For readers of Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir comes a dramatic novel of the beloved Empress Maria, the Danish princess who became the mother of the last Russian tsar. “This epic tale is captivating and beautifully told.”—Lisa Wingate, New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours Barely nineteen, Minnie knows that her station in life as a Danish princess is to leave her family and enter into a royal marriage—as her older sister Alix has done, moving to England to wed Queen Victoria’s eldest son. The winds of fortune bring Minnie to Russia, where she marries the Romanov heir, Alexander, and once he ascends the throne, becomes empress. When resistance to his reign strikes at the heart of her family and the tsar sets out to crush all who oppose him, Minnie—now called Maria—must tread a perilous path of compromise in a country she has come to love. Her husband’s death leaves their son Nicholas as the inexperienced ruler of a deeply divided and crumbling empire. Determined to guide him to reforms that will bring Russia into the modern age, Maria faces implacable opposition from Nicholas’s strong-willed wife, Alexandra, whose fervor has led her into a disturbing relationship with a mystic named Rasputin. As the unstoppable wave of revolution rises anew to engulf Russia, Maria will face her most dangerous challenge and her greatest heartache. From the opulent palaces of St. Petersburg and the intrigue-laced salons of the aristocracy to the World War I battlefields and the bloodied countryside occupied by the Bolsheviks, C. W. Gortner sweeps us into the anarchic fall of an empire and the complex, bold heart of the woman who tried to save it. Praise for The Romanov Empress “Timely . . . [Gortner’s] ability to weave what reads as a simple tale from such complex historical and familial storylines is impressive. . . . Maria’s life as a royal reads like a historical soap opera.”—USA Today “Gortner, an experienced hand at recreating the unique aura of a particular time and place, will deftly sweep historical-fictions fans into this glamorous, turbulent, and ultimately tragic chapter in history.”—Booklist (starred review) “Mesmerizing . . . This insightful first-person account of the downfall of the Romanov rule . . . is the powerful story of a mother trying to save her family and an aristocrat fighting to maintain rule in a country of rebellion.”—Publishers Weekly “A twist on the tragic story you’ve heard many times before.”—Bustle

Maria Romanov was canonized by the Eastern Orthodox Church for her service as a nurse tending wounded soldiers during World War I. Her diary reveals she felt she was the 'black sheep' of the family despite being known as the most beautiful of the four sisters. Her letters and diaries include intimate details about Rasputin and the royal family as well as the family's concern over the war with Germany and the subsequent rise of the Bolsheviks. She was eighteen-years-old when she was murdered by the Bolsheviks.

Award-winning and critically acclaimed historian Helen Rappaport turns to the tragic story of the daughters of the last Tsar of all the Russias, slaughtered with their parents at Ekaterinburg.

Retired MI6 agent Rodney Mundy goes on a dangerous mission to find a lost holy icon which, if discovered, could be the key to solving one of the bloodiest and most enigmatic episodes of history – the disappearance of the Romanovs and the fate of Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the last tsar Nicholas II. During his mission Rodney discovers not only the truth about Anastasia, but also that the Vatican was involved in the rescue operation of the Imperial Family in 1918. The truth about their survival has been suppressed from the public. www.thelostromanovicon.com. http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-lost-Romanov-Icon-and-the-Enigma-of-Anastasia/200394259973743

In 2018 the author published the first edition of Anastasia Again: The Hidden Secret of the Romanovs to coincide with the centenary of the alleged massacre of the Romanov family in Ekaterinburg, Russia. After many years of interest in the claims of the woman known as Evgenia Smetisko, at times Eugenia Smith, or even Eugenie Smetisko, he began to give credibility to her claim that she had been the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Empress Alexandra. Had she died with the entire family? Had any others survived or, even as some contemporary researchers allege, had they all escaped? By reexamining “Smetisko’s” memoirs published in 1963, researching the people who received her in the USA, and scrutinizing her claims a new narrative emerged, one of a woman living cleverly under an assumed name to protect her true identity. 2D/3D visual face recognition under the guidance of technology founder, Robert “Bob” Schmitt, offered even more evidence that she had been telling the truth all along, just as CIA polygraph lie detector unit founder, Grover “Cleve” Backster, had declared in 1963 after subjecting “Smetisko/Anastasia” to 30 hours of polygraph testing. This edition offers readers the opportunity to review evidence and question the hitherto “official” albeit sacrosanct version of history with which we are all well acquainted.

A “masterful” (The Washington Post Book World) account of the quest to solve one of the great mysteries in Russian history—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and Catherine the Great “Riveting . . . unfolds like a detective story.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review In July 1991, nine skeletons were exhumed from a shallow mass grave near Ekaterinburg, Siberia, a few miles from the infamous cellar room where the last tsar and his family had been murdered seventy-three years before. But were these the bones of the Romanovs? And if these were their remains, where were the bones of the two younger Romanovs supposedly murdered with the rest of the family? Was Anna Anderson, celebrated for more than sixty years in newspapers, books, and film, really Grand Duchess Anastasia? The Romanovs provides the answers, describing in suspenseful detail the dramatic efforts to discover the truth. Pulitzer Prize winner Robert K. Massie presents a colorful panorama of contemporary characters, illuminating the major scientific dispute between Russian experts and a team of Americans, whose findings, along with those of DNA scientists from Russia, America, and Great Britain, all contributed to solving one of the great mysteries of the twentieth century.

Could Anastasia have survived? Over a century has passed since Tsar Nicholas II, family and retinue were said to have been executed by Cheka forces in the city of Yekaterinburg in the Russian Urals. Historians, theologians, revered mavens of "Romanovia,"all reiterate sacrosanct versions of the event, immortalized in writing, stage and film depictions. However, the Russian Orthodox Church still hedges, at the time of this writing, about giving a definitive declaration of whose bones they possess and how history should be written. Persistent rumors that Anastasia, perhaps with Alexei, had survived, seem to fit the standard of Occam's Razor. It is the easiest, even if the most rejected, most vilified, and most unfathomable answer. "Evgenia Smetisko" defies denial. Mr. Robert "Bob" Schmitt, an early founder of visual face recognition (VFR), announced after 2D/3D analyses, "Anastasia and she are obviously the same woman." The reader will be intrigued to learn about the author's journey to uncover "Smetisko's" identity, and enlightened to read her own memoirs included in this book. Her life prior to the Revolution, subsequent exile, deprivation, escape, hardships, the strength of her faith and commitment to life will embolden readers in our equally perilous times.