Robin Bridges

In St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1888, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret--that she has the ability to raise the dead--but when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.

The Gathering Storm

I've had The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges on my actual bookshelf for over a decade. I kept wanting to read it but I never got the nerve to actually pick it up. Silly, I know, but I finally bit the bullet. The cover was so pretty and I just had a bad feeling I was hyping the book up too much since I thought the cover was gorgeous.

Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, is a necromancer in Russia. There's vampires in Russia, and they are a dark force around Russia. Throw in the aristocrats, Princes, Princesses, and all the fun of being a royal trying to marry you off for power... You've got an interesting story. 

I really like the paranormal aspect thrown in with a bunch of historical fiction about Russia. The Russian side of the story was done very well and you could tell there was research behind the actual lore and history of the tale. Russian stories aren't always told from a more realistic point of view, so this was a very nice touch. 

This book wasn't my favourite and I do think I hyped it up way too much for my own good. The story is a fantastic start and especially for a debut! I did think the book was too long and at time had too much history and not enough substance. I wanted character interactions, conflict, and chaos. It mostly felt like complaining about Danilo and the other women instead of doing something. There is some insta-love to that feels forced even for a YA book. 

I will be keeping an eye out for the rest of the series though. I think Robin Bridges crafted a unique tale that I still want to follow.

Briar's Reviews

I've had The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges on my actual bookshelf for over a decade. I kept wanting to read it but I never got the nerve to actually pick it up. Silly, I know, but I finally bit the bullet. The cover was so pretty and I just had a bad feeling I was hyping the book up too much since I thought the cover was gorgeous.

Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, is a necromancer in Russia. There's vampires in Russia, and they are a dark force around Russia. Throw in the aristocrats, Princes, Princesses, and all the fun of being a royal trying to marry you off for power... You've got an interesting story. 

I really like the paranormal aspect thrown in with a bunch of historical fiction about Russia. The Russian side of the story was done very well and you could tell there was research behind the actual lore and history of the tale. Russian stories aren't always told from a more realistic point of view, so this was a very nice touch. 

This book wasn't my favourite and I do think I hyped it up way too much for my own good. The story is a fantastic start and especially for a debut! I did think the book was too long and at time had too much history and not enough substance. I wanted character interactions, conflict, and chaos. It mostly felt like complaining about Danilo and the other women instead of doing something. There is some insta-love to that feels forced even for a YA book. 

I will be keeping an eye out for the rest of the series though. I think Robin Bridges crafted a unique tale that I still want to follow.

Two out of five stars.

Savindi Jinasena

Before I start talking about The Gathering Storm, I have to admit that the book cover attracted my attention. I think it is simple, yet so elegant and I adore the snow swirling around Katerina. I’ll stop my cover gushing now and move on.

As a history student, I’ve been fascinated by Russia. I don’t know too much about the Imperial Legacy of the country and I was intrigued when I read that the book was set in the late 1800s. This is also the first book that I’ve read during a time of Imperialism that has incorporated vampires, werewolves , rituals, sacrifices , necromancy and so many other magical elements to create rich fantastical world.

As the synopsis has suggested, the story follows the life of the main protagonist Duchess Katerina Alexandrovna , a necromancer who is desperately trying to hide her ’curse’, only to be discovered by one of the Dark Court members while attending a ball hosted by the Imperial family. The story continues as mysterious and terrifying events start to occur in the city of St. Petersburg such as: officers of the Imperial Order of St. John being killed and brought back to life as ‘undead’ soldiers, poisonings and deaths pertaining to the aristocracy. In the meantime Katerina finds herself in the middle of the web of intrigue and conspiracy while she tries to decide which suitor is worthy of her affections.

In terms of the plot, I thought it well written, even though at times some of the chapters felt like fillers. Overall the story is fast paced, and sometimes a little too fast paced, especially towards the ending . The ending felt a too rushed for my liking, especially the last battle scene and by the end of it I was left thinking “was that it? I thought there might be more.” Another aspect that left me a bit disappointed was the lack of Katerina’s involvement in the last battle scene. I felt like she was more of an observer, rather than a participant . I hope that in the next book we’ll see more involvement from Katerina’s part.

Another aspect that I liked about The Gathering Storm was its rich attention to detail ,especially the descriptions of all the palace architecture, the scenery of St.Petersburg and of course the beautiful and glamorous clothes worn by the Aristocracy. I thought this aspect of the book was very well done and you can really see the amount of effort Robin Bridges has put to get all of these elements right.

In terms of Characters, I liked Katerina. Even though at times you wanted to tell her to grow up- especially when she was being ‘lovey-dovey ‘ over Prince Danilo despite knowing that he was dangerous. But at the same time I think that I forgot that she was only about 16-17 years old and her reactions were normal. I think many girls would gush over the fact that a handsome young Prince was giving them attention. Despite her flaws, Katerina has her strong moments. I admired her determination to succeed as a Doctor, despite her mother’s objections towards her dreams which she considers to be ‘silly’ and always poses the question “what man would want to marry a female doctor?” I also enjoyed the close relationship Katerina has with her father as opposed to her mother. I haven’t read a lot of books where there is focus on a father-daughter relationship in comparison to a mother-daughter relationship so this was quite a refreshing change.

I also liked the secondary characters such as Katerina’s cousin Dariya and Katerina’s mother who I think is purely there for humour purposes. I liked reading Dariya’s parts because she is sharp and quick- witted and is Katerina’s voice of reason for the most part. As far as character development goes, I thought Katerina was more mature about herself and her powers towards the end of the book, but I was left disappointed at the lack of character development of Prince George. I thought as a love interest he was the least developed when compared to Prince Danilo. I only saw two extremes of him; where he was absolutely repulsed by Katerina’s necromancy and at the other end he was declaring his love for Katerina. I would definitely like to see more of George’s character because I found him to be a strong character. I also liked Katerina’s father who is a nice change in the book because he is not a believer in magic and superstition. He’s a man of logic and science , so its interesting to see how the two perspectives of science and magic collide.

The problem that I had in The Gathering Storm was that it had far too many minor characters. There were so many names of princes,princesses, counts and dukes that I was having a hard time keeping up with them. For the most part most of them had no real purpose of being in the book. Also this is kind of going back to the plot but I wish there was a proper explanation of which characters belonged to the ’light’ and ‘dark’ courts. Most of the time I was just guessing and waiting to be proven correct or incorrect. I hope that aspect will be improved in the second book of the trilogy.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Gathering Storm. For a debut book, I thought it was well written despite its flaws. I think the setting of the book is important and wonderful because there aren’t that many fantasy books (to my knowledge) that have Imperial Russia as a setting. I am definitely looking forward to reading the second book of the series which is called The Unfailing Light and is expected to be released on the 9th of October of this year.

My Rating: 4

Would I recommend it?: Yes

This book was read as the book for the YA Genre in the 2012 Book Challenge I’m participating in.

Julia Seiser

I thought it was a great concept, but the characters weren't very thought out and the story line was quite hard to follow.

Zoe Smolen

I have to say that I enjoyed this book much more than I expected too. Yes it's a pretty standard YA novel, but I have to say that it definitely kept me on the edge of m seat. To me it was a great blend of romance, mystery, and paranormal plots.