Rating: 
Summary: Alexandra - The Made for TV Movie in Book Form
Review: On the positive side, the narrative in 'Alexandra - the Last Tsarina' certainly offers a sense of high drama. But after a while, we get a very wooden impression of its characters - or is that caricatures? Nicholas II is very much a secondary figure here, served chiefly by the heterodox assertion that he was a weak ruler. The sentence 'She worried about Alexei' becomes an almost banal, repeated understatement.One wonders if this book was really meant to read like an historical novel produced for the mass market. It certainly does, and this may explain the factual errors, truncations of time, and elisions of events that make the text so difficult for admirers of the last Tsar and his family to read through without a growing disappointment. Granted, Robert Massie and his thorough treatment is a hard act to follow, but if the present book was fiction, why didn't someone say so?
Rating: 
Summary: A Bit Superficial
Review: Starts out well, but gets superficial and banal. One thing I
wish had been elaborated on: Anastasia's "irritating and inconvenient efforts to breed worms." Definitely a story there!
Read the first half of this book and the last half of Greg King's
for a better understanding of Alexandra.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Story of Alexandra's life in Russia
Review: This was a wonderful story of Alexandra life in Russia. There was only one depressing part; I thought it would include more of her life as a German, but it is good without it. Ms. Erickson always includes little details about the person's life so you can understand them better. As in Carolly Erickson's Josephine, Ms. Erickson includes the mass quanties of stockings, gloves and other accessories Josephine used a day. In Alexandra, Ms. Erickson includes that Alexandra like to keep everything neat and orderly. Then Ms. Erickson includes how this affects how Alexandra lived. I recommend this book (and all of Carolly Erickson's books) to anyone who is even barely interested in history.
Rating:
Summary: Alexandra The Last Tsarina by Carolly Erickson
Review: This was an excellent read on Alexanda. I have read nearly all the books available about the Romanov dynasty and there were several facts in this book I had not read prior. This book stayed focused on the Tsarina herself and doesn't stray too far from her even though the Tsarvich's illness is addressed. This book explored her relationship within the court and the power struggles with her mother-in-law, the former Empress. Alexandra had her flaws to be sure but comes across as so human in this particular book. The author's style is so good I am now reading The First Elizabeth and have purchased Josephine and The Great Catherine to read in the near future. This author knows her subjects and stays refreshingly focused on the personality she writes about rather than jumping around. A very good read.
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