Much of the discussion centered on Misha....the secret he kept for all those years, his inability to tell Kate the complete truth, and his burden of guilt.

While I knew the story about the last Tszar of Russia, Nicholas Romanov, Alexander tells the facinating story as if he had witnessed all the events the last weeks of the Romanov family in captivity and then their execution. If you enjoy or want to experience historical fiction, this is a great book. Don't worry - you won't get bogged down in Russian history nor do you need any background material). Make sure you read to the end for a big twist in the ending! Dicussion questions can be found on author's site, thekitchenboy.com.

Great historical details wrapped up with a lot of twists and turns at the end. A few of us felt the end was a bit contrived, but everyone agreed that we loved the history. We had a great discussion about whether the Romanov's were sympathetic characters.

Alexander does a great job of describing the last days of the Romanov's, especially their familial devotion. I was so caught up with the details of their day to day life and with hints of a rescue attempt, I had forgotten there was going to be a plot twist. What a surprise!

This was an interesting take on what happened to the last tsar as told thru the eyes of the kitchen boy. It made me want to find out more about that period of Russian history. The end had many twists and turns and you almost needed a scorecard to keep up, but interesting, none-the-less.

loved it, and actually thought i'd hate it! full of suspense, twists and turns.