. Some said that after the Tsar and Tsarina were shot most didn't have the guts to kill the children, but ultimately in the chaos of the room no one was sure who shot who. The story ends with a description of how the Romanov family has been romanticized over the years, turned into saints and martyrs. She touches on the Anna Anderson saga and about the recent (then in 2006) finding of the last two bodies. The book was very engaging, and offered new insights, I like learning not just about the Romanov family but also about their guards and what was going on behind the scenes to decide the fate of this family and is a perfect companion to The Romanov Sisters.

Interesting and detailed though I got the feeling that a lot of the details were made up.