Hi all...I’m posting this because I would like to get opinions on a book that I’ve been writing for the past months. I absolutely love books and history so I decided to write my own book (historical fiction), to my eyes it’s really interesting but I would love to get someone else’s opinion.

My greatest insecurity is it being too complex because all my goddamn writing teachers have told me the same: I am too damn complex.

The overall plot would be:

(Russia, 1916) Aleksandra ‘Shura’ Petrova is a 17 year-old orphan girl who lives in St. Petersburg with her twin brother Dimitri and her bitter aunt Tatiana. Aunt Tatiana is a wealthy widow who fosters her niece and nephew after their mother dies trying to cross the Atlantic.

In order to get rid of Shura, aunt Tatiana forces her young niece to marry Captain Nicky Korolyov, a 26 year-old widower whose first wife died in childbirth. Shura refuses to marry Korolyov and plans to escape with Dimitri when he leaves for the Austrian Front (WWI).

(1917) When Shura meets her fiancé, she is hypnotized by His good looks and gentle manners. She will eventually fall in love with him, only to find him and aunt Tatiana laying on a pool of their own blood during her engagement party.

Shura and Dimitri flee Russia after being accused of the murders by the Bolshevik. After arriving in Istanbul, the siblings part ways.

(1920) Shura remains hidden in Istanbul, working as a seamstress. she then meets a powerful Sicilian man who is bedazzled by her beauty. He promises to help her escape the Bolsheviks if she marries him in return. Shura accepts and moves to Sicily.

Eventually, Shura grows sick of this man and kills him. Takes the money and moves to New York where she’ll get involved with illicit alcohol business during the prohibition era. Shura and Dimitri reunite in NYC, where she has established herself as one of the most powerful mafia gangsters.

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I plan to fill this story with drama, suspense, crime and sex. Most importantly I want to make Shura a strong and fierce female character, in a time where women had little to no rights

Fans of non fiction??? Book suggestions...