Title: The Storyteller
Author: Kathryn Williams
Genre: Historical fiction, YA, mystery/thriller
Rating: 4.2 out of 5

It’s not every day you discover you might be related to Anastasia…or that the tragic princess actually survived her assassination attempt and has been living as the woman you know as Aunt Anna.

For Jess Morgan, who is growing tired of living her life to please everyone else, discovering her late aunt’s diaries shows her she’s not the only one struggling to hide who she really is. But was her aunt truly a Romanov princess? Or is this some elaborate hoax?

With the help of a supremely dorky, but undeniably cute, local college student named Evan, Jess digs into the century-old mystery.

But soon Jess realizes there’s another, bigger truth waiting to be revealed: Jess Morgan. Because if she’s learned anything from Aunt Anna, it’s that only you can write your own story.

I enjoyed this read! It was sweet and fun and I was completely engrossed in the mystery—and both Jess’s story and Aunt Anna’s kept me intrigued. I liked Jess’s friends…but I couldn’t stand her boyfriend. Evan was a lot more relatable and fun. This makes a good weekend binge-read.

Kathryn Williams lives in Maine. The Storyteller is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of HarperCollins Children's Books, HarperTeen in exchange for an honest review.)

An intriguing premise, that plays out across the pages. The stories of the Romanovs always seem to be captivating no matter how many retellings I come across. This one however was unique in the story of Jess and Anna, imposter syndrome, family traumas and the reality of who we have to be in order to survive the world. This is a nice novel, with likeable MCs even if they are also incredibly frustrating sometimes. Similar to how Kate Morton blends past and present, historical fiction fans will enjoy this. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Anything relating to Anastasia and the story of the lost princess always appeals to me. Reading the synopsis of this book I was so excited and couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Upon reading it I found it a little disappointing at some parts, however, I still enjoyed the book quite a bit.

The protagonist Jess is a bit of a people pleaser. She's always doing whatever the people around her want to do, becoming whoever it is they want her to be. She's trying to be the perfect daughter, girlfriend, best friend, etc. and everyone around her wants different things from her. When she discovers a trunk full of old journals in her great-aunt's attic she becomes intrigued. She posts a notice looking to hire someone fluent in Russian to help her translate them and meets Evan, a college student. Upon translating the first journal they find out that they were seemingly written by the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov herself.

The premise of this story is SO fun. Unfortunately the main character is just, not so fun. She spends a lot of her time with really unlikable people (her boyfriend and his friends) and is constantly upset with it, yet doesn't do anything to change it until Evan becomes a part of her life. Also there was a lot going on with her family and life in general that could have had more focus but most of the book is spent focusing on the content of Anastasia's journals and so any character development that could happen there is swept under the rug.
Also the romance in this developed a little fast for my taste but honestly, that's realistic for teenagers the same age as Jess.

The journal entries are so enjoyable to read though. I really enjoyed reading from Anastasia's perspective and the mystery of "Is it actually her or not?"
I also really enjoyed that it took place in 2007- when the bodies of the 2 missing Romanov family members were actually found and how that affected the story. I love how much real detail was part of the book.

While the characters were a little lacking in personality and could have been more developed, there was still a lot that was enjoyable. The story was paced well and the writing easy and fun to read.

3 Stars

There is a lot of history and a lot of heart in this novel and healthy dose of mystery and I think that's why it was so entertaining to read. The twin struggles of Jess and Anastasia/Anna were deeply compelling.

The only thing that fell sort of flat for me was some of the actual dialogue and some of the interactions between Jess and Evan. They make a great pair, but the fights seemed really strange and were resolved in ways that felt unsatisfying.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and think fans of historical fiction and mysteries will too!

** I received this book in exchange of an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley.

Jess Morgan feels like a fraud in many aspects of her life. Her boyfriend, family, and friends don't see the real her. Everyone sees what they want from her. When she's helping her mother clean out her great aunt's house, Jess discovers a chest full of journals in Russian. Desperate to understand the words on each page, Jess posts a job to translate them. A college student studying Russian named Evan answers the email. Together the two of them start to unravel the story of Aunt Anna's journal and the possible life altering mystery within.

The book takes place in 2007 and each chapter is given a date so we know when in Jess' life each chapter takes place. The story in the journal does seem to take up most of the book and only gives little snippets of Jess's life in exchange. While I always feel myself drawn to all things Romanov, this book didn't quite capture my full attention. The dual stories brought it to an interesting end that really pulls on the idea of what truth is. We each tell our own truth, whether it's the entire story or not. I do wish that there was more to Jess's love of writing to really get her passion for it across.

This book has the possibility to bring the magic of Anastasia and the Romanov family to a new generation of those trying to find their own stories.

How well do you really know your relatives?

Summer break from high school becomes a mystery to unravel when Jess Morgan finds an old trunk full of personal journals written in Russian at her recently deceased aunt’s house. A quest ensues to understand the fragmented story left behind and learn the true identity of her mysterious relative.

Told in dual timelines with the journals tying the present to the past, we see how each character shapes her identity to the people around her. In the present, we learn how Jess is studious, but maybe not perfect enough for her mom and certainly not the “cool girl” she pretends to be for her boyfriend. In the past, we meet Jess’s aunt, who may be Anastasia Romanov, the lost and last Russian royal. But, if that’s true, how did Aunt Anna survive her family’s assassination and land in a sleepy town in the US?

During this summer of playing detective, our bookish protagonist learns to accept herself, speak up for what she wants, and stop pretending. The story serves up positive messages of being true to ourselves, but the fun of the story for me was definitely during the historic timeline as the mystery of Jess’s aunt unfolds.

Rating: 3.5/5

I am a total sucker for all things Romanov. I thought that I couldn't read one more book of the "missing sister" but I was wrong. This YA novel was fantastic! I am not usually a fan of a YA novel but this one intrigued me. I loved the relationship between Jess and Evan. It was so innocent and fun to watch develop.

We start with Jess and her boyfriend, Ryan who is a jock and popular. Jess and Ryan are childhood friends that turn into something more . Their families have been friends since they were little so it just made sense to everyone except Jess. She was not who she wanted to be when she was with Ryan.

I also enjoyed the real friendship of Katie and Jess. They loved each other and fought each other like sisters. It's hard when a boy comes into the picture and they navigated that the best that they could. I love the honest-ness of Katie. We all need a friend like her in our corner.

Back to Jess, Evan and the journals! Kathryn Williams knows how to tell a story and keep you interested. I loved the time travel and the descriptions of the Romanov era. They had me at meeting in a cemetery--my love of cemeteries and history runs deep. This part of the book spoke deeply to me. "This is my favorite reading spot. Feels fitting, with all of the stories buried here, history literally below our feet."

I am excited to read the next adventure (if there is one) by Kathryn Williams. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. Happy Pub Day!

The Storyteller will be an exciting story for some, but for me, it just felt like too many others I've read.

I'm a big fan of books about the Romanovs - retellings, fantasy imagings, and the occasional nonfiction. If a book mentions Anastasia, there's a good chance I'll add it to my TBR. Unfortunately, that also means I've read a lot of stories with similar plotlines. This book fell into that category.

I think the most exciting thing about the story for me, personally, was the dual timelines. They were really well done, and I enjoyed that part of the story. Getting to read Anna's diary entries was the highlight of this book.

Overall, I really don't have strong enough feelings either way on this to write a long review. It was alright, and I'm not sure how much of it I'll remember six months from now, but I'm sure there's a lot of people who will really enjoy it.

I received an advance copy from HarperCollins and NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

*I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harper Collins for this ARC!*

I love historical fiction, and after reading I Am Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon a few years ago, I am now very intrigued by the women who have claimed to be Anastasia Romanov over the years. This book was a very interesting take on this part of history!

I was not expecting a large part of this book to take place in 2007. I believe the author chose this time period because of when the bodies of the two missing Romanov children were finally discovered, which I found to be smart and fascinating. I actually really enjoyed how the book hopped back and forth in time from 2007 to the 1910s/1920s. This is often something that bothers me in books, as it takes me out of the flow of the story, but I thought Williams did a fantastic job with making the story very fluid.

I liked that the book was a mixture of historical fiction, mystery and romance. I really enjoy when books are multiple genres. It was dynamic and kept me engaged and wanting to know what was going to happen next.

I was a fan of Jess, and was rooting for her and Evan, but I did find her relationships with her boyfriend and best friend to be a bit lacking in this book. I wish that the author had either gone deeper on those relationships or axed them altogether. It was fun to see Jess start to discover more about herself as she learned more about her Aunt Anna.

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, especially anything to do with the Russian Revolution. I hope this book gets the attention that I feel it deserves!

My Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I gave The Storyteller 4 Stars!

Anastasia-inspired stories have always appealed to me, so I was quite excited to see what this one had to offer! And it was enjoyable, even though I had some mixed feelings. Let's break it down!

What I Liked:

►Without saying too much, I liked the direction the story ended up taking. Sometimes, stories that are inspired by the Romanov family can come off as... insensitive, considering they're a real family, gone for barely a century. And I'll say that I worried a bit when this one started. But if you are worried about that, I think that it ended up going in a direction that worked.

►It was cool that the author included a lot of authentic historical components. I really enjoyed the historical aspects. While I'd heard the story of Anna Anderson, there were a lot of other new-to-me tidbits from the time around and after the murders that were quite interesting.

►There was a lot of character growth. While Jess was kind of infuriating to me in the beginning (see below), she really did grow a lot during the course of the story. Finding out who her aunt was helped Jess find her own authentic self, which is great.

What I Didn't:

►Honestly, Jess just felt quite blah to me most of the time. I mean, when I started, I straight up couldn't stand her, honestly. She just... became whatever she thought people wanted her to be, and that was frustrating. I admit to not fully understanding this sort of thinking, but because she spent so much time not being her authentic self, I guess I never got a real sense of who she was as a person? She just felt a little generic to me. I think had I connected to her more, perhaps I would have been more engaged in the story as a whole.

Bottom Line: Unique twist on the Anastasia lore, with some great messages about being your true, authentic self.

"History is a story we tell ourselves" is a line from the Storyteller by Kathryn Williams. This is a tale of Jess, a teenage writer that comes upon a trunk of diaries written in Greek from her Aunt Anna. Jess has typical teen girl problems, her best friend doesn't seem to gel with her boyfriend and vice versa. However, the over arcing narrative is who Jess is and who Jess deserves to be as a person and writer. What her story will become. Jumping between the Jess/Anna stories are really engaging and neither overstay their welcome. It makes for a very engaging read. I recommend the Storyteller for anyone needing a book that will get them back into reading or having problems holding their attention span, it has great back and forth pacing for adhd readers.

I've always loved the potential Unsolved Mysteries element of the Anastasia Romanov story-- this YA novel draws on that source material while also maintaining some of the traditional elements of a teen romance. A quick and fun read. #NetGalleyARC

4.5/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.
I could NOT put this book down. It’s historical fiction at it’s finest- plus some romance, teen drama and self-discovery. I love the story the author paints, both the present day and the one told in the diaries. The author does such a great job at sharing the MC’s internal struggle and dialogue with the reader that you develop a close connection with the MC. I also really enjoyed the Post Script after the main story was over that tied everything up in a neat little package with a pretty bow.
All things considered, everyone should do themselves a favor and read this book.

Loved this one - a dual-timeline coming of age story. I loved the parallels to Russian history. Beautiful. Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
When a young woman discovers a trunk of old diaries left by her great aunt she uncovers a mystery that will change her life. Was her aunt Anastasia Romanov, Russia's Imperial Princess? And how will her discovery affect how she views herself? A good, solid read.

I am so glad I read this book. The history the story how interwoven everything is. If you love Russian history, even if you don’t you should read this book. You are pulled into the mystery of Anastasia. At one point I thought everything was figured out the story was done but I loved the twist the ending was fantastic. I have to add this to my school library! If you like historical fiction you will like this book. I learned so much about the Russian royal family that I did not know and the story flows so nicely it it hard to put down.

Anything with Anastasia tends to draw me in, so this book was one I was looking forward to read just having that element. The storyline was fine enough, I didn't love the main character which made the storyline sometimes difficult. There were a couple side characters that were more enjoyable. The dual timelines helped the story, and kept you interested especially when you went back in time and such, plus it was nice to see the similarities throughout each of their lives yet in different timelines. The writer did a good job of weaving the story to keep you invested, but overall it wasn't a favorite. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating, and rounded down because it wasn't strong enough to be a 4 star. Overall, a decent read and if you're a fan of Anastasia it's an enjoyable book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

This dual timeline story was very interesting. I think that for the most part this was a pretty good story. I think that it would make one killer movie that I would totally watch! As a book I felt that the dual POV was off just a little. Like I was reading two completely different stories. Which I guess you really were. This one was also very discerption heavy so be warned. I liked the characters and I think I would read another story by this person. I also have loved new stories about the lost princess.

Highly recommend this book! This was my first book to read by this author and I can't wait to read more! The characters and the story stay with you long after you finish the book. One of the best books I have read in a long time.

I request so many books on NetGalley that sometimes I start one with no clue what it's going to be about. This was one of those books, and from the first few pages, I expected it to be a pretty standard realistic YA novel about a teenaged girl who is constantly pretending to be someone she's not so she can fit in. But pretty quickly, the story pivots and I immediately realized why I had requested it - there's a huge part of this story that's about Russian history, specifically the figure of Anastasia Romanov. Jess, the aforementioned teenaged girl, is in between her junior and senior years of high school, struggling to balance her relationships with her best friend, her long time boyfriend (who barely knows the real her and who she doesn't really seem to like), and her parents. Her parents are always at odds with one another, and her mother is very pushy and has made most of Jess's decisions for her. She goes with her mom to clean out the attic of her great-great-aunt Anna's house in their town (Keene, NH) and she discovers a trunk full of journals, all written in Russian. Jess is a creative writer, a storyteller,. and she wants to know if her great-great-aunt might have been the same, so she recruits Evan, a Russian major from the local university to help her translate the journals. He's shocked to go through the first few journals and see that the person writing the journals was ostensibly Anastasia Romanov, and they get caught up in the story and the mystery. I liked this a lot - it has the sort of standard "finding myself" YA tropes but they're woven into this bigger story about figuring out who you are and where you fit and what story you tell the world.