Title: A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1 of 3)
Author: Claudia Gray
Publication: 2015
Language: English
Daughter of two illustrious physicists, Marguerite is very different from her parents and sister; she’s an artist who prefers portraits over quantum physics. When her parents and their two trusted associates, Theodore and Paul, finally find a way to travel between dimensions, tragedy strikes her family. With her father murdered and the Firebird stolen by none other than Paul, Marguerite and Theo have no choice but to follow the thief across dimensions to try and stop him from destroying everything that they hold dear. It’s an inter-dimensional chase for justice, where both love and betrayal appear on every corner.
ReviewI’m not going to lie, or pretend that I don’t judge covers, but I swear that about 70% of my decision to pick this book up was based on the cover alone. I mean come on, it’s gorgeous. I had seen it on bookshelves everywhere and I really really wanted to read it because hey, if a cover is that gorgeous, the content must be awesome too.
While there were some problems with this book, honestly, I was happy to disregard them in favour of the romance. I don’t usually like book that are too heavy-handed in the romance department but I really enjoyed this one.
Marguerite first travels to a more technologically advanced London than ours and meets up with Theo. The world was well described and intriguing, even though Theo seriously annoyed me (let’s be real here, he annoyed me throughout the whole book). The second world she finds is the one that really drew me in: Imperial Russia.
I cannot express how much I *love* narratives set in Imperial Russia. If you’ve been reading my blog for long enough, or know me IRL, you know that the mid to late 1800s is hands down my favourite time period. It’s my jam, the thing that gets me up in the morning, the stuff that all of my daydreams are made of.
Needless to say, the Russian Lieutenant Markov (Paul’s alter ego) had me swooning so hard, I couldn’t breathe. What Marguerite did was wrong (impersonating the Grand Duchess), and I felt all the feels of the world for poor Markov. Marguerite’s love for Markov was a bit silly and unrealistic, but Markov’s love for the Grand Duchess is what life is all about.
Unfortunately (for me), this section of the book was short lived, and Marguerite had to leave (why would you ever leave though). The third world she visits was pretty bland and mediocre compared to the glitz and glam of the Russian court. So basically, I lived for the middle section of the book. If the whole book had been set in Russia, I would have given it 10 000 stars. Even though it wasn’t, the whole story was pretty interesting and appealing. I loved the inter-dimensional travels, discovering new worlds and living vastly different lives. It was a pretty cool adventure. I’m definitely going to read the second book in the series and see where the story goes from there.
Final ThoughtsI’m giving this one 4 stars for good content, a solid romance story and a fun inter-dimensional adventure. I will definitely re-read it at some point (if only for my gorgeous Lieutenant Markov).
