I have always been fascinated by any story featuring Anastasia and the Romanovs. I was excited to pick up I WAS ANASTASIA by Ariel Lawhon for that very reason. While I enjoyed the stories and the characters and you could tell how much in depth research went into this piece of historical fiction, there is one drawback that affected my experience. This book is trying to tell the reader what happened in 1918 and also what has happened since. The chapters detailing the fateful journey for the Tsar and his family are told chronologically so they are easy to follow with great details. However, the rest of the chapters jump from year to year, back and forth, and it was really hard for me to keep track of Anna. For readers that don't struggle with stories told in that manner, I would recommend this book. The story and characters are definitely engaging.

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This is a clever historical fiction novel about Anna Anderson and Anastasia Romanov. There's been so, so many things written about Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Was Anastasia killed by a firing squad? Did she survive? Did she escape?

Ariel Lawhon takes us, the reader, on a two pronged journey. One story is Anastasia's, told in order. The other story is Anna's, told in reverse. There's a time jump, but if you are paying attention, it's a easy and exciting story to read. It creates the dramatic effect...where you are waiting for the stories to collide.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

You might have heard about Anna Anderson and her claim (to fame) to be Anastasia Romanov. But, if you haven't, then I suggest you google her and read up on her life. Anna Anderson's life was very interesting and it has btw been made into a movie with Ingrid Bergman and a miniseries with Amy Irving. I've seen both since I find the Romanov's a captivated subject.

I was curious to see how of Ariel Lawhon would construct the story since much has happened since Anna Anderson died in 1984. Now I take for granted that you know all about that, but if you don't know, then I will spoil the story a bit. Or rather I will reveal some truth's that may or may not be included in this book. So, read on if you dare!

Since Anna Anderson died in 1984 has two things happened, for one thing, has DNA showed that she was not Anastasia, and also the graves of the Romanov's family has been found with the bones of ALL the children. So, how do you write a book when this is well-known? Easy, you make the both Anna and Anastasia's stories so believable that you want it to be true.

All through the book does Anastasia's story interlopes with Anna's. We get to follow Anastasia through the years in captivity while Anna's story we get from the end unto the beginning. And, Anna's chapters. It's like reading a book backward. But, it works. It's very different, but it works so well. It's like two cars moving towards each other and you know they will crash, but you can't stop them!

I Was Anastasia is a great book. Reading the author's note at the end, where she wrote about wanting to believe that the story would be true made me realize that she made me want to believe that it's true that Anna was Anastasia. Because deep down we all want the story to have a happy ending...

As far as my experience with Ms. Lawhon goes, she is great with historical fiction. She can take an interesting thread from history and turn it into this carefully woven, beautiful story that you won't want to put down. This is definitely true of I Was Anastasia.
One of the most amazing things she does is weaves two stories together in this crazy way but rarely are you ever lost or confused. In this book you have two stories, Anna's and Anastasia's. Anna's story is told in reverse while Anastasia's is toward going forward so that the stories run parallel until they crash into each other at the exact same moment in the past.
There were a few times in this story that I skimmed because it was just too much info that seemed unnecessary but overall, I was totally invested in Anna's journey. Is Anna Anastasia? Read and find out! 4/5 stars

I am drawn to anything that has to do with Anastasia Romanov. The history of her and the Imperial family has always fascinated me.


This was a very well done book. Very engaging and caused you to analyze every crumb you are given. It was a unique look at the present and memories from someone who believed they were Anastasia Romanov.



Through it all the ending still completely got me. I really did not see it coming at all.

I've read lots of books about Royalty, but only a couple about the Romanov's. I found this to be an interesting read and would recommend it, with a very open mind. Could it have happened this way? Possibly! It's definitely worth a read if you enjoy Historical Fiction.
I received this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book! The writing was great and I loved how accurate the historical references were. I was looking up people/places/events as they were mentioned in the story and I definitely learned quite a few things about Russian history.

As I was reading I was not sure that I was going to like the ending, but it turns out it was the perfect way to wrap up the story! I would recommend this book to all of my history-loving friends!

My full review is available on my blog!

Anna and Anastasia, are they one in the same? I didn’t know anything about the Romanov family before reading this book but now I'm certain a history lesson is in order. I need to know who they are and what happened to them.

The author does a wonderful job of telling a story that could have been hard to follow since it’s told almost backwards, Anna’s story at least, until it converges to a point in time and of course I’m waiting to find out, is she Duchess Anastasia?

We peer into each narrative, hoping to gather insight and concrete evidence to see if Anna's claims are valid and legitimate, to see if there is a possibility that there has been a mistake in the courts refusal to recognize her as Grand Duchess Anastasia. With many people flocking around her to validate her identity, while others are adamant she's an imposter, I read into the wee hours of the night hoping to find out....to finish with baited breathe is an understatement.

When I finished, I was speechless (which is why it's taken me so long to come up with this) because I knew nothing about the characters depicted in the story. Reading the authors notes at the end has prompted me to look for a list of nonfiction books from the library about the Romanov family. Fascinated doesn’t seem like the right word, but for now, it's all I can come up with.

I enjoyed this book very much and highly recommend it.

I have been fascinated by the story of Anastasia Romanov for a long, long time. This book fed that interest and enhanced it a bit through Lawhon's brilliant imaginings. While the timeline within the story took a little bit to get used to (don't skip the chapter headings in this one), as the book progressed, it soon became clear why the story is told as it is. I loved being immersed in the richness of this story.

After the entire Romanov family was brutally slaughtered by a drunken firing squad, the family’s bodies were spirited away, hidden from the world. When all seven bodies could not be accounted for, the rumors began, and a young woman became the vortex of decades of guesswork. Was Anna Anderson really Anastasia Romanov? Is it possible she survived the slaughter of 1918 only to have an attempted suicide thwarted when she was fished form a frigid canal? Is this woman fitting the basic description of Anastasia and carrying the scars of wounds inflicted by both bullets and blades more than an opportunist seeking fame, fortune and the family treasures? Is she a delusional lost soul clinging to a fantasy that would make her life so much more meaningful? Was she like a leopard trying to change its spots?

Ariel Lawhon’s I WAS ANASTASIA is a brilliantly complex and tumultuous tale of possibilities, with questions that can never be answered, of facts that are sketchy and suspect at best. One thing for sure, Ms. Lawhon’s two-pronged tale is fascinating, intriguing and very hard to put down!

Anastasia’s final days are laid out in a linear fashion, from her life at the palace to her life in a foreboding Siberian home where her pampered family was forced to become common-folk, doing common labor to survive. Anastasia is presented as a strong young woman, adaptable to the circumstances of her family’s new existence. Just reaching an age where young love can bloom, only to have her life stolen away.

Anna’s tale is much different as we meet an older Anna, still fighting to be recognized as Anastasia. Believers believed in her, or at least in her entertainment value. Benefactors were more than willing to champion her cause through court after court, continent after continent. We will see her life unfold in reverse until we reach the final truth of a woman who felt she deserved the life she was denied.

Fabulous reading, dark, detailed, gritty and magnetic. Regardless of the outcome, regardless of what history has proven, Ms. Lawhon’s version is spellbinding from start to finish and her treatment of each character reflects the chaos each one lived through, factual or manufactured.

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Doubleday Books!

Publisher: Doubleday (March 27, 2018)
Publication Date: March 27, 2018
Genre: Historical Fiction
Print Length: 344 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews & More: http://tometender.blogspot.com

Summary (from Goodreads)

Countless others have rendered their verdict. Now it is your turn.

Russia, July 17, 1918 Under direct orders from Vladimir Lenin, Bolshevik secret police force Anastasia Romanov, along with the entire imperial family, into a damp basement in Siberia where they face a merciless firing squad. None survive. At least that is what the executioners have always claimed.

Germany, February 17, 1920 A young woman bearing an uncanny resemblance to Anastasia Romanov is pulled shivering and senseless from a canal in Berlin. Refusing to explain her presence in the freezing water, she is taken to the hospital where an examination reveals that her body is riddled with countless, horrific scars. When she finally does speak, this frightened, mysterious woman claims to be the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia.

Her detractors, convinced that the young woman is only after the immense Romanov fortune, insist on calling her by a different name: Anna Anderson.

As rumors begin to circulate through European society that the youngest Romanov daughter has survived the massacre, old enemies and new threats are awakened.

My thoughts:

Is she the last Romanov? A confused, mentally ill woman? An impostor? This is for us to decide as she tells her story. I loved the way our narrator presents herself. I was charmed by her, worried for her; I felt all her pain. At the same time I felt every happy memory. This is a book of emotions, memory… a step back in time. It isn’t kind, and it isn’t neat, her life wasn’t. The character development was amazing, and the world building was perfect.

I will admit that there were times where it was hard for me to keep track of timelines. The flow of the book is extremely choppy, like a woman skipping down memory lane. There were times where I had to stop and ask myself if this or that had happened at the point in time I was visiting at the moment. This took me out of the book several times, which was upsetting. There were also several times where the book moved slowly, and I had to fight through it. For all of that, this is still a four star book for me.

On the adult content scale, there is a high level of violence and language. Trigger warning- there is talk of rape. I would definitely say that this is an adult novel. I give it a seven.

I was lucky enough to receive an eARC of this book from Netgalley and Doubleday Books in exchange for an honest review. My thanks!

Although I was familiar with the story of Anna Anderson and knew that the real Anastasia was proven to have died the night her family had been executed, I did not know any details about either woman's stories (that's NOT a spoiler alert - knowing that this is historical fiction, you can't take it for granted that the character "Anna" will also be a fraud). I found myself really engrossed with this book and had a hard time putting it down, mainly because of Ariel Lawhon's writing style. What made the book so successful, and so ultimately intriguing, was that she used a reverse narrative to tell Anna's story backwards from 1970 - 1918. Anastasia's story (1916-1918) was interspersed in a linear, straightforward way, so that the two timelines did not connect until the very end (when the truth is revealed). I also really enjoyed reading the author's notes at the end of the book, which was so very well written and included a lot of backstory about the real characters and the history behind the story. I am looking forward to reading more by this author!

A very strong four. Maybe 4 1/2. My mother was fascinated by the Anna/Anastasia story fifty years ago, and it's held my interest as well. One of my all time favorite books is Nicholas and Alexandra, by Robert Massie. To have an opportunity to read this fictionalized version was a real treat. I especially appreciated the way the two time periods were worked out - working forward from Anastasia's youth, and backward from Anna's senior years, to meet in the iddle. Exceptionally well done.

For over five decades there were unending international court battles, rumors and intrigue surrounding a woman called Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Anastasia, the sole surviving child of Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, who was famously executed during the Russian Revolution along with his whole family. Ariel Lawhon’s latest historical fiction novel delves into this story from two angles, with a wholly unique, fictionalized approach.

I will begin this review with Lawhon’s own request to any of her readers who like to read the authors notes before they read the book. Don’t do it – please, don’t do it, because it will totally ruin the book for you. Now, this isn’t something that I generally do myself. However, I have been known to occasionally jump into the author’s notes while in the middle of reading a book, and if you’re more like me, I also encourage you to resist that urge. Thankfully, I didn’t do this with this novel, and I’m very glad I didn’t.

However, there was one thing I found in those notes that I can reveal here, that being that apparently, Lawhon was writing another novel when this one grabbed her and forced her to write it. If you’re not a writer, you might not understand this, but I can assure you that sometimes writers have no choice regarding what they’re going to write about. Sometimes a subject just grabs a writer so strongly that they must abandon everything else and work on that instead. All I can add to this is, thank heavens this subject found Lawhon, because… Oh… My… Goodness! (I apologize at the outset if this review is overly effusive, since I doubt I’ll be able to restrain myself.)

Let’s start out by getting technical here. There are two literary mechanics that Lawhon employs here that make this novel outstanding (in every sense of the word). First, there’s the changing of points of view. Lawhon tells this story in alternating chapters, entitled either Anna or Anastasia. With this, Anastasia’s chapters are all told in first person, where Lawhon imagines what life was like from the onset of the revolution until the infamous execution of the royal family, all from Anastasia’s point of view. On the other hand, Lawhon (mostly) uses third person for Anna’s chapters, allowing the reader a wider, yet less personal view. The reason I say “mostly” is because there are two instances where Lawhon breaks the “fourth wall” and has Anna address the reader directly, with, I may add, stunning results.

The other literary mechanic here is how Lawhon uses time. The Anastasia chapters are told in strict chronological order, with very little in the way of flashbacks, except to reveal some essential bits of background. The chapters with Anna, however, start at the end – or as close to the end as possible – and work their way backwards in time. Of course, with this we can immediately anticipate how the two stories will come together, which they obviously must do – but to say any more than this would necessarily force me to include spoilers, and you know I’ll never do that with any book review.

What this gives us is a truly ingeniously constructed work, that is both electrifying and powerful in every possible way. As witnessed with her first two novels, Lawhon knows exactly how to build the tension and get into each of the character’s heads, with such nuance, careful use of language, and carefully layered atmosphere, that it almost takes your breath away. Furthermore, Lawhon’s readers already know how she likes to invent her own solutions to these age-old unsolved mysteries, and this book is no exception. In fact, of her three books, I think Lawhon’s interpretation of this story is the most intriguing, if not satisfying, of all. In short, if I was forced to describe this book in one phrase, I’d say that it sizzles until it explodes into glorious and surprising fireworks. Obviously, there’s no need for me to gush any further about this book, except to say Brava to Ms. Lawhon and give this book a full five stars!

This was a very challenging read, because not only is it a parallel narrative but Anastasia's half covers a short period of time (months) moving forwards and Anna's half covers a long period of time (decades) moving backwards. Added to that is the fact that Anna is a very unreliable narrator and her recollections are like a jumble of puzzle pieces that don't all come from the same puzzle. I definitely got bogged down a bit in the middle, but as Anna's storyline got closer and closer to 1918, I started turning pages a lot faster! If you can stick with the unorthodox narrative style, this book is a great character study. I found myself thinking a lot about why Anna made the choices she did long after I finished. Additionally, so many storytellers have romanticized Anastasia and her hypothetical escape that the suffering she and her family endured in their final months is largely overlooked, but Lawhon faced the grim reality of the Romanov's final days (and not just final minutes) here. That also provides a lot of food for thought when thinking about the motives and methods of the Russian Revolution. I recommend this for historical fiction readers who aren't just looking for light women's historical fiction (as this cover might lead you to expect).

Confession time. I read this in November. I KNOW. I’m kind of obsessed with anything Romanov, so when this book came onto the scene – written by the super talented Ariel Lawhon! – I couldn’t grab it fast enough (a massive perk of being auto-approved!). And the second I scored a copy I dove in. Told in two parts (that of Anna Anderson, beginning in the 1960s and going backward in time to 1920 and Anastasia, detailing the Revolution chronologically), I Was Anastasia keeps the reader guessing: was Anna Anderson really Anastasia? Anna certainly has the right look, the memories only a family member would have, the body now riddled with scars.

While there were some instances where Anna’s story left me scratching my head for a few chapters (characters or details are introduced, but because her part is told in reverse, it’s not until later the pieces fall into place), I really enjoyed the way Lawhon chose to tell her tale. Fans of Megan Miranda’s All the Missing Girls should have no problem keeping up with this one! I won’t give away any spoilers – I wasn’t quite sure what to think of the ending and mulled over it for a VERY long time – I will say that I was utterly captivated by I Was Anastasia. Also, I rarely read Author’s Notes, but Lawhon’s was fascinating. Not only did she go into further detail with the historical aspect (including which real life figures were omitted, which were blended into one character, the children’s puppies!) she also gave a quote I’ve been loving ever since: ‘And what else, really, is a novel than a 350-page sleepover?

My Review of “I Was Anastasia” by Ariel Lawhon

Ariel Lawhon, Author of “I Was Anastasia” started with a unique premise of writing about two historical figures, Anastasia Romanov and Anna Anderson. The author teases us at the beginning of the story to read and see if we believe that Anastasia Romonav really survived. I appreciate the hours of historical research that the author has spent. I was really looking forward to this read.

The Genres for this novel are Fiction and Historical Fiction. The characters are described as complex and complicated. I found that the timeline in this novel was confusing. There were many chapters and places that would say: 4 days before, 3 days before, 7 weeks after. I also found it difficult to relate to the two characters, Anastasia Romonav and Anna Anderson. Some of the events were not clear.

Also this is my bias, and I feel I have to mention it for those who love animals. There is vivid and explicit description of what happened to the beloved pets. If I had been aware of this before hand, I would have had the choice to read or not read. I am an animal lover, and perhaps it is not fair to mention this, but I would have preferred that knowledge before hand.

I would recommend this novel for those readers that appreciate novels of Historical Fiction especially dealing with Anastasia Romonav. I also would like to mention that not every reader appreciates the same genre or the same book in the same way. I received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

Received an advanced copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book was a roller coaster. I went into it knowing very little about Anna Anderson and her quest to be recognized as Anastasia Romanov. I, like Ariel Lawhon admits in her author's note, did not grow up particularly obsessed with Anastasia (other than definitely watching the animated movie a lot as a child).

Lawhon weaves two stories -- Anastasia's last 18 months and Anderson's life in reverse -- and keeps you off-balance about whether they are the same person until the final pages. What Anastasia/Anna goes through is traumatic and difficult and going back and forth between their heads is at times jarring. Anastasia's story, the linear one, is rich in detail and emotion. Anna's is occasionally mere vignettes and it can be hard to get a foothold in her head.

The story structure worked for me but now I want to read the Anna chapters in reverse (harder or easier to do on an e-reader?) and see the store play out in chronological order! Overall, this was a good, atmospheric historical novel with a twist that I really enjoyed.

In February 1920, Anna (Anderson) shows up and claims to be Tsarina Anastasia, one of the daughters of Tsar Nicolas. In July 1918 the Tsar, his wife, his four daughters, and his son had been executed in a revolution. Anna had scars on her body that could have been the result of gunshots and stabbings. She also bore a remarkable resemblance to Anastasia. Was she the only remaining Romanov, or was she a really good fraud?

There are numerous theories regarding the true identity of Anna Anderson. Throughout the decades there have been people who wanted to believe Anna was indeed Anastasia. That is what has kept this story alive.
It is obvious that Lawhon accomplished a lot of research in preparation for writing her book. She brought the Romanov family to life. Young Alexy, as the Romanov heir, is arrogant. Tsarina Alexandra is very petulant. And her execution chapter is nightmarish – I could feel their fear, their terror, hear their screams and shrieks, smell the blood flowing throughout the room.

However, I found Lawhon’s version of the story difficult to follow. She uses two timelines. She moves forward for Anastasia’s story, and then backwards for Anna’s story. The story has been told by many writers so I understand Lawhon’s need to make hers a bit different. If this is your first exposure to the mystery of Anna Anderson it will probably intrigue you and leaving you wanting more. Fortunately, there are many books on this topic.

A popular topic, this rendition is completely different from any others. The story is told from the end of the story and alternates chapters going from the beginning. It takes a while to catch on to the chronology, but is worth the effort. The end of the story is when the beginning and end meet in the middle to reveal the truth. This is another book that would produce a lively discussion.