An interesting and informative look into the life of Grand Duke Michael, the youngest brother of the last Tzar of Russia.

Great book! I enjoyed this read immensely!

An interesting idea but poorly executed. The research is there, but the style is pedestrian and over-written, and this “what if” story failed to convince me. The premise is that Grand Duke Michael of Russia wasn’t assassinated by the Bolsheviks in 1918 but escaped to embark on a load of unlikely capers. Potentially entertaining but not for me.

This book was well written. The characters were believable and likable. The author showed incredible attention to detail. I think the problem I faced was knowing the ultimate end of Grand Duke Michael, at least in our reality. Guess what? This is what I call a 'what if' book. What if Michael didn't die. What if he survived and lived on past the Russian Revolution of 1918. This book explores that possibility, and it feels almost 'real'. I could believe that, just perhaps, Michael did in fact survive. Definitely worth reading if you enjoy Russian Imperial history.

"The Two Lives of Grand Duke Michael" is a well-intended work that is clearly written by someone who is still developing himself as a writer. It purports to trace the end of the life of the last Romanov tsar as well as his supposed rescue/survival (think along the lines of the Anastasia story, but throw in some spies.) The book shows clearly the author's passion for detail, but unfortunately, it needs significant work to really become a successful novel. Tips I would suggest for the author, as the work is self-published: 1.) Move the entire index of characters to the back of the book. Your text should teach us who these people are, and the index should be only an area to consult if we're confused. There should be very, very little separating us from the start of the actual novel. 2.) Work on breaking up the heavy exposition in the text. The book reads as a long description, rather than cinematic moments that are easy to engage/imagine. Try to rework sections as actual conversational exchanges, like a movie script. "Michael said that <insert long paragraph of description>" is a way of wording that isn't as lively as, say, "I cannot do that," said Michael, his face paling. "Do you even know what you say when you ask me to give up Russia?" In addition to making your text more lively, offering different types of moments in the text will create variety, which increases readability. 3.) Be careful of your wording: the book swings back and forth in its opening pages between asserting it is a novel (fiction) and that it will "reveal the truth" (which suggests nonfiction.) This is speculative fiction, as the text ultimately says (correctly), but it is still fiction--so avoid claims of "revealing" anything. 4.) This goes with #2: Read more historical fiction. That will help you to find models for the kind of restructuring that would make your work stronger, more easy to be imagined, and more compelling.

Overall, I commend the author for his passion and his effort to dig in to a subject lesser treated in fiction, but the book needs more work to be a strong piece of fiction.

A well written and well researched book that brings to life an important time in history and a man that has long been overlooked.

Without a doubt, the Russian history is quite interesting and underrated in spite of many dark and not very glorious pages. This book is about a very charismatic and not well remembered member of the Romanov family. He does not seem to be ambitious but who knows, maybe history would have been different had he become a king well before the revolution. The material is very well researched but not very well presented. It is a non stop boring narration, just very tedious and tiresome to read.