In the freezing cold winter of 1739/40, Europe was in the grip of the worst weather for 30 years. The Seine, Rhine, Danube and Thames froze solid for months. Tsaritsa Anna Ivanovna gave an order to build a palace made completely of ice on the frozen river. She ordered the architect Pyotr Eropkin to design the building.

The Ice Palace had been designed for a cruel jest. She made the prince marry a particularly ugly Kalmyk (area of Mongolia) serving woman, and the ice palace was for their honeymoon! It amounted to no more than a sick and perverse death sentence.

The unhappy couple were paraded in a cage on the back of an elephant at the head of a procession of freaks, dwarves, cripples and all manner of grotesque human beings. In the palace the newlyweds were enclosed into an icy nuptial chamber under heavy guard and bedded down publicly in the icy room. The couple barely survived the night; but survive they did with the help of the Princes aide and friends of the Kalmyk bride.

 

Reviews:

Prince Mikhail is happy with his life; he has a beautiful wife and is doing wonderful things as ambassador in Italy. But when Tsaritsa Anne Ivanovna learns that her prince has married a catholic woman, he is forced back to his home town for punishment. On his horrible journey back to Russia, he finds out his wife has suffered a sudden death, which deeply saddens him. But things only get worse when he realizes one of his punishments is to marry Avdotya, a common kitchen servant, and stay one night in the Ice Palace. Can Mikhail and Avdoyta stay alive, or will they parish in the frozen beauty of the Ice Palace?

THE ICE PALACE by Bill Haworth is a good historical read. If you love a great romance that takes place thousands of years ago, this story will keep you enchanted. I had strong feelings for Mikhail the moment I read about him. He is a noble, caring gentleman who is extremely happy with his life. You can feel his love for everyone pop off the pages of the story. Then, when his life crumbles down around him and he experiences pain, I felt my heart break with him. Mr. Haworth is wonderful with his descriptions; you can picture the story perfectly in your head as you read along. I love how Mikhail tries to protect Avdotya from an untimely death of freezing along side him. Mikhail and Avdotya are complete opposites but are able to teach one other a thing or two about love. Mikhail is a prince with high standards and never looks at the lowly, unattractive woman. Avdotya is able to show him looks aren’t everything and that what’s inside a person counts too.

The end of the story has a peek at the future of these two that I loved seeing. Mr. Haworth, congratulations on this wonderful tale.

Becky Gaede

Dark Angel Reviews

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is the theme of Bill Haworth’s latest release from The Dark Castle Lords.

 Mikhail is a Russian prince.  He marries while on assignment without the express permission of the Russian Tsaritsa.  To punish the wayward Mikhail, the Tsaritsa sends her guards to bring him back to her so that he may face her wrath.  Her punishment?  An unwanted marriage to the ugliest woman in her entire palace – a Mongolian prisoner of war turned serving maid.  Their honeymoon?  The newly finished Ice Palace the Tsaritsa commissioned with Mikhail in mind.

Mikhail and Avdotya marry because they have no choice but to obey or die.  However, when they are shut away and frozen into the newly constructed Ice Palace, they know their demise is at hand.  Avdotya’s resourcefulness and Mikhail’s long lost friend lend a helping hand and in doing so, save their lives.  One person was surprised at their walking out on their own – the evil and vile Tsaritsa. 

ICE PALACE has an almost fairytale quality and atmosphere.  I wanted Avdotya’s fairy godmother to arrive and carry them away to safety.  Bill Haworth adds in a surprise ending to this delightful tale that made me clap in glee.  For an almost magical tale of good versus evil, ICE PALACE is the book to read! 

3.5 Blue Ribbons

This story, based on actual historic events in eighteenth-century Russia, is an interesting and captivating tale of an unlikely hero and heroine, brought together by fate.

Mikhail, ambassador to Italy, marries a lovely Italian woman, but she is also Catholic, which enrages the Tsaritsa of Russia. She orders him brought home to St. Petersburg, and the Tsaritsa spends the next months making Mikhail’s life miserable. She tries to seduce him; she has him repeatedly sentenced to death; she finally makes him court jester to embarrass him, but when that doesn’t work, she comes up with her ultimate plan of revenge. She has a palace built on the city’s river, all of ice. She then orders the handsome Mikhail to marry the ugliest woman in town and banishes the couple to spend a night inside the ice palace, in subzero conditions. Death is certain, unless someone in the town is brave enough to disobey the Tsaritsa and come to their rescue.

Overall, these characters are well-developed. Readers will sympathize with the kind, patient Mikhail and his mismatched wife, Avdotya. Tsaritsa Anna is quite colorfully written as well and makes a perfect villainess. While Avdotya may be unattractive, however, she is smart and resourceful, and Mikhail soon discovers that his punishment� might be his saving grace in disguise. You will flip the pages to find out the fate of Mikhail and Avdotya during those long hours inside the frigid walls!

I found it interesting that Mr. Haworth based his story on actual events, and I went searching after I finished reading to find out more about this ice palace. One downfall of the story, however, is the amount of historic detail the author included. I felt there was too much background information about the political and geographical state of Eastern Europe that was not central to the plot. Those scenes tended to slow the rest of the action.

Aside from some minor lapses into contemporary language, The Ice Palace is a fascinating fictionalized account of a bizarre historic event. Best of all, it comes complete with a happy ending!



Review by Dandelion

http://longandshortreviews.blogspot.com

THE ICE PALACE takes a true story and turns it into a fanciful tale involving handsome Russian prince Mikhail, his ill fated Italian bride, an evil Russian empress, and the corruption that power soon works on the hearts and minds of the powerful. Whisked away from the side of his dead bride, the Russian prince is punished by a vengeful empress for failing to love her instead. The ultimate punishment is the betrothal to the ugliest woman of the realm and a night spent sealed into a palace made of ice. Even as the empress hopes the couple will die, the prince’s friends are close at hand to save him. But can they deliver him from the clutches of the empress?

THE ICE PALACE is a beautiful love story. I am somewhat surprised that it is available through a publisher more suited to salacious romance novels than the relatively tame work of Mr. Haworth. His prose is clear and succinct and he captures the empress with intriguing clarity.

Truth be told, in my opinion Mr. Haworth missed his calling and instead of appealing to an adult audience already jaded by an oversaturation of the romance genre, this story –in wording, length, and after some decided editing for adult content—is a surefire win with the preteen and teen market.

As a matter of fact, if the author were to consider a second edition in this vein and submitted it to the classic scholastic publishers there is no telling how popular he will become. Who knows, excerpts of his book may actually some day be in the various elementary school readers and become compulsory for generations of students to come!

Yes, the story is that good and hopefully it will not get lost among the many other published works.
 

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