In "The Winter Palace" we find another deft hand with Historical Fiction, and Eva Stachniak happily takes us to another of the Great Courts... Tsarist Russia under the Empress Elisabeth. 
 A young Polish girl, an outsider at court, finds herself orphaned and taken into the service of the Empress. Empress Elisabeth's promise to take care of her mostly amounts to being sent to work as part of her household as a menial. Barbera however is a quick, literate girl, and the Bookbinder's Daughter is quickly recruited as a one of the Empress' "tongues". Words, tales and allegiances change with speed in "The Winter Palace", the balance of power always in motion. 
 The subtitle is a tad misleading, as Catherine is not the main character. Indeed, we don't even meet her for quite a while, and we end soon after she is crowned Empress. The writing is on par with Philippa Gregory's less sensationalistic pieces if slightly less lush. Stachniak's work is a bit more stark and keeps the sexual content to bare minimums, which reflects the setting quite well. 
 Overall a pleasant read, worth picking up for the lover of historical fiction. I'd probably like to see a companion to this taking on the rest of Catherine's career. 
 I received an advanced reading copy of this novel.