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The Gathering Storm

The Gathering Storm

#1 in series

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
VOYA said "Bridges could become a worthy successor to Libba Bray with this historical fantasy."Lush and opulent, romantic and sinister, The Gathering Storm, Vol. I in the Katerina Trilogy, reimagines the lives of Russia's aristocracy in a fabulously intoxicating page-turning fantasy.
St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888. As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. No one knows. Not her family. Not the girls at her finishing school. Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle. Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.
An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources . . . including two young men—George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and the dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn.
The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?
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  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 5, 2011
      The ideal reader for Bridges’s sprawling debut would have a love of Tolstoy and an infatuation with Twilight—perhaps an improbable combination. Determination is certainly required to track the mutable Russian proper names and family connections of an enormous cast, all of which must be understood to follow the plot. Katerina is a young duchess in an alternate-universe czarist Russia, a corrupt society secretly governed by Dark and Light Faerie courts. Katerina is an unwilling necromancer, able to raise the dead, a secret she has kept from everyone until a threat to the czarevitch, Nicholas, forces her to act and thereby reveal herself to the Montenegrins, rumored to be witches and worse. All of that is before the vampires and bogatyr (a powerful warrior-czar) come into the picture—it requires every bit of the book’s 400 pages to lay out the relationships, politics, and myth that will drive the rest of the planned trilogy. Bridges is up to the task, though, and for readers who appreciate a challenge, she delivers an imaginative, complex blend of history and magic. Ages 12–up. Agent: Ethan Ellenberg Agency.

    • Kirkus

      November 15, 2011
      Sixteen-year-old Katerina, a descendant of Russian royalty, is threatened with the evil sorcery of vampires in this first of a trilogy. Attending a school for young noblewomen, Katerina feels she's valued only for her potential for a good marriage but she wants a career in medicine, her true passion--not likely for a young woman in 1888 Russia. When classmates fall deathly ill, Katerina's convinced that her roommate, Elena, Princess of Montenegro, one of a long line of "blood drinkers," is causing the illnesses. Elena is also trying to force Katerina into an unwanted relationship with her handsome, controlling older brother, Danilo. Katerina possesses the dark magic of necromancy--the ability to reanimate dead things. Could that power be motivating the vampire's domineering drive to marry her? Perhaps the ring Katerina has been given by an elderly woman with her own agenda can help her fend him off, or maybe George, the tsar's younger son, an apparent ally and potential love interest, will help? The fully realized setting, a fantastical version of pre-revolutionary Russia, adds a level of believability to this debut. Many key players are well-rounded, though with most aligned with Dark or Light forces, readers may need a scorecard to keep track of all the alliances, as well as the complex, never clearly explained back story. An atmospheric and complicated vampire tale that's worth the effort of reading it. (Historical fantasy. 11 & up)

      (COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

    • School Library Journal

      February 1, 2012

      Gr 9 Up-The court of Imperial Russia in the 1880s is the backdrop for this blend of history, the supernatural, and romance. Sixteen-year-old Katerina (aka Katiya), Duchess of Oldenburg, has a dangerous talent, necromancy, which she discovered when she was a little girl and unwittingly brought a dead frog back to life merely by wishing. After her talent is discovered by a rival family who would put it to wicked use, a conflict between good and evil, all prettied up in aristocratic clothing, luxurious balls, dinners, and secret plots, begins. The result is a complicated story involving faeries, ghosts, and vampires. Katiya is in the middle of an Imperial shakedown that provides plenty of action, but the language often sounds modern, and the faerie device seems to come out of the blue. Add to this the confusion of many characters having similar names, albeit in the Russian style, and you have a dense story that will take dedicated readers to follow it-and yet, there are likely to be such followers, as the plot is rich and intriguing. This novel will fit the bill as filler for larger collections.-Angela J. Reynolds, Annapolis Valley Regional Library, Bridgetown, NS, Canada

      Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      February 1, 2012
      Grades 7-10 Katerina, Duchess of Oldenburg, is not your typical 15-year-old. She may attend the Smolny Institute, where young ladies of the right station are prepared for society and matrimony, and she may have to deal with a bully and enemy in Elena, but what sets her apart is her secret: she is a necromancer. And when her enemy discovers her secretand wants to put it to use in her family of vampireslife gets dangerous. Set in an alternate Russia of the late nineteenth century, this alluring romantic fantasy gives fans of The Luxe series a new society to enter, albeit with some fear. Authentic portrayals of Russian culture, medical practice, and religion give this novel (the first in a trilogy) dimensionality, but perhaps most intriguing are the characters, who seem to be modern spirits in historical trappings. The only thing required of the reader is a willingness to keep up with the longer Russian names and patience with Bridges as she crafts the rest of the trilogy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

    • The Horn Book

      July 1, 2012
      Vampires, wolves, and a protagonist with supernatural powers provide the tension for this mystery set in 1880s St. Petersburg, Russia. There are lots of period details (and many characters to keep straight); the narrative gives readers insight into a czarist Russian culture that promotes proper aristocratic marriages and forbids Duchess Katerina (the book's protagonist) from studying medicine.

      (Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

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Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:5
  • Interest Level:6-12(MG+)
  • Text Difficulty:3-4

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