The Hollow Queen by Sherry D. Ficklin (Website, Twitter, Goodreads)Published by Clean Teen Publishing on September 23rd 2019
Genres: Europe, Historical, Romance, Royalty, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 255
As a princess of the Romanov Empire, Elizabeth has enjoyed a life of luxury and privilege. But the sudden deaths of her parents leaves her unprotected – awash in the dangerous tide of her family’s political rivals. When the supreme council crowns her half-nephew Peter II in her place, Elizabeth is left with no title, no power—and no allies. Now little more than a bastard in the eyes of the world, she is sent to serve in the palatial home of Prince Menshikov—the real power behind the boy king.
But Elizabeth won’t fade quietly into the background.
Determined to uncover the truth behind her mother’s murder and expose the men who mean to rule Russia in secret, she grows closer to the handsome young king, and swears to protect him and his rule at any cost. But the forces that oppose them are as dark as they are far-reaching--and this time, Elizabeth could lose more than just her title…
The Hollow Queen by Sherry Ficklin is the fifth book in The Stolen Empire series and if you haven’t read the others yet, you are missing out! First, the covers are amazing. Second, these books take a period of history that I haven’t seen a lot in YA and Ficklin makes it intriguing with both her writing and the overall plot.
This book focuses on Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great. When her parents die, Elizabeth finds herself unprotected and on her own to face those that want the power of the throne. When the Supreme Council crowns her half-nephew instead of her, Elizabeth is left with no title and no finery with the intent to humiliate her. And when she is directed to go to Menshikov Palace to serve the Imperial Majesty, she goes. The thing is, Elizabeth is smart and is willing to bide her time in order to protect herself. Knowing that she will have to show her support, she goes willingly to swear fealty, but she will never deny her lineage and what she feels is her destiny. Add to that the fact that she believes her mother’s death was not natural, and Elizabeth is motivated to play the game she is being forced into to find the person responsible.
A lot of this story is setting up Elizabeth’s background with Peter; her nephew and now the new emperor. It also focuses on Elizabeth diving right into court to find her mother’s murderer. If she can help Peter along the way, she has determined that is what she will do for the good of her people. There was a lot of focus on the relationship between Elizabeth and Peter and while I didn’t love the fact that they were related, I do realize that happened quite often with royalty back then. With that said, I thought Ficklin did a great job of building the relationship between the two and guiding it through the rest of the story. It was clear that early on in the story, Prince Menshikov had all the power and pulled all the strings via Peter but by helping Peter to establish himself as a true ruler and be a true guide to him, Elizabeth was able to pull some of that power away from Menshikov and gain a great deal of influence.
The politics and deals made at court are a big part of this book as well and when the unthinkable happens, Elizabeth must stand up and do what she feels is right. Even if the council won’t see things from her perspective. I’ll be curious to see what happens next in this series with the way this book wrapped up. I can’t say much more here as I don’t want to ruin any of the story for you. Just know that if you like historical fiction that centers on politics and romance, you will want to pick this one up. I recommend checking out the other books in the series as well.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.
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