Romanov

by Nadine Brandes

[duchessofdiscord]

Let me start with, overall, I liked it. To an extent. I know I’m being overly critical with this book; as the subject matter of the Romanovs is near and dear to my heart. I feel I must; so there’s that out of the way.

Honestly, it lacked quite a bit in the character development. The characters, especially anyone who isn’t Anastasia or Zash, come off as flat and stoic. Even the Anastasia and Zash lack munched needed growth, and friendship/relationship they have seems so unbelievably rushed.

As for the world building/setting, meh, at best. So much wasted potential. Unfortunately the important things got lost in the vague and relatively confusing information that was presented.

Then there’s the plot. Which, honestly, felt a bit disjointed, and did quite make it whole. It started slow, which was nice at first, but then the first half dragged on, to a point where I considered DNF-ing the book. And the second half takes off crazy fast, and rushes through so much of, honestly, the most important plot and character development; which was kind of unreal. My other issue, some of the plot just seemed so contrived to me.

What I did enjoy was how the author portrayed how the Imperial family’s daily lives more of less unravelled at the seams before their very eyes. As heart breaking as it was, the fact that it wasn’t sugar coated, worked, and worked well. I enjoyed Anastasia’s spirit, and tenacity; her love and loyalty to her family.