You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
slow-paced
I was really looking forward to Anastasia as a fantasy retelling and heard many great reviews of people who enjoyed this book. Unfortunately, this was not my experience. The story seemed unnecessarily drawn out and felt as though it was 300 pages too long. The pace of the story finally picked up around 70% of the way through, but even that didn’t bump it up to more than a three-star rating for me.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I want to preface this review with a few notes.
1. This is my first Sophie Lark book. She’s come highly recommended to me by several friends and I was excited to finally get to one of her books.
2. This book is rooted in both real life and fantasy. It takes place in the 1910s, and with any fantasy or time based novel, there is some world building required.
3. I was already familiar with the tragic story of the Romanovs going in. Of course my initial introduction was the Anastasia animated film, then the history of the Romanov’s growing up, and then just the tid bits of information later on.
- - - Review - - -
I won’t lie, it took me a while to get into this book. I don’t typically DNF anything, but for a good chunk at the beginning, it was too easy for me to put this book down and do just about anything else. Perhaps it was because we start when Anastasia is about 10 years old and go through a chunk of the book with her as a child and preteen. The world building was phenomenal as a history buff, however it took a lot out of me. I was ready for an inciting incident.
I was hooked 45%, and read the remaining 10 hours in about 2 days. The first plot twist, sent me into a spiral. It’s well known that Rasputin was a terrible person. He’s like that in every translation. I was not expecting him to be a Vampyre though. I guess it makes sense. Anastasia watching all of her friends and family be brutally murdered was devastating, and watching the fall of the empire under Rasputins rule. It was crazy the twists that happened around the 60% mark.
We flash forward a year with Anastasia having survived the butchering and recovering to the best of her ability. The girl is STUBBORN, and it works for her. It’s what kept her going. She was a proper little princess turned into a nobody and went from prim to scarred, dirty, and starving. When she got sent to the mine, I actually gained some hope. Anastasia for all her faults, was very people focused. If anyone could find the Charloite it was her, and she did. She’s human enough that she quickly understood the consequences of the rock, and came up with a plan to rid the world of it.
- Anastasia and Damien -
This was a s l o w burn. Literally enemies to friends, to lovers. I wanted them from their first interaction. You could feel their pull and chemistry through the page. We did of course need to wait for them to be an appropriate age for anything
1. This is my first Sophie Lark book. She’s come highly recommended to me by several friends and I was excited to finally get to one of her books.
2. This book is rooted in both real life and fantasy. It takes place in the 1910s, and with any fantasy or time based novel, there is some world building required.
3. I was already familiar with the tragic story of the Romanovs going in. Of course my initial introduction was the Anastasia animated film, then the history of the Romanov’s growing up, and then just the tid bits of information later on.
- - - Review - - -
I won’t lie, it took me a while to get into this book. I don’t typically DNF anything, but for a good chunk at the beginning, it was too easy for me to put this book down and do just about anything else. Perhaps it was because we start when Anastasia is about 10 years old and go through a chunk of the book with her as a child and preteen. The world building was phenomenal as a history buff, however it took a lot out of me. I was ready for an inciting incident.
I was hooked 45%, and read the remaining 10 hours in about 2 days. The first plot twist, sent me into a spiral. It’s well known that Rasputin was a terrible person. He’s like that in every translation. I was not expecting him to be a Vampyre though. I guess it makes sense. Anastasia watching all of her friends and family be brutally murdered was devastating, and watching the fall of the empire under Rasputins rule. It was crazy the twists that happened around the 60% mark.
We flash forward a year with Anastasia having survived the butchering and recovering to the best of her ability. The girl is STUBBORN, and it works for her. It’s what kept her going. She was a proper little princess turned into a nobody and went from prim to scarred, dirty, and starving. When she got sent to the mine, I actually gained some hope. Anastasia for all her faults, was very people focused. If anyone could find the Charloite it was her, and she did. She’s human enough that she quickly understood the consequences of the rock, and came up with a plan to rid the world of it.
- Anastasia and Damien -
This was a s l o w burn. Literally enemies to friends, to lovers. I wanted them from their first interaction. You could feel their pull and chemistry through the page. We did of course need to wait for them to be an appropriate age for anything
The book kept me consistently interested in Anastasia’s court life from childhood to adulthood with a steady stream of romance with an enemy childhood friend with a dash of magic and a fantasy retelling. Rasputin is also an intriguing villain.
Oh man I would write a whole review on why I think this book is awful but I’ve wasted wayyy too much to much of my life already by reading all 849 pages of this book
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was better than a 3 star book, just not quite a full 4.
The illustrations however, full four+. I had the book instead of digital, so black and white only, but still so awesome!
The illustrations however, full four+. I had the book instead of digital, so black and white only, but still so awesome!
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes