Romanov

Initial Thoughts: I am not sure what I was expecting with this but I had read mixed reviews. I love the story of Anastasia and was excited about seeing this magical take on it. However, I felt like this book failed to explain the magic system and did not do a good job of building up the world. We were thrust into the story with little explanation. I feel there was a lot lacking with the story and it was just not a good fit for me.

A book that I would have probably liked better when I was younger. Brandes takes the story of the last few months of the Romanov's lives and adds magic and a romance between Anastasia and a guard called Zash. She had obviously researched the period thoroughly, but I wasn't entirely convinced by the magical elements. To me it felt like an unfortunate hybrid between real history and fantasy. The magic and the secret magical history of Russia wasn't really explained, and it was as if you were diving into a second book in a series. I wanted a bit more world building and description. Why did the Bolsheviks ban magic? However, this may have been a deliberate choice to normalise the magic elements.

The first part takes place in the quarters where the family is held and can be quite dry at times, contrasting with the fast pace of the second part. First part Nastya is actually quite annoying, but I think she's probably quite true to life!

Anyway, I just want to say that whilst this wasn't my cup of tea, it does have some charming elements particularly in the second half and would probably appeal much more to fans of ya fantasy/magic novels with a romantic twist. This is not a genre I tend to read much of though (I am so old and decrepit ya didn't really exist when I was a young adult!).

Did not finish it because not even the historical setting could save it from being very young adult.
I wanted to enjoy this more than I did, the cover is still amazingly lovely, but somehow it was too much of angsty romance and the protagonist being a bit of a special little unique angel. This is not me getting an asshole at the real life people in the book, hopefully I don't have to tell anyone why harming children is bad even if you hide behind lies about how it's totally for equality and the benefit of the people (I don't want to go too much into politics, but yeah, look at how that big equality and sharing turned out for millions of people... ), but this book really wasn't for me at all.