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Rating: 
Summary: Interesting story but a disappointing book
Review: As a fan of Russian History, I was particularly disappointed in A Fatal Passion. While it is interesting to read more details about a story that is usually little more than a footnote in history, the author is extremely biased toward Victoria Melita, and the book itself was filled with untruths and inaccuracies. The most laughable is Sullivan's continued referral to Kyril and Victoria as Emperor and Empress. Kyril would have been removed from the line of succession to the Russian throne for a variety of reasons. Included in the list are the fact that neither Victoria Melita nor Kyril's mother were Orthodox at the time of their marriages, Victoria was a divorcee, Kyril and Victoria married without the Tsar's consent, the Orthodox Church forbids the marriage of first cousins, etc. And that is not even to mention Kyril's treasonous activites that Sullivan completely whitewashes! Do we really believe that Kyril marched his troops to pledge allegiance to the Duma to help the Tsar? What about the red ribbon on his coat and the red flag flying at his palace? Completely inexcusable was his removal of troops from the Alexander Palace guarding Tsarina Alexandra and her children at Tsarskoe Selo. Are we really convinced that the city of St. Petersburg was more in need of those troops than the defenseless Empress and her sick children? All of these activities were in direct violation of his Imperial Oath and took place while Nicholas II was still on the throne. They should have resulted in his being stripped of his royal rank had Nicholas not had other more pressing matters to deal with. Even assuming that Kyril was next in line to the throne, this "honor" was worthless without a throne to sit upon or a country to rule. Also, the laws of succession established by Paul I prohibit the line of succession passing through women or to women. Since Kyril had only one granddaughter, the Russian "crown" could not pass to her. Yet, this very granddaughter fancies herself Tsarina and her son G! eorge, tsarevich. This book is also filled with smaller inaccuracies. Princess Elizabeth, not the Duchess of York, was an attendant at the wedding between the Duke of Kent and Princess Marina of Greece. Sullivan mentions that Marie Pavlovna (Kyril's mother) was in her mid-fifties the year before her death. Using the family tree contained in the book, Marie died at the age of 66. The index is incomplete and makes cross-referencing very difficult. These minor problems make the reader wonder about the total accuracy of the book. Finally, I find that the author is just a little too enthusiastic about Victoria and her charms. Sullivan constantly raves about how beautiful she was--yet most pictures in the book make her appear downright homely. Sullivan writes that Victoria looked like an empress, where Alexandra did not. Of all the criticisms leveled at Alexandra from many sources, lacking a regal appearance wasn't one of them. Even in captivity, people remarked how she carried herself like an empress with back straight and chin high (much unlike her more down to earth husband, Nicholas II). I think the most interesting parts of the book were about Victoria Melita's family--her parents' marriage, her mother's relationship with Queen Victoria, and the special lifelong bond with her sister Marie. But I tended to get bogged down with the author's overuse of the word, "favorite." Almost every character was a "favorite" niece, nephew, child, grandchild, aunt, uncle, etc. After a couple of chapters, this become trite. I'm sorry to say that after reading this book, I am not very impressed with Victoria Melita or Michael John Sullivan.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fatal Passion is a fatal flop...
Review: I have at least 100 different books about the Romanovs in my personal library, and I have to say that this is the bottom of the barrel. The writing is trite, the research is flawed, and there are so many inaccuracies that I question this book being called non-fiction. There were so many things Sullivan could have developed in greater depth--especially the relationship between Victoria and her sister. Of course, Ducky was such a shallow individual that I imagine it must have been difficult to write a biography about her. Past reviewers seemed to either love or hate this book. I suspect that the raves came from Sullivan's friends. Any historian familiar with Romanov history will identify this book for what it is--a very flawed attempt to make a minor character in Russian/German/English history into a major one.
Rating:
Summary: A Fatal Passion is a fatal flop...
Review: I have at least 100 different books about the Romanovs in my personal library, and I have to say that this is the bottom of the barrel. The writing is trite, the research is flawed, and there are so many inaccuracies that I question this book being called non-fiction. There were so many things Sullivan could have developed in greater depth--especially the relationship between Victoria and her sister. Of course, Ducky was such a shallow individual that I imagine it must have been difficult to write a biography about her. Past reviewers seemed to either love or hate this book. I suspect that the raves came from Sullivan's friends. Any historian familiar with Romanov history will identify this book for what it is--a very flawed attempt to make a minor character in Russian/German/English history into a major one.
Rating:
Summary: This could have been a good book....
Review: I was extremely disappointed by this book. I am an avid reader of anything about Queen Victoria and all of her descendants, and I was really looking forward to reading this book. I knew from reading other books that Victoria Melita had lived, at the very least, a rather interesting life. I was eager to learn about her and what kind of person she was. Unfortunately, I did not really learn any accurate, unbiased information about her character and personality. At the end of the first chapter, my teeth were rotting. Sullivan affects a nauseatingly melodramatic tone that is ridiculous and distracting. I wanted to read about Ducky's life, and instead I was informed of Ducky's (alleged) beauty on practically every single page. Innumerable variations of "little did beautiful Ducky know about the tragedy to come" littered every chapter. Please, spare me. Sullivan was clearly enamored of his subject and wanted the reader to be too. Um, no thanks. And clearly, his infatuation with Ducky prevents the reader from getting an accurate perspective of what this woman was really like. And don't even get me started on "uncrowned empress." Ducky could *never* have been the Russian Empress. Never mind the fact that after 1918, there was no such thing as Imperial Russia. If you want to read a *real* historical biography, stay away from this schlock and pick up Hannah Pakula's book about Ducky's sister, Queen Marie of Romania, or her book about one of the many aunts of both of these women, The Empress Frederick.
Rating:
Summary: This could have been a good book....
Review: I was extremely disappointed by this book. I am an avid reader of anything about Queen Victoria and all of her descendants, and I was really looking forward to reading this book. I knew from reading other books that Victoria Melita had lived, at the very least, a rather interesting life. I was eager to learn about her and what kind of person she was. Unfortunately, I did not really learn any accurate, unbiased information about her character and personality. At the end of the first chapter, my teeth were rotting. Sullivan affects a nauseatingly melodramatic tone that is ridiculous and distracting. I wanted to read about Ducky's life, and instead I was informed of Ducky's (alleged) beauty on practically every single page. Innumerable variations of "little did beautiful Ducky know about the tragedy to come" littered every chapter. Please, spare me. Sullivan was clearly enamored of his subject and wanted the reader to be too. Um, no thanks. And clearly, his infatuation with Ducky prevents the reader from getting an accurate perspective of what this woman was really like. And don't even get me started on "uncrowned empress." Ducky could *never* have been the Russian Empress. Never mind the fact that after 1918, there was no such thing as Imperial Russia. If you want to read a *real* historical biography, stay away from this schlock and pick up Hannah Pakula's book about Ducky's sister, Queen Marie of Romania, or her book about one of the many aunts of both of these women, The Empress Frederick.
Rating: 
Summary: An Extremely Well- Written Book
Review: Other reviewers have pointed out the obvious, she was, poor soul, no beauty. Victoria Melita hadn't a prayer of being the last uncrowned Empress of Russia. She was not converted to the Orthodox religion when she married Grand Duke Kirill, she was a divorcee and they [Victoria and Kirill] were first cousins. Such a dynasty had, [indeed still has], written laws for the succession and this pair didn't qualify. Ever. Sorry folks. Written in a style that would make Angela Brazil blush I found it unreadable after a few chapters. I had the feeling that the author had an image of how he thought Victoria Melita was and proceeded to shape the historical figure to suit his image of her. Reading the many reviews of this book I am shocked how so many people are taken in by such rubbish as this and glad to see that it's also still not possible to fool all of the people all of the time.
Rating: 
Summary: You'll either love it or hate it
Review: This is not a terrible biography, but I have to agree with the reviewer who said the author is way too enamored of his subject to be objective. He's not the best writer in the world, and he does his subject no service by romanticizing; being melodramatic (that title!), and/or speculating about her life and the people who surround her...It's difficult to write about someone who ordered her personal papers destroyed, which must be why Mr. Sullivan indulges in speculation at times. I preferred John Van der Kiste's "Princess Victoria Melita" as the better biography of this granddaughter of Queen Victoria; it's a far more balanced biography than Mr. Sullivan's.
Rating:
Summary: Royal Pain
Review: This is the biggest lot of historical nonsense. Sullivan has an
irritating style and a gushing attitude towards his subject
(either he's related to Ducky or madly in love with her). He
cannot get over how impossibly wonderful, gorgeous, perfect, etc
he thinks she was. This is a totally inappropriate stance for a
historian towards a subject. He also trashes everyone Ducky knew
to make her look better. Sullivan's treatment of the murdered
Empress Alexandra is particularly cruel and unnecessary. Bottom
line: Ducky was an overrated, frumpy, greedy historical footnote.
Cyril wanted to be Emperor, so why didn't he start by executing
traitors like himself and his wife? Their behavior was inexcusable, even during a revolution. This book is inexcusable
as a history or as a biography. Don't waste your time or money.
Rating:
Summary: Royal Pain
Review: This is the biggest lot of historical nonsense. Sullivan has an
irritating style and a gushing attitude towards his subject
(either he's related to Ducky or madly in love with her). He
cannot get over how impossibly wonderful, gorgeous, perfect, etc
he thinks she was. This is a totally inappropriate stance for a
historian towards a subject. He also trashes everyone Ducky knew
to make her look better. Sullivan's treatment of the murdered
Empress Alexandra is particularly cruel and unnecessary. Bottom
line: Ducky was an overrated, frumpy, greedy historical footnote.
Cyril wanted to be Emperor, so why didn't he start by executing
traitors like himself and his wife? Their behavior was inexcusable, even during a revolution. This book is inexcusable
as a history or as a biography. Don't waste your time or money.
Rating:
Summary: A Magnificent Historical Biography
Review: This was an immensely enjoyable and fascinating book from beginning to end. The author certainly did a superlative job in gathering and presenting the facts and placing them in a very skillful and compelling narrative. So often history comes across as dull and lifeless, but not here. Sullivan has a rare talent for dramatic construction and detail which ignites the story and makes it fascinating to follow. I really enjoyed his character descriptions and the clever way he created the time and place and unique sensibility of a long-passed era. I find many of the critiques here rather difficult to comprehend. Maybe some readers had been misled or misinformed as to what type of book they would be reading. For some of the more vicious reviews, I can only assume these readers would be more at home in a ultra-hip and downbeat modern subject matter. Certainly Victoria Melita was no beauty by our current standards, but the author fully explains this and only references her in the then estimations and standards of her own era. These rather mean-spirited and extremely carping criticisms aside, I think anyone who wants to read a wonderfully written historical biography will fully appreciate this book and not be disappointed.
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