Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I read this book for its setting during the Russian Revolution, one of the seminal events of the 20th century. It is a two-tiered story, a common plot practice, in which a person from one generation seeks to learn about earlier events (often the history of a relative). In this case a granddaughter in the 1960s seeks the story of her grandmother, who was an English nanny to a Russian noble family related to the Romanovs. The premise is ripe with possibilities, as both eras were filled with exciting activities. However, the stories rapidly devolve into a pair of rather turgid romances, with stereotypical characters and fairly predictable, if sometimes preposterous, plot elements. Maybe I should just read Dr. Zhivago again.