Skip to main content

Romanov by Nadine Brandes | An Anastasia Retelling

 


 Title: Romanov

Author: Nadine Brandes

Genre: YA | Magic | historical fiction | Retelling


    [Synopsis: The history books say I died.

They don’t know the half of it.


Anastasia “Nastya” Romanov was given a single mission: to smuggle an ancient spell into her suitcase on her way to exile in Siberia. It might be her family’s only salvation. But the leader of the Bolshevik army is after them, and he’s hunted Romanov before.

Nastya’s only chances of saving herself and her family are to either release the spell and deal with the consequences, or enlist help from Zash, the handsome soldier who doesn’t act like the average Bolshevik. Nastya has only dabbled in magic, but it doesn’t frighten her half as much as her growing attraction to Zash. She likes him. She thinks he might even like her.

That is, until she’s on one side of a firing squad . . . and he’s on the other.]

I adore retellings and was so excited to finally pick this read up! It's already so hard to find a good ''Anastasia Retelling'' so it had been on my list as soon as I'd heard about it.

 While I enjoyed the story I do have some mixed feelings overall, so the only way to truly describe this book for me was to do a list of pros and cons.


Pros: 

- A unique retelling, the world building and history was very intruiging and welldone.

- The magical parts were really cool but I wished to know more about it.

- The romance progressed at a pace that I really enjoyed and liked to watch!

- The side characters were some of my favorites and I really missed them by the time I finished the book- I wished there was more to the story just so I could read more about them!

- I did like that the message was clear and well shown throughout the story.


Cons:

- Uhm, I can't spoil for this but the love interest and his actions at a certain point were eh...wow. Like, I get it. But... if it was me I would've done killed the dude.

- I wanted more. Like I love how it ended and all and the story development, but crud y'all I want another book!! I felt like this was a setup for a duology so I kept thinking there'd be another book... now, realizing that it's one standalone novel I wish there had been a bit more for me. 

- REALLY. THAT'S WHERE IT ENDS?!?! *curses and swig of coffee*


Yep, that's...that about covers it. 

I did enjoy reading it, and I was frustrated about somethings but the author still handled it well and I do recommend it. It's not a forever favorite for me, but I know several people that adore it all the way. 

So give it a try and let me know you're thoughts!


 Have you read Romanov? What were your thoughts? Do you have any Anastasia retellings you could recommend me?? PLEASE???

I'm not begging I swear...


My rating:


Hope y'all have a lovely day lovelies!! <3

NoelW

 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Library Love | 1st Post

Hi guys, so my friend Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear? did a post that I thought was really cool and I would want to start doing. Basically whenever I go to the library, I share in a blog post what I got and hope to read! I think this is meant to be like once every two or three weeks, but I actually only get to go to my library probably once a month... SO.... yeah haha. But whenever I do go, from now on I'll be doing a little blog post for you guys! :D                  ~             ~             ~             ~               ~                ~ So here's what I think they call a ''Library Book Haul''? I'm not for sure, I may be on BookTube but I am...

Olivia Twist by Lorie Langdon

Title: Olivia Twist Author: Lorie Langdon Published: March 6th, 2018 Synopsis:     Olivia Twist is an innovative reimagining of Charles Dickens' classic tale Oliver Twist, in which Olivia was forced to live as a boy for her own safety until she was rescued from the streets. Now eighteen, Olivia finds herself at a crossroads: revealed secrets threaten to destroy the "proper" life she has built for herself, while newfound feelings for an arrogant young man she shouldn't like could derail her carefully laid plans for the future.    Olivia Brownlow is no damsel in distress. Born in a workhouse and raised as a boy among thieving London street gangs, she is as tough and cunning as they come. When she is taken in by her uncle after a caper gone wrong, her life goes from fighting and stealing on the streets to lavish dinners and soirees as a debutante in high society. But she can’t seem to escape her past … or forget the teeming slums where children ju...

Scythe by Neal Shusterman | Review + Q & A

Hello lovely peoples! I have a book review to share with you, and at the bottom (after the review) will be a little Q & A section. Because my friend Desara also nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award, and I feel bad about not answering her questions- because I'd already done the tag when my friend Tessa nominated me. (That was a mouthfull, Lol.) So book review first! *         *         *        *         *   Scythe by Neal Shusterman!! Synopsis: Thou shalt kill. A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequ...