The Midwife of St. Petersburg
by Linda Lee Chaikin
The Flames of Love and Revolution... It is Czarist Russia, 1914. Karena Peshkev dreams of escaping her family's country estate and attending medical school. But each year, as she watches her hopes of being accepted to the Imperial College of Medicine slip further away, she much content herself with working alongside her mother, the village's Jewish midwife. On a visit to her cousin's sumptuous mansion, Karena gets a taste of Russian high society--and meets Colonel Alexsandr Kronstadt. Their attraction is immediate, but they can never act on it. Alex is meant for Karena's cousin, the general's daughter, a superior match politically and socially.But when the accusations of Bolshevik conspiracy tear her family apart, Karena and her mother flee to St. Petersburg. The Okhrana--the Russian secret police--are convinced Karena is a Bolshevik traitor, in league with the rebel party's leader. Certain she is guilty of murder and assassination, they're...