I really love Anastasia retellings, and this one was really enjoyable! This book is definitely not light and fluffy. If you're at all familiar with the history of the Romanov family, you know how sad this story is. But I do feel like the author gives us a good balance between the dark, sad stuff and the lighter stuff. But do keep the tissues handy!

I don't know very much about the Romanovs, I mean I know a bit more than I've read this book, but I didn't know a lot going in. I've listened to a podcast about Rasputin and his tie to the royal family couple years about around the 100th anniversary of all this happening. I've, also, seen things about people claiming to be Anastasia, so I know bits about the myths, but I didn't know how horrific the story of the last Romanovs really was until I started to read this book.   

In reading a Wikipedia article and the author's notes after finishing this book, I feel like I know just enough to have an opinion about historical accuracy, which is important to me in historical fiction. The first half of this book especially, though it could be slow in places holds up when it comes to detailing what it was like for the Romanovs to live in exile. There were, of course, fantastical elements, but the base of the story was strong and I appreciated that. 

I knew where this story was going, but I didn't see it getting to where it went the way Brandes put it together, so that was fun for me. I enjoyed the magic. It made sense in story. Sometimes stories that add a magical element the supernatural stuff feels shoved in, but with this story, I think it adds a layer of why the Romanovs were seen as "dangerous" by the people holding them captive. 

I'm usually against romantic subplots that have nothing to do with the story, but I think Anastasia and Zash, as well as Maria and Ivan, added something to the first part of the story that needed a little bit extra. There's not a lot happening in the first half of the book except the anticipation that everyone in this book was going to be executed in a matter of days. It gave me, as the reader, something to root for before everything picked up in the second half. After the big event in the middle of the book, it picked up a lot for me. I really loved the second half of the book. There was a lot happening in a very short period of time and I love narratives like that. There was a big shift in pacing which is understandable since there is only so much you can do when the base of your story is seven people locked in five rooms. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think I would have liked it a lot more if I knew the story of the Romanovs before I picked it up. So I definitely think if Anastasia is your history thing and you like to read stories with magical realism, you'll like this book.

"Because I have a story I was meant to live. And not even you can unwrite it."

When I first saw this book I was so excited for it to come out because of that stunning cover and the fact that it is a Romanov's retelling. I have to admit I hardly knew the basics of what happened to the family so I was hoping to get more information through this book (which now I know wasn't the best idea). And when I got approved for an ARC, I couldn't have been happier.

"We are Romanovs. The bond of our hearts spans miles, memory and time."

This book is told from Anastasia's ("Nastya") point of view and in my opinion she was a quite great character, mainly because of her pranks and "misbehavior" which were amazing because they made me realise that she could get away with anything due to how quickly she could come up with a plan. Moreover, I really liked the dinamic between the family members and how everyone took care of each other when neccesary.

On the other hand, the main aspect of this books that prevents me from giving it 5 stars is the fact that the other characters felt very plain, they had a main characteristic and from that came all their attitudes and decisions, they did not have layers nor depth. We got to witness some backstories but they didn't feel real to me, it was as if I was just reading something that happened instead of actually feeling like I was there in that moment, which is what I look for when I read a book.

There were also other minor issues that took away from my enjoyment. First, there were smaller plot twists that didn't feel like they were because I was able to predict them, so I never actually got surprised by anything. Then, the autor also uses some Russian words to describe things or as nicknames that I couldn't understand since I don't speak the language, at first I looked them up but then it just got tedious so I just guessed what they meant by the context or acted as if they weren't there.

And lastly, the end was predictable, there was not a single moment were I feared something bad would happen to any of the characters. But it wasn't only that, it also felt unsatisfying because it ends on an open ending, unless it has a continuation but for the moment this book is a standalone and I'm not used to standalones ending like this lol.

"No one could outshout a revolution."

To end on a more happy note, what I did love throughout the book were the quotes and Nadine's writing style. The introduction to the book is incredible, so powerful that gets stuck in your mind for a while, at least that happened to me. I highlighted so many quotes that give the vibes of "just get up and do it", the three I wrote in this review are only my favorites.

Also, at the end we are told which things in the story were actually real and which ones were fiction or a stretched version of reality. I was positively surprised to see that because I wasn't expecting the author to let us into her creative journey the way she did and I really appreciate that.

Fantastic retelling of Anastasia. I absolutely loved this book. The writing was incredible and the characters amazing. I highly recommend this book.

I enjoyed the magical aspects of the novel, but overall the story moved slowly and the world building was lacking. As a result, the fear and tension between the Royal Family and the Bolsheviks never felt real enough to keep the plot moving forward. It felt as if the whole book was hanging on the known historical tension of the times which not all readers will be familiar with.

I was really disappointed with this one. When I first heard about an Anastasia retelling, I was really excited, because I absolutely love Anastasia. But it just wasn't that great. It was really slow for the most part, so slow that I felt like nothing really happened for 90% of the book. I was so bored that I seriously considered DNF'ing at several points, but still I pushed through. And it got better towards the end, but it was too little, too late.

I also had a very hard time connecting to the characters. I wasn't a huge fan of Anastasia, and to be honest I would've much preferred reading about her brother instead.

DNF 30%
I really wanted to love this book because I like tales about Romanovs and historical fiction. However, there was too much telling for my taste.

Romanov, de Nadine Brandes.

Eu comecei a ler esse livro sem me lembrar muito quem eram os Romanov. Foi com o passar da leitura que as minhas aulas de história começaram a surgir na minha memória.

A família Romanov foi dominou a última dinastia do império Russo, antes da revolução que colocou o partido dos Bolchevique no comando.

A adaptação de Nadine conta o período em que a família Romanov estava presa, bem do início quando eles foram exilados em Ecaterimburgo.

Além de trazer fatos reais, Nadine inclui na trama uma pitada de magia, onde feitiços escritos com uma tinta especial eram capazes de curar e realizar feitos incríveis. Essa pitada de fantasia combinou muito com a história de Anastácia, a filha mais nova.

Como se sabe, na história real, a família Romanov foi executada, mas há boatos que Anastasia havia sobrevivido. E é em razão desse mistério, que Nadine consegue desenvolver uma história de aquecer o coração.

Acompanhamos a união da família e como eles conseguiam tocar os corações de duros soldados bolcheviques. Há histórias de amor, mas também há desgraças.

Eu fiquei encantada como a autora conseguiu se valer de fatos históricos, conduzindo a narrativa de acordo com a cronologia dos fatos reais e trazer momentos de grande emoção e magia.

Nosso foco no livro é Anastasia; uma menina extraordinária que não perde nunca as esperanças e tem por missão proteger a sua família da melhor forma possível, principalmente seu irmão mais novo Alexei, herdeiro do trono, mas que tinha hemofilia.

Anastasia vai ter uma emocionante e tumultuada história com Zash, um soldado bolchevique que tem um passado relacionado à magia que precisa esconder.

Eu li esse livro em inglês acompanhado pelo audiobook. Sempre é uma experiência enriquecedora principalmente
quando a narração coloca emoção ao contar a história.

Preciso saber quem vai publicar esse livro aqui no Brasil! Todos precisam conhecer!
#hiatodaleitura #romanov #NetGalley

This had an interesting concept. At times I felt like it was stilted and I just grew bored with this book. The characters never connected with me. I just didnt love this book or really like it. There was some cool information but I came for a fantasy novel not a history lesson.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy this is an honest review.

really love all of the anastasia retellings that are coming out, however this one was just... not great and I'm super disappointed.

Romanov, Nadine Brandes

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my review in any way and the thoughts expressed are my own.

I absolutely loved the Anastasia movie as a child and was intrigued by this new adaption of the sad story of the Russian royal family. Set in a world much like ours that is filled with magic harnessed by Spell Masters and their spell ink. But the Romanov’s have a secret; they are tasked with protecting a Matryoshka doll that contains the most powerful spells in the world. Now with the revolution, the family exiled to the furthest reaches of Russia and anything relating to magic being hunted down, the Romanovs and the doll is in more danger than ever.
Nastya – aka Anastasia – is close to her family, especially her father and younger brother, Alexei, who suffers from haemophilia, a life-threatening disease that must be kept a secret from the nation. Nastya is a mischief-maker, nicknamed The Imp, and does her best to subtly rebel against the soldiers whilst bringing amusement to those she loves. They have always been a close family yet being under strict house arrest has made their support for each other all the stronger.

*SPOILER*
Taking all this into consideration it feels strange that after her family’s deaths Nastya grieves little – only really at the beginning. And while I admit that this is highly due to the fact that she expects to be able to resurrect her family, it still seems unrealistic that when this becomes increasing harder she still doesn’t begin to mourn. Added to this is the fact that her grief is almost all focused on the loss of her father with little towards her mother and sisters. Considering that she had several sisters and that she had few to no friends which would have made her sisters the closest things she had to friends, it is even more flawed that she wouldn’t be mourning their loss. And on top of all this, she didn’t just loose her parents or a few sisters but several people all at once, it would be expected that she should be devasted, hardly able to function or think. And yes, having a goal can help you soldier on, her grief should continue to pop up throughout her journey, especially during the final chapters.
***

The main love story is between Nastya and Zash, a young guard charged with helping imprison the royal family. If you love a slow burn, then their romance is definitely for you. Initially, they can’t be together due to the harsh punishments that would befall both of them and their family. I enjoyed that there was a legitimate reason for them not to give in to their feelings. And I appreciated how drawn out their relationship was, especially after all the traumatic events they have gone through.

This fantasy had an alright magic system, with magic being harnessed through Masters using a special tool, spell ink. Magic is thought of as rare and prized or thought of as evil and selfish. While I have read good versions of this style of magic system, I just didn’t ‘click’ with this one. I don’t know if it was other issues I had with the book or what, but I just didn’t find this system as interesting as I usually do.
On the other hand, I did enjoy how the author mixed real-world historical events set in Russia and fantasy to create an interesting and unique world. I was intrigued to see if and/or how the story would follow history and what different avenues it would take.

My biggest problem with this book was that the blurb gave away over half of the story and made the entire first half feel pointless. Regardless of whether or not you know about the real-life Romanovs, their tragic end and the Russian revolution, a fantasy book based on these is bound to have some obvious points as well as surprises. But the blurb simply stated what happened in the first half, making it feel like the story should have started after this point. Largely due to this fact I found the novel slow, dull and with little to keep me intrigued and took over two months to get through the beginning (partially because of moving house, study schedule and work). I expected the end to have a good twist to make it all worthwhile but sadly I found the ending dissatisfying. While some people may have totally enjoyed the final chapters, my issue was with the resolution around the villain who felt almost undealt with. I did enjoy the fate of our main troupe of characters and found it was a good arc for each of them.

This was one of my most anticipated reads and if I hadn’t been so excited I probably would have enjoyed it more. I am absolutely certain though that if the author/ publisher simply fixed the blurb it would have been way more engaging and intriguing (after all you don’t know what will happen; will it follow history or does the author has something else in mind?). While my review may sound like I found it a terrible book, I didn’t. I was simply disappointed by a book I had expected to be very good (there’s hundreds of modern fairy-tale retellings but almost none on the Romanovs in a fantasy world). I give it 3/5 and cannot stress highly enough that if you want to read it, do not read the blurb and the bit of my review I have marked as a spoiler.

As a Russian and a history fiction lover, I was bound to love Romanov, but ... I just liked it. It was only OK. I have to say though that my expectations were quite high.

This is the story based on true events happened in 1917 when Russian Tsar Nikolai the Second and his family was kept under arrest and later killed without tribunal or any order. That turbulent time in Russian history is nothing to be proud of, but that happened, and the only can be done is to be accountable to what had happened. There is still much mystery of what truly had occur and if there were any survivors. There was a myth that princess Anastasia (sometimes along with Tsarevich Alexei) had had survived but there is not much evidence.

Anyway, the story follows Anastasia and her family in their exile. She describes their life, guard and her family. There is a magical element to the story which I did not anticipate and it was quite a nice move from the author to bring the story to live with a little bit of magical touch.

However, characters did not seem real to me, it all was a bit to pompous. The link between Tsarina and Rasputin was sewn into the magical element which did not ring true to me, and I had hard time to connect. Narration itself was a bit simplistic to my taste.

I wish I enjoyed Romanov more.

I devoured this book. Such a great mix of Historical fiction blended with fantasy!!

The writing is a tad slow and of course that is understandable because Historical fiction takes its own sweet time to seep in!

If you love Historical retellings you are going to love this!

Tropes : forbidden romance
Sort of enemies to lovers

I was really excited about Romanov. It had a great start and the story moved along at a great clip, not too fast or too slow. The writing was good. I enjoyed the writing and I would read another one of Nadine Brandes' books. However, I didn't love this story like I had hoped I would. I don't really have any other reason for that than I just didn't gel with it.

I wanted to love this book. I wanted to be completely invested in Zash and Nastya's relationship, but I wasn't. If Zash and Nastya hadn't ended up together at the end, I honestly would have been fine. I felt zero connection or sympathy I supposed for their relationship. I know I was supposed to but there just wasn't that... fire between them that made me love them.

As far as the plot goes, I did not expect this book to go where Brandes took it to be honest. I couldn't guess a thing. I'm not really sure what I expected from this book, but what I got wasn't anything I would have guessed. Personally, I think this is a good thing. I was really curious about how the magic in this book was supposed to work, and I'm glad Brandes took the time to reveal the mechanics towards the end. After overcoming my initial surprise at how it works (which I can't say because SPOILERS), I liked that she chose something different for those magical mechanics than what you usually see.

It was an interesting choice for the Romanov family to be so focused on forgiving their enemies and not wanting to hurt anyone, including their enemies. This was a theme throughout the entire book. It was a different and fresh take on a dire situation that you don't usually see depicted in books, and I thought Brandes did that really well and convincingly. I loved how Nastya realized at the end that killing her enemies wouldn't make her pain go away and that there is strength in forgiveness, even when forgiveness seems impossible. It was such a beautiful message and one I have never come across and any book that I have ever read. Brandes just communicated this so incredibly well.

Overall, I didn't love Romanov but it's solid book and if you're interested in reading it I would recommend giving it a try.

ROMANOV is a mix historical facts with fiction and a touch of magic. Readers will most be drawn by the protagonist, Nastya, and her fight to protect her family after they've been forced to leave all they know and exiled. With dire circumstances, danger at every turn, and blooming romance, it's a story that tugs on the heart as it builds to a climatic ending.

I loved Nastya from the beginning. She's logical, smart, loyal, but also mischievous and impetuous. I also loved that this is a story about Anastasia, but told in a new way with a touch of magic that came across as believable. The story moves at a steady pace - more on the slower side, so don't expect a page-turner until later on when things become intense. I also appreciated that the romance was secondary and grew over time, from attraction, to two people trying to understand each other, to friendship, and then to the possibility of more. I also liked how the story presented two sides of the historical political turmoil in Russia and how choices and perceptions influenced what happened. I did feel there could have been more cultural richness and even more depth to the characters, but these are minor complaints.

In the end, was it what I wished for? I thoroughly enjoyed reading this! It was interesting, entertaining, with likable characters, and came across as heartfelt. Definitely a story I'd recommend to historical romance fans.

Content: Some violence (it is a revolution), but clean.
Source: I received a complimentary ARC from the publisher, which did not require a positive review nor affect my review in any way.

I had no idea who Anastasia was when I started reading this book. It was an engaging read, but I felt something was missing..

I’ve been fascinated by the Romanovs for decades, and was really looking forward to Brandes’ adaptation. I think her writing is just not for me. The prose was stark and uninteresting. The whole thing felt very one note. I didn’t connect with the characters and felt like I was reading a report based on a wikipedia article for parts of it. I skimmed to the end, and was disappointed with each turn of the page. There are some readers who may enjoy this. I am not one.

Maybe younger readers will enjoy this a lot better. It all comes down to 2 things: anticipation and satisfaction.

When it comes to anticipation I hoped for some mystery, I wanted the words to take me back to a historical Russia. But the language sounded highly contemporary and the mystery was a series of convenient spellings. Then there is the romance... let's put it this way, how can it possibly BE? (view spoiler)

In terms of satisfaction, I was disappointed because the main character was so naive and childish, the conversations did not sound true in the least, there was a lot of telling and no showing - Nastya's father was supposed to be so good (what proof do I have), the royal family was supposed to be so strong, etc. . All we get is a very young girl doing lots of convenient things and thinking too much of what other people think of her, and when a situation arises she simply makes another spell without knowing anything about magic and it works just because. (also (view spoiler))

All this comes from someone who is not even that familiar with the Romanov historical situation (yes, I watched the Disney movie, but that's all I know). I am sure people who are actually into Anastasia retellings might point out a few more things along the way.

1.5 stars. I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Ahhhhh this was great! I loved the magic, I loved the family relationships, and I also adored the romance! It was so fun and good! I love reading about The Romanovs and this retelling was so unique and different, but also fun and interesting! It really kept you hooked on the story, and you were always hoping to find out what happened next, you couldn't put it down! I just really really liked it! It was so great! Solid 4.5/5 stars! There were moments towards the end where I was like "well that is convenient" so those moments I was a bit thrown by this book, but overall it was a fun ride!

A historical fantasy that takes the Romanov myths and expand them to a fantastical realm of magic and spells. The Russian Revolution was not about politics and poverty, it is about magic. Anastasia Romanov is her families final hope after Rasputin is assassinated and her family is placed under house arrest by the Bolsheviks. Nastia had just begun to learn the spell magic that Rasputin knows and her desire to help ease the pain of her brother's hemophilia and help save her family. Set against a historical backdrop, Brandes does a good job of offering up a magical reason for the belief that Anastasia and Alexei Romanov survived the execution of the family. The Romanov family is depicted as gentle and kind and Nikolai is the stoic and caring leader who understands his people and preaches kindness till the end. While I understand that this book is a fantasy and Nastia is clearly the hero of the story, presenting Nikolai and Alexandra as kind and thoughtful makes me squirm. I think Brandes could have presented the Romanov children and a few Bolshevik soldiers in a heroic light without glossing over the anger the Russian people had at Nikolai and Alexandra and the atrocities they committed. I love the characters of Nastia, Alexei and Zash, but the secondary characters are fairly flat and static. All that being said, it is a solid choice for a historical fantasy and those who love the legend of Anastasia will flock to this book.