The Winter Queen

Here's another book based in Russian history and takes place during the winter.  I did not plan on reading this book so soon after Russian Winter  (I figured out how to link my blog!  Yeah for me) but because I had so many library books checked out, The Winter Queen was due and I wanted to read it, so here we go.

I've mentioned before that when an author starts a series of books featuring a the same main character, I have to read in chronological order.  This is a series with Erast Fandorin, a young up and coming Russian police officer (that's not the official title, I learned in late 19th Century Russia there were more complex titles).  This was a fun read, because Erast is a very loveable, bumbling character who turns his mistakes into success.  He had many close calls with death, but managed to survive, and this is going to be a little wierd, but many of the situations almost reminded me of Stephanie Plum's antics.  He didn't have a strange sidekick, but his zest for life and many mistakes along the way were similar in fashion.  I know that reader's of Evanovich will understand exactly what I mean.

Although the flowery language sometimes made the story a little boring, I will definitely pick up the next book in the series because of the main character.  I also enjoyed the fact I was reading another book translated from another language (the other books were by Stieg Larsson which I think were the first type of translated books I had ever read).  This shows that I am growing in my selection of reads.  What I also discovered was that many Russian words/terms used in Russian Winter were similar to ones used in The Winter Queen.  It shows that just reading fiction can expose you to new things.