**The national bestselling author of The Russian Concubine takes us back to Tsarist Russia for a sweeping novel of love and intrigue. **
Russia, 1910. Valentina Ivanova is the darling of St. Petersburg's elite aristocracy-until her romance with a Danish engineer creates a terrible scandal and her parents push her into a loveless engagement with a Russian count.
Meanwhile, Russia itself is bound for rebellion. With the Tsar and the Duma at each other's throats, and the Bolsheviks drawing their battle lines, the elegance and opulence of Tsarist rule are in their last days. And Valentina will be forced to make a choice that will change not only her own life, but the lives of those around her forever...
From Booklist
In this prequel to her debut novel, The Russian Concubine (2007), about White Russian Lydia Ivanova, Furnivall focuses on Lydiaโs mother, Valentina, during the years leading up to and including the Russian Revolution of 1917. When Bolsheviks bomb her familyโs country estate in 1910, crippling her younger sister, Katya, 17-year-old title character Valentina is left with guilt and resolve. With a slim frame but steely character, she defies both convention and her father, who is the czarโs minister of finance, first by training and working as a nurse and then by refusing to marry for money (in order to solve the familyโs financial problems). Instead, she chooses the man she loves passionately, Dane Jens Friis, the czarโs engineer. Through the years, her hatred grows for Viktor Arkin, a Bolshevik leader once in the Ivanovasโ employ who develops an emotionally complicated relationship with the family. Furnivall portrays a country in dreadful conflict, with the grinding poverty of the masses fueling rebellion against the privileged classes. A must for readers of The Russian Concubine and Furnivallโs The Red Scarf (2008). --Michele Leber
Review
High drama and old fashioned passion make this perfect escapist reading Marie Claire A complex tale masterfully told, of passion, adventure and intrigue during one of the most fascinating eras of Russian history. Kate Furnivall had my heart pounding from page one - and kept it racing right up until the last. A truly satisfying read SA Gripping, elegant, and fierce, this is a classic war-torn love story, and Furnivall's best yet' LIBRARY JOURNAL 'The Jewel of St Petersburg is an impressive novel which effortlessly conjures up a period in history, colours it with exciting characters and consequently creates an absorbing story that will enthrall from start to finish'