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? (From Goodreads)
Okay, this book is kind of awesome. Take some Russian society and Russian politics, then throw in a few vampires, some necromancers, and dark versus light and shake it up in a ballroom and you have The Gathering Storm. Honestly, I found myself thinking that I should be finding this book ridiculous with all the fantastical elements that are brought in (we have vamps, mothy-vamps, undead armies, faeries, magicians, auras, seances, witches, werewolves-I think..., and of course Katerina is a necromancer), but it really wasn't. I don't know if it was the time and setting or just excellent writing, but all of these things seemed to naturally exist in Katerina's world. No ridiculousness here.
Katerina is a pretty great heroine. She's aligned with darkness, but fights to resist dark temptations. She's afraid of her powers and by the end of this book, she still hasn't quite come into being comfortable with using them. But it's kind of cool that with all the supernatural happenings that she's wrapped up in, she still wants to be a doctor - a decidedly practical and factual profession. It's a bit of a fantasy of hers, to become a female doctor in an old fashioned society, but there's just a sliver of possibility, which creates a really interesting parallel to the undead side of the track.
And because I can't help it - the boys. Prince Danilo is the creepiest character. I actually shuddered and said "ew" out loud at one point - which freaked my roommate out a bit, I'm sure. But even without the alternate being such a creepy-crawley, George (the grand duke), is so swoon-worthy. He's all heroic, a little surly and just enough out of reach that you have to love him. I'm so anxious to see what happens between Katerina and George in the next book because the tension between them is amazing.
There was a lot going on this book and it was a little hard to keep track of, especially with a few Russian words being thrown in here and there. There are a few things that went down that felt like they weren't given enough time or that weren't fully explained. However, these are all things I'm just hoping will be explained further in The Unfailing Light, so I'm not too worried.
I'm very excited to keep going in this series, because it's a bunch of creatures that I'm familiar with transposed into historical Russia, making it all new and exciting. Plus, I find I've become very attached to Katerina, Dariya, and George and I'm anxious to know what becomes of them.
