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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
3.5 stars. A book with and interesting premise and fresh perspective on this tale. There were more open door scenes than I expected (not my vibe) and the writing was a little choppy. But the story was intriguing.
This is the best book I have read in a long time.
3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is the first Sophie Lark book I have read and it was a little underwhelming. A fantasy romance on Anastasia Romanov is a great premise. Everyone has a magical ability except Anastasia, hers develops later and is the same as Rasputin’s magic. While the Romanov’s were autocrats pushing Anastasia in that direction given she was 17 when killed felt unnecessary. The romance was cute and developed well. The number one thing I disliked was the illustrations. In these Anastasia is almost barbie like in her features which is weird and it leaves nothing to the imagination of what the characters look like to the reader. I’ll try another of her books but I may have loved this one more if it wasn’t hyped to high heaven in the internet.
This is the first Sophie Lark book I have read and it was a little underwhelming. A fantasy romance on Anastasia Romanov is a great premise. Everyone has a magical ability except Anastasia, hers develops later and is the same as Rasputin’s magic. While the Romanov’s were autocrats pushing Anastasia in that direction given she was 17 when killed felt unnecessary. The romance was cute and developed well. The number one thing I disliked was the illustrations. In these Anastasia is almost barbie like in her features which is weird and it leaves nothing to the imagination of what the characters look like to the reader. I’ll try another of her books but I may have loved this one more if it wasn’t hyped to high heaven in the internet.
This is quite possibly one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read. I sobbed throughout this book, and found myself totally immersed in this magical world where Anastasia gets her happy ending. I will be thinking about this book for years to come I’m sure of it. I need the prose in this book imprinted on my soul.
Beginning was pretty promising, got a little cringe at the end (and yeah just ignore the foreword) but you know what it was a good time
Completely speechless in the worst way possible. This was a horrible experience
adventurous
dark
emotional
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:
No
“Ultimately this story became a fantasy of what our world could be like if we had leaders who loved the people more than themselves.”
Not only is this tiny favorite kind of escapist alternate historical fiction, but it also has magic and vampires and enemies to lovers and just a dash of spice. Amazing.
Not only is this tiny favorite kind of escapist alternate historical fiction, but it also has magic and vampires and enemies to lovers and just a dash of spice. Amazing.
Incredibly boring, I skimmed the majority of it checking to see if it gets better. It doesn't. This book was also waaaayyy too long.
Does anyone else seem to test their first book by a new-to-them author by reading the book that they would connect the least with? Just me? I seem to do this often, and did I ended up doing this with Anastasia as my first Sophie Lark book.
At 656 pages long (on paperback), Anastasia is truly a beast of a book. I tend not to lean toward historical fiction or fantasy, yet felt compelled to read this book first of Sophie’s backlist because of some reviews that raved about this story! The raving is warranted. Anastasia is a beautiful story – a magical, imaginary life given to the Anastasia we all know that had a tragic past. I cannot comment on the historical accuracy of the events in the book, but I also want to point out that I’m not expecting historical accuracy. This is a work of fiction, so my expectations going into this are far different than if I was to watch a documentary. I did expect tenderness and grace toward Anastasia who suffered a brutal past, and I felt that in spades.
Full transparency: this book starts off slow. The plot really didn’t get interesting (to me), until almost the 50% mark in the book. Because of that, I would really recommend going into this book when your mood is right. But, once I got to that 50% point, I could not put the book down. Sophie went an amazing, magical direction with this story and I really enjoyed the creative liberties she took with the book while maintaining some similarities with the real-life characters from history.
I really enjoyed Anastasia’s character and the growth that she experienced in the story. I felt like Sophie did a remarkable job at being respectful of the real Anastasia, and gave her challenges that could apply to a young girl of noble birth like she was. In this book, Anastasia was a character, full of life and love, and you couldn’t help but root for her and appreciate the journey she went on. The mistakes she made were understandable and with good intentions.
I loved Damien from the first time I was introduced to his character. I felt nothing but understanding and sympathy for him as he was dealt some pretty difficult cards in life from the beginning.
I want to point out that the romance, while evident in the book, is an incredibly slow burn and seems almost secondary to Anastasia’s journey of self-discovery. This book is not very spicy, but I actually feel like it was appropriate in this case as Anastasia was a real, historical character. I feel like Sophie showed respect in this regard.
I had a few favorite side characters, but my favorite of all has to be Artemis. You’ll just know when you read about her.
The imagery in the book is phenomenal and I really loved how Sophie worked with an artist to bring her characters and scenes to life.
I’ll definitely be reading Sophie’s other books! Well done, Sophie, on engaging this reader (who has ADHD) to stay engaged with the book! It does help that I did have interest in the Romanov family prior to reading this book, and that’s ultimately what helped me get through the first 50% of the book when the plot got quite interesting to me.
At 656 pages long (on paperback), Anastasia is truly a beast of a book. I tend not to lean toward historical fiction or fantasy, yet felt compelled to read this book first of Sophie’s backlist because of some reviews that raved about this story! The raving is warranted. Anastasia is a beautiful story – a magical, imaginary life given to the Anastasia we all know that had a tragic past. I cannot comment on the historical accuracy of the events in the book, but I also want to point out that I’m not expecting historical accuracy. This is a work of fiction, so my expectations going into this are far different than if I was to watch a documentary. I did expect tenderness and grace toward Anastasia who suffered a brutal past, and I felt that in spades.
Full transparency: this book starts off slow. The plot really didn’t get interesting (to me), until almost the 50% mark in the book. Because of that, I would really recommend going into this book when your mood is right. But, once I got to that 50% point, I could not put the book down. Sophie went an amazing, magical direction with this story and I really enjoyed the creative liberties she took with the book while maintaining some similarities with the real-life characters from history.
I really enjoyed Anastasia’s character and the growth that she experienced in the story. I felt like Sophie did a remarkable job at being respectful of the real Anastasia, and gave her challenges that could apply to a young girl of noble birth like she was. In this book, Anastasia was a character, full of life and love, and you couldn’t help but root for her and appreciate the journey she went on. The mistakes she made were understandable and with good intentions.
I loved Damien from the first time I was introduced to his character. I felt nothing but understanding and sympathy for him as he was dealt some pretty difficult cards in life from the beginning.
I want to point out that the romance, while evident in the book, is an incredibly slow burn and seems almost secondary to Anastasia’s journey of self-discovery. This book is not very spicy, but I actually feel like it was appropriate in this case as Anastasia was a real, historical character. I feel like Sophie showed respect in this regard.
I had a few favorite side characters, but my favorite of all has to be Artemis. You’ll just know when you read about her.
The imagery in the book is phenomenal and I really loved how Sophie worked with an artist to bring her characters and scenes to life.
I’ll definitely be reading Sophie’s other books! Well done, Sophie, on engaging this reader (who has ADHD) to stay engaged with the book! It does help that I did have interest in the Romanov family prior to reading this book, and that’s ultimately what helped me get through the first 50% of the book when the plot got quite interesting to me.