** spoiler alert ** 
 Wow... Massie is a talented and gifted writer. I can truly see why we won the Pulitzer for this book. It's excellently written. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the Tsar's tragic history. While I knew the basics behind it and maybe a bit more. Massie dives into the idea that if Hemophilia hadn't been involved, it's possible that the Tsar would have followed his relatives into a constitutional monarchy. While, as a historian I find, Massie's idea of playing the what if game, hard to stomach. However, he does it with facts and paints a pretty clear image of the political upheaval that helped spurn the 1917 revolution (though he clearly leaves out the fact that Nicholas refused to free the serfs...). I can't wait to read Catherine the Great and I really want to read the updated chapter that he wrote about the Romonov's after the break-up of the Soviet Union.