From the author of The Absolutist, a propulsive novel of the Russian Revolution and the fate of the Romanovs.

Part love story, part historical epic, part tragedy, The House of Special Purpose illuminates an empire at the end of its reign. Eighty-year-old Georgy Jachmenev is haunted by his past—a past of death, suffering, and scandal that will stay with him until the end of his days. Living in England with his beloved wife, Zoya, Georgy prepares to make one final journey back to the Russia he once knew and loved, the Russia that both destroyed and defined him. As Georgy remembers days gone by, we are transported to St. Petersburg, to the Winter Palace of the czar, in the early twentieth century—a time of change, threat, and bloody revolution. As Georgy overturns the most painful stone of all, we uncover the story of the house of special purpose.

I really wanted this book to blow me out of the water, alas it did not. That said I did enjoy it over all. I think it was just the tone of the main character who tells the story that kept me from being blown away. I could not warm up to him much at all. That said the story itself the words that he told were well done. I like how the imagery is painted it is not done in a rosy colored bunch of colors. You get the dark and the grime of the time along with the moments of happy hope. I would recommend it because someone else might actually warm to the main character more than I did, I can not actually say why I didn’t like him.

My Gemstone Rating: