Hello and welcome to today's Tsar's Guard Parade Post! Super excited to be doing this as I have spent a good amount of time thinking about what I had wanted to do for this post. I was washing the dishes one day (yes, other than the shower, this is where most of my post ideas come from) and I had always wanted to make a blog design based on a book cover. I didn't know if there was much use of that other than giving me experience so I decided to make a blog as if one of the characters from the book made a blog to write about their experience in the game. (Link below!) If you like to see the rest of the Parade, check out the schedule here!

The Process

So, I consulted Maryam and asked her a few questions about who would most likely journal, which is kind of like blogging. (It gave me the same idea) She told me Nikolai would most likely journal and so I then set off to make the design!

I originally wanted to go with a darker colored theme but after awhile, I ended up taking that off because, I am really just not a person who does dark backgrounds. I did keep some darker colors throughout the blog and just kept it fairly simple. It was my first time working with a dark background within a blog design, and it's something I want to get used to working with because I am so much more comfortable doing a design with a white or lighter background compared to a darker one. Nevertheless, I learned a good amount of new things and I am excited to imply them to my own blog! (Changes coming maybe?)

I really do hope you check out the blog! Spent a good amount of my time on it (have you noticed with the lack of posts this week?) and I am actually pretty happy with it, seeing how I was making the blog for someone with a totally different personality compared to me. There is also a short post there as well! I mean Nikolai just started it so her wanted to get a welcome post in before breaking into blogging about his experience. ;) (Also, if you want the template, email me! I would be happy to give it to you :))

Check it out here!

Screenshot is crappy, doesn't do justice

---

The Crown's Game

Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters—the only two in Russia—and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening, the Tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side. And so he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill—the greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter and the Tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated is sentenced to death. Raised on tiny Ovchinin Island her whole life, Vika is eager for the chance to show off her talent in the grand capital of Saint Petersburg. But can she kill another enchanter—even when his magic calls to her like nothing else ever has? For Nikolai, an orphan, the Crown’s Game is the chance of a lifetime. But his deadly opponent is a force to be reckoned with—beautiful, whip smart, imaginative—and he can’t stop thinking about her. And when Pasha, Nikolai’s best friend and heir to the throne, also starts to fall for the mysterious enchantress, Nikolai must defeat the girl they both love . . . or be killed himself. As long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously clear . . . the Crown’s Game is not one to lose. 

---

Evelyn Skye

---

So tell me: What are your thoughts on blog? I would love to know and also, what are your thoughts on The Crown's Game! Have you heard of it?