4/5
I read Lilac Girls a few years ago and loved it, so I was very excited when I learned Martha Hall Kelly wrote a prequel called “Lost Roses”!
I really loved getting to learn about Eliza (the mother of one of the protagonists in Lilac Girls) and the history of the fall of Czar Nicholas II of Russia. This took place in a time period and settings I don’t see writers cover often, so I really enjoyed getting to learn so much about Russia during the late 1910s.
As usual with Kelly, the imagery is superb and the characters are all deeply complex. You’d think that switching between three different narrators would be difficult or take away from the depth of the narrators, but Kelly does it easily.
I did feel that the pacing was slow sometimes, but other than that I really enjoyed this book!
If you’ve already read Lost Roses, can we PLEASE talk about how frustrating Varinka was?! I just wanted to jump into the pages and shake her by the shoulders like, “Girl, stop!” 😂
I love these kind of period pieces