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DID NOT FINISH: 48%
This book moved so slowly and so predictably. I only knew the broad strokes of the Romanov story, but I expected this novel to diverge from recorded facts early on, especially with magic mixed in. At 48%, the family still isn’t in custody but Rasputin is a vampire, which is one of the most basic conspiracy theories you normally see. I’ve read some reviews and know that Anastasia’s time power is used towards the end for her to rewind time. I was expecting bigger feats of magic much earlier.
The magic system was hardly integrated with the plot. It seems the World War timeline was extended partially to age up Anastasia for the more physical romance, but no obvious reason was given for the different flow of events, even though the existence of magic seems obvious as a choice.
I like a good slow burn, but position and age were the only conflicts. The MMC is nominally an “enemy,” yet they resolve that so quickly because they each vibe off each other and don’t really fight it.
The author had an odd habit of setting up an interesting moment of conflict or plot development, only to have the view-point character retreat to multiple pages of navel-gazing, flashback, introspective exposition.
In the end (or at the mid-point, I guess), this book failed to give me the mysticism, cosmology, or epic scope of good fantasy; it failed to illuminate interesting inflection points or new personalities in history of good historical fiction; it failed to give me much satisfaction as a romance.
The magic system was hardly integrated with the plot. It seems the World War timeline was extended partially to age up Anastasia for the more physical romance, but no obvious reason was given for the different flow of events, even though the existence of magic seems obvious as a choice.
I like a good slow burn, but position and age were the only conflicts. The MMC is nominally an “enemy,” yet they resolve that so quickly because they each vibe off each other and don’t really fight it.
The author had an odd habit of setting up an interesting moment of conflict or plot development, only to have the view-point character retreat to multiple pages of navel-gazing, flashback, introspective exposition.
In the end (or at the mid-point, I guess), this book failed to give me the mysticism, cosmology, or epic scope of good fantasy; it failed to illuminate interesting inflection points or new personalities in history of good historical fiction; it failed to give me much satisfaction as a romance.