Catherine: The Great Journey

I loved "Catherine: the Great Journey!" The story reminds me a lot of "Marie Antoinette: Princess of Versailles" because they are really similar in their stories: they both are young girls who are sent away from home to marry young boys. In my history class, I learned about Catherine, but I had no idea that she was once named Sophie, or that she came from Prussia, near Germany! I enjoyed the story a lot, as well as learning about history, but my favorite part, like in "Marie Antoinette" is the court! Full of intrigue and status-seeking, this court is a dangerous place! Like in "Marie Antoinette", the sociality of court is simple yet complex-really, the only rule is to stay in favor of the ruler, but the rules to do so are entirely complex. I also observed this in "Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a Country", and "Kazunomiya: Prisoner of Heaven". Survival at a preying court is exciting! I also love Catherine's puppy, Ivan Ivanovitch. He's so cute!

My granddaughter loved getting this for Christmas. Nice addition to her growing library of Royal Diary books.

Another great installment of the Royal Diaries series. Sophie travels from her beloved home to Russia with her mother. In a beautiful but foreign country stuck between her ambitious and harsh mother and the strong, powerful Empress she's torn between the two. The idea of marrying Peter, who's an idiot isn't exactly her dream but the allure of weatlh and power is strong...you get a very good look at a woman who became Empress in her own right after overthrowing her husband...A excellent story. The descriptions are wonderful.

All I can say to describe this book is wow!!! It was sooo intresting and kept me reading until when I was at the end. This book was so good, heck my mom even read it in one night unable to take her eyes of it! I even recomended my friends to read it and they loved it. Now anyways, royal Catherine... well her real name is Sophie since shes from Prussia lives happily until her cruel mother wants to have power and to be known so Sophie's cousin and friend is this one prince from Russia, who is related to the powerful ruler Elisabeth 2, wants Sophie to marry him. Sophie unwillingally excepts and they head to Russia but is scared of Queen Elisabeth 2 sice she even send her own daughter to Syberia and cut her tounge!! But she will do what her mother wants and heads of to Russia to be wed. It is a exciting thriller that makes me want to read on and most people agree with me. READ THIS!!!

Sophie is a 14 year old princess and lives her simple life in Zerbst, Prussia. She is constantly under the burdern of her abusive mother who not only damages her emotionally but physically too. Sophie's father doesn't carry royal blood and her desperate mother is a princess from a small royal family. Sophie's damaged personality is torn adn torn each day as her mother insults her and continuously presses her to marry princes so that her family will be related to 'real' royalty. So one day, after many portraits of herself have been taken to various royalties abroad, Sophie is in shock when she finds that she had been chosen by the Empress of Russia- Elizabeth, to marry her nephew and become duchess and maybe one day queen of all Russia. Leaving her beloved family behind, Sophie and her mother leave to Moscow, unaware of the terrible journey across the ice-lands they would have to take. But when they finally reach the city of snow- Moscow, Sophie realises that Elizabeth is dangerous and is in even more shock when her own mother plots against her. Sophie will have to hold her scheming mother and her tearing-apart life together, before both split. For Sophie, many things change: her language, her religion and most of all her name which is changed from Sophie to Catherine. In this beautiful finale to the Royal Diary Series, Kristiana Greggory portrays Princess Catherine of Russia in her teenage years. When she had to leave her home-land to a place of hope and watch her whole life fall apart. I have loved nearly every book in this beautiful series and I farewell the Royal Diarys hoping the best for it's writers. All around the world, children's hearts have already been changed by the diarys of: Elizabeth I, Cleopatra VII, Isabel, Anastasia, Nzingha, Kaiulani, Victoria, Sondok, Jahanara, Eleanor, Kristina, Elisabeth, Kazunomiya, Green Jay, Redbird, Anacaona, Weetamoo, Marie-Anotinette, Mary of Scotts, Anacaona and Catherine. A beautiful story.

German Princess Sophia is living her normal life in Zerbst, the capital of Prussia, when many people from the Russian court come and examine her to see if she is the right person to marry Grand Duke Peter, heir to the Russian throne. The Empress Elizabeth chooses her and suddenly Sophia is taken to a foreign country, where her language, name, and religion are changed. She soon finds out that her abusive mother is spying on the government and is almost sent home. She finds her world slowly drifting farther and farther away. One day she will become the name she is famous for Catherine The Great and change Russia into a whole new country.