Review: The Master Craftsman by Kelli Stuart

 

About:

In 1917, Alma Pihl, a master craftsman in the House of Fabergé, was charged to protect one of the greatest secrets in Russian history--an unknown Fabergé Egg that Peter Karl Fabergé secretly created to honor his divided allegiance to both the people of Russia and the Imperial tsar's family. When Alma and her husband escaped Russia for their native Finland in 1921, she took the secret with her, guarding her past connection to the Romanov family. 

Three generations later, world-renowned treasure hunter Nick Laine is sick and fears the secret of the missing egg will die with him. With time running out, he entrusts the mission of retrieving the egg to his estranged daughter, Ava, who has little idea of the dangers she is about to face. As the stakes are raised, Ava is forced to declare her own allegiance--and the consequences are greater than she could have imagined.

My Thoughts:

In this time split novel, the story is a little bit different as we get to go along on a treasure hunt for Faberge egg, that may or may not exist. Hopping back and forth between timelines, we are given a story that there was a secret egg that Faberge made and tasked with one of his craftsmen, a woman, by the name of Alma Pihl with hiding and keeping it safe. Especially as 1917-1918 grows dark and closes in on the Russian Romanov family.

Present day Ava, daughter of a renowned treasure hunter and absentee father, is struggling putting her life in some sort of sense. After hardly any contact, her mother and she are called to her father's death bed. What happens is beyond her wildest dreams, but they form a sort of treasure hunting team, along with a few others to try and find this last treasure for her father.

In the course of this adventure, Ava learns a lot, and whether or not she finds this mysterious egg and its treasure, she does find another treasure.

I did enjoy this story; the treasure hunt was intriguing, and the history was mesmerizing. I looked up these famous eggs and their intricate beauty and pondered the dark history in which they were made. In both timelines I also felt for the characters, of their broken relationships, time lost, and the fact that it seemed that for some love had died. The atmosphere combined both artistic beauty with the dark and encroaching death and destruction that was coming as an empire that would not listen was going to be turned on its head. This was a very interesting and gripping historical read.

I was provided a copy of this novel from the publisher. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.

About the Author:

Kelli Stuart is the author of the Carol Award-winning Like a River from Its Course, as well as A Silver Willow by the Shore and Life Creative: Inspiration for Today's Renaissance Mom (with Wendy Speake). Stuart has written for The Huffington Post, 5 Minutes for Mom, Tonic.com, Disney, American Girl, The MOB Society, Extraordinary Mommy, God Size Dreams, Short Fiction Break, and (in)courage. Kelli is a storyteller at heart, fluent in the Russian language, and has spent the last two decades studying the Russian and Ukrainian culture. Kelli lives in Tampa, Florida, with her husband and five children.