Kelly’s prequel to Lilac Girls tells the story of Eliza Ferriday, a New York socialite travelling to St. Petersburg with her friend Sofya, when she becomes aware that war is imminent and returns to the States, but feels guilty to leave her friend and her family behind. Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanov reigning dynasty, seems unaware of the trouble that’s to come until it’s too late. Varinka Kozlov, a peasant Russian girl under the thumb of a cruel guardian, is hired by the Streshnayva family to care for their young son, Max, without realizing the danger they’ve just brought into their home.

The book is available in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook formats on Amazon, as well as at your local library or through the Libby App. The book’s structure in multiple points of view is well executed, and the audiobook narrated by Kathleen Gati, Tavia Gilbert, Karissa Vacker, and Catherine Taber is spectacular. It’s well researched as it travels between the US, St. Petersburg, and Paris from 1914 to 1921, illuminating each place and its people during times of conflict, cruelty, uncertainty, and mayhem as Germany is gaining power, and the revolution overthrows the Tsar in Russia. Russian émigrés flee to Paris and the US to find refuge from the noose that the new regime promises, and each woman must overcome challenges.

Eliza in the States grows increasingly desperate for news of Sofya, as her letters have stopped coming, and rumors of her family’s demise have reached her; she can only hope her friend has escaped the cruel outcome. Eliza does all she can to help the White Russian émigrés find homes and work and starts a charity for Russian relief.

Sofya and her family had to flee to their country estate. However, it’s attacked by bandits who take it over, and they are taken hostage. She manages to escape and find help with her cousins, the Romanovs, only to discover that the Tsar is no longer in power. By the time she gets back to the estate, she finds her family burned at the stake and displayed on the manor gates. The only solace she has is that her son isn’t among the dead; no, Varinka took him, and she must get him back. She will follow her all the way to Paris if she has to.

Varinka will do everything in her power to protect little Max, even pretending to be his mother, so that the child believes she’s his mother. Suffer through being branded, humiliated, and punished by her guardian. She won’t give him back to Sofya, even if her mother and new love interest both tell her she must. Out of all the characters, Varinka is the least likable. Her attitude is petulant, childish, and although she’s lived through atrocities, it’s hard to feel sorry for her when she herself is acting like a criminal without a sense of morals.

Kelly delivers a solid 3-star read or listen in this historical fiction based on true facts.