I'm a sucker for retellings and for fairytales and for Don Bluth's 1997 animated classic Anastasia. It was only fate that this title fell into my lap and I was charmed by it. It made me feel nostalgic. However, I was thrown by the ahistorical nature of the parts that occur. Of course, when throwing fantasy elements in, there is always going to be ahistorical elements. It happens in the Anastasia film, even, to a huge extent. Though, in the case of Romanov, the historical nature of the novel takes up a larger portion than the fairytale element. Because of this divide, I would have preferred to see more care paid to the historical details in the first portion of the story. That said, it was still a fun read and I do not regret picking it up.

I really liked this book!
I hadn’t read any books set in Russia (or at least none I can remember) before, so it was exciting to read about the Romanovs.
The plot was fast paced and well executed.
Overall a quick and fun read, perfect for lovers of historical fiction!

DNF @ 12%

I don't know if it was me during the times I attempted to read this novel or if it was the book, but I struggled to really get a foothold in this story. I'm certainly not done with trying as I want to get into this book so badly, but I figured it best to put it aside for a few months and try again when I'm in a different mindset since it hasn't worked the last couple of times. If I'm able to get into it, I'll update my review then.

I have always had a slight obsession with the Romanovs and the mystery surrounding the missing Romanov sister. History of course has told us that all of the Romanov Imperial family did die at the hands of the Bolshevik army, however this YA novel explores an alternative option. Nadine Brandes' title "Romanov" places magic and intrigue in the world of the royal family.

Anastasia is given an ancient spell that she must carry with her on her journey to Siberia while she is under house arrest with her family. The secret of this spell could be the only thing that could save her family's life. With the help of Zash (the super attractive Bolshevik soldier who is more than just your typical Bolshevik soldier) what ensues is a tale of fantasy that reimagines what Romanov family experienced towards the end of their lives.

The idea and the concept of magic was great. I loved the retelling aspect of this. This was a DNF at 30%. It was just so slow. I kept finding my self stopping and picking up other books in between chapters. I wasn’t attached to any of the characters, they all seemed very flat. Maybe I would have liked it more if I would have suffered through until the second half.

Thank you NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This makes me so, so sad because I had all the reasons in the world to want to fall in love with this book. I wanted to promote the heck out of it, but I think it ends with this review.

For starters, I was so excited to have received a galley of this book since the premise sounded amazing and I couldn’t wait to read this Anastasia story with magic. But I couldn’t get past the first few chapters. I think it was another case of what happened with Nevernight. It may just not have been the right time for me.

I had problems with the pacing
Life has gotten super busy lately, so I want to be able to read on the go and for the stories I read to be read quickly. So when I realize it’s taking too long to read a story… It tends to get drawn out while I read other books. I liked the characters and was really looking forward to seeing the conflict develop, but for me it was taking a bit too long, so I had to pause it.

For example, at first there was so much tension going on, what with the Romanov’s confined in one place and then the announcement that her father was being taken somewhere else. I knew there was so much at stake and that it wouldn’t end well, but I just wasn’t feeling it as much as I should have to keep going.



I loved the siblings
Specially the relationship between Anastasia and her brother. She was so concerned for him, and even I got really scared for him, being vulnerable in such an already difficult situation. I wanted them to succeed and for him to feel better and be happy. His character was one of the high points of what I read.



Coincidentally, I also started watching the Netflix documentary about the Romanovs and I loved seeing the parallels between the story and the real lives of these people. It breaks my heart how things ended, and I might just pick this book up in the future again just to see how the author ends it.



This is a book that while I didn’t finish it, I don’t feel like discouraging people from reading. I completely feel like it was a case of ‘it’s me, not you’.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review.  I think that I have read a few tales based on the Romanov and see the movies. Even knowing all that I was not prepared for all the twists and turns that happen in here. She has to convince Zash who is a soldier to help her. There were times that just made my heart and pulse race. I am going to have to read more by this author. I always enjoy it.

I fought to get this book finished and it was well worth it. It may be the longest I’ve taken to read a book. I read this from MAY 5 to AUGUST 21. woof. that’s a hella long time. Usually if a book takes that long, I drop it. I’m going to take a second to explain why it’s taken so long and then I’ll dive into talking about the book(you know, the actual point of this post)
Let me lay out my summer for you. I got the book on May 5, started reading it immediately/ May 7, I had a college visit which ruled out all reading for the time being. Every day I didn’t have something going I was working, and that was back when my shifts were shorter so I had a little reading time. BUUUUT then I went to Texas for my brother’s graduation, and that was the last time I touched the book before, well, now. I read a little bit on the trip and when I got back I actually mailed the book to the next human in the traveling ARC tour. I knew it would take me awhile longer to read it and I did have an ebook copy too. Long story short, since then I have started a second job, started working longer hours at my first job, my brother got married, and I moved out of my parents house. So…. Basically no reading time. But! Despite all this, I managed to finally read the last 70% of this book last night and this morning.
Okay, this is supposed to be a review of a book someone wrote, not me writing a novel of excuses. :P
this book is entirely captivating and heartbreaking, and everything I wanted and needed from it. I was obsessed with Anastasia as a younger human(who wasn’t tho??) and when I heard the premise of this book it was all I needed to get me obsessed with this book. And, well, it didn’t disappoint.
I think that this book has a lot of strengths. It’s two main strengths however, are the characters and the history. The history, which is the aspect of the book that most people come in looking for, had to be perfection. It had to be true enough to sell the idea of the story, to make it seem real, but have space for the liberties that were taken in the story telling. It was exactly that. The story was well researched and well written, with all of the complexity of this time in history and adding in the complexity of the magic system. I think Anastasia is the perfect legend for this, because of the mystery in certain parts that allow for the liberties taken.
I loved the characters. Each one, complex and jumping off the page. The guards at Ipatiev House, seemingly unreachable at first, but human at their core, slowly softening until everyone at the House was just human. The Romanovs were no longer royalty, just human. The guards were just human. I loved the relationships forged in such close quarters and rooted for them all. I loved the blossoming relationships between Maria and Ivan, Zash and Nastya.
The plot that wraps everything together, the history, the characters, the plot that drives the story, was full of twists and turns and in the end, it’s what you expect but yet not at all. Here’s the thing. We all know how this story ends. Anyone who knows anything about Anastasia knows what goes down in that basement. But that just makes it have all the more impact. You know what’s coming, but you can’t help but fall in love with those it’s coming for.
I think it’s important to examine the structure of the magic system. It’s very straight forward, and it doesn’t take over the story. It’s important, and help drives it, but I think that it takes a seat when we need history, or character, or anything else to drive the story. It’s a great support to the story and I think in that way it’s really good. I’m actually glad it didn’t have a bigger path in the story, because I loved the historical aspect and the relationships that happened while they waited on the magic. The system itself, I think, is well built. It’s not crazy complex, but I think that’s good, because a mistake a lot of writers make is making their magic system too complex and then even just trying to understand it takes over a lot of the story.
I loved the strong ties of family that really drives the story. In the first half, we really have the whole family and just seeing how they loved each other and how nothing else mattered but that, family. I think that is such a wonderful thing to read and feel. I loved so much about the family, and the relationships between the siblings and the parents and just that they would do absolutely anything for each other.
Another aspect I think is so wonderful is well, the romance. We all know I’m a fan of slow burn romance…. Well, this delivered! I loooooved the slowburn. IT’S GOTTA SLOW BURN SO MUCH IT HURTS, Y’ALL. Like, we all know they’re in love but they’re stubborn and also have a lot going on. Soo good. When it finally does happen, it’s so, so great. Very great.
Well, now that I’ve basically written a novel about how great this book is, it’s up to you to read it! It’s got it all, action, adventure, romance, extremeheartbreakthatwillinfactmakeyoucry, and just the most wonderful character dynamics. READ IT.

I finished this in a few hours and it was such a great read! I've always found the Romanov family and Russian Revolution to be extremely interesting. The story includes a lot of details related to the Revolution without getting too bogged down in it and gives a glimpse into a deeply flawed system of government that was doomed to fail from the beginning.

A historical retelling of Anastasia and the Romanov family with the promise of magic and an absolutely gorgeous cover - how could you not want to read this, right? What I got was a blatantly biased and vague historical retelling, with no explanation or real development of the magic and spell making process until the very end. This might be more suitable for a younger audience, not necessarily interested or knowledgable of Russian history.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for providing a digital copy in return for an honest, unbiased review.

This was such an interesting story to read. I know very little about the Romanov history and this book not only made me keen to find out more, it kept me engrossed throughout. I think the romance between Nastya and Zash was well written and I loved the setting.

I wanted to like this as a retelling but unfortunately it fell a bit short on realism. I did very much enjoy the light romance, and I love the cover so I might pick it up again...

A great take on the Romanovs we know from history books, I learned a lot and enjoyed the story ! Just as good as the authors previous book Fawkes, if not better !

Romanov was a fantastic read! Historical fiction with a magical twist...I loved it! It’s set in the Russian revolution, following the royal family in exile. I loved the setting, the magic style was so we’ll thought out it had me captivated from the start! I loved the characters, I was attached to most of them and at times this made it so much more heartbreaking! It’s well worth a read - full review on my blog soon!

It as weird to me that 2/3 of this book was just a basic biography of the Romanov family, and it wasn’t til the last 100 pages that we actually got to something new. I do think it’s informative and a novel that some people would enjoy, but for me it was kind of a miss.

The fantasy aspect also wasn’t very prominent which was very disappointing.

Great book if you don't know the original plot of Anastasia (might give away spoilers)

Getting past the first few chapters was a great struggle and many people faced the same thing . I couldn't get on with the pace for the first few chapters.

Overall , the book was good. The characters were amazin and the execution was perfect.

Thanks NetGalley for offering this E-ARC for review.

I was grateful to receive a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Unfortunately, it has taken me much longer than anticipated to finish this book. However, I am very happy to finally be able to share my thoughts. As always, the opinions expressed within this review are completely my own.

I am not sure I can put into words how much I enjoyed this book once I managed to sit down and read it! Having not yet read Fawkes I wasn’t sure what to expect from Brandes storytelling of real events from history. However, I had nothing to worry about as the way that this book is written and how the story unfolds is just amazing. Yes, aspects of this book are completely fictional, but they are woven together seamlessly.

Let’s start with Nastya – she has always been a character from history that I am super interested about and one day I would love to read all the history books written about her so I can learn more For now, I have this interpretation of her, and I adored the strength and resilience she was given throughout the book. We also get to follow her, and her family, through their exile in Siberia. Getting a glimpse into their everyday life and the physical and emotional challenges they had to endure.

It is evident that a lot of research went into the writing of this book. Not only to inform the timeline for the story and characters but also to seamlessly weave the magical aspects into this factual work. I had worried the introduction of a magical aspect may be jarring. However, the methods used to incorporate it into the story in the form of spell ink, a matryoshka doll and other everyday items simply make it a part of the story. Reading the synopsis, you would be forgiven for thinking this book would focus solely on Nastya, and while we view the story from her perspective we are also introduced to numerous other characters and their stories. Each of which is well developed and adds another layer to the story.

Throughout the book the historical events are treated with sensitivity while not shying away from the harsh reality of how events unfolded. Yes, large changes are made, otherwise we would be without this amazing story but for once the deviation from historical accuracy hasn’t irritated me. Instead, for me, it made the book even better. It allowed a narrative to be formed and a story told.

Nastya. I know “strong protagonists” are getting (slightly?) overrated but this girl. Possibly one of my favorite characters EVER. So much strength and softness and overall girl power. In other words, you should read this book. I know some Goodreads people have called it a disappointment, and maybe it would be if you went into it with preconceived notions (Rasputin is the bad guy, it takes place after the execution, etc.). So don’t. Go in with an open mind and heart and prepare to have your life changed. Bravo, Nadine!!

Enjoyed this book, but had a hard time getting into it at first, not sure why.

Would recommend it for fans of historical fiction, particularly those set in the Romanov era of Russian history. Definitely a unique spin on the story of Anastasia Romanov and enjoyed the fantasy aspects, but something was just missing for me.

Full review on blog!

Romanov was an anticipated release for me this year since I found Fawkes, another book by the author, to be so refreshing. Alas, there was something missing from Romanov. Some of this was due to tone, in my opinion. The first half of the book seemed drastically different from the ending.

When reading the first part of the novel, you might feel that this is just straight historical fiction about the Romanov family while the magic is confined to the back half. I think, no matter what your expectations were going in, one of these halves did not work for you. Either you really wanted the book to lean into the fantasy or you wanted it to stay truthful. I think it would have been beneficial to weave in some of the magic towards the beginning.

Though there was that disparity in tone, I still found much of the novel to be enjoyable. There is something about the Romanov family that has apparently clicked with so many people that any story about them will be intriguing, as was the case here. I didn't find it to be as strong as Fawkes but I still look forward to more from Nadine Brandes.