Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia

He was Tsar Nicholas II of Russia: the wealthiest monarch in the world, who ruled over 130 million people and one-sixth of the earth's land surface, yet turned a blind eye to the abject poverty of his subjects.

She was Empress Alexandra stern, reclusive, and painfully shy, a deeply religious woman obsessed with the corrupt mystic Rasputin.

Their daughters were the Grand Duchess Olga, Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia completely isolated and immature girls who wore identical white dresses and often signed joint letters as OTMA, the initials of their first names.

Their only son was Tsarevich Alexei youngest of the Romanovs, heir to the throne, a hemophiliac whose debilitating illness was kept secret from the rest of the world.

Candace Fleming deftly maneuvers between the plight of Russia's poor masses and the extravagant lives of the Romanovs, from their opulent upbringings to the crumbling of their massive empire, and finally to their tragic murders. Using captivating photos and compelling first-person accounts throughout, The Family Romanov is history at its most absorbing.