Romanov

‘Romanov' by Nadine Brandes was a great book. I listened to the audiobook and absolutely love the way the narrator read it.
This book is action-packed, emotional, funny, and brave. As someone who has been interested in the lives of the Romanov family, and has read many other books about them, I was doubtful going into this book that I would like it. I was afraid that adding the element of magic and spell masters would overshadow the real events that the Romanovs faced in their last years. The way that Nadine wove the true events with magic and spells was breathtaking. The magical aspect didn't take anything away from the story and made it a great read.
While I normally steer clear of romance, the relationships within this story were beautifully crafted.
I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in Russian history or the Romanov family read this asap.

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.

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.

Nastya and her family are living in exile. The former royal family now live in squalor, guarded by Bolshevics. Spell casters are being hunted.

This book sounds great if that was what it was mainly about. Unfortunately, this book is way too sappy. The romance, and the goodness of the Romanovs was just too much for me.

If you like characters that are good and pure, and vomit-inducing romance, this book is for you. I will stick to grimdark!!

I received a copy from Net Galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The first 30% of this book was fantastic. It sucked me into the story. It intrigued me. Then from 30%-60% It lost steam. It bored me. It felt repetitive. I tired of reading about the same things. The windows. The food. The guards. The (maybe or maybe not) rescue. I came close to throwing in the towel. However, at 60% the story picked up again. In fact, from 60% onwards the story moves at the speed of light which left me wishing we had gotten less page space devoted to them being prisoners and more story development after the “escape.”

So yea, this one ended up being a mixed bag for me. It wasn't a bad story, but I think it could have been better.

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!).