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Summary
Summary
When Princess Anastasia Romanov's life is torn apart by revolution, she and her family are exiled to Siberia. As their captivity stretches out, the threat of death by firing squad grows stronger. But despite the menacing circumstances, a secret romance blossoms between Anastasia and a young guard named Sasha. Will their love prove strong enough to help Anastasia and her family? Inspired by the mysteries surrounding the Romanovs, this is a compelling and romantic vision of what might have been.
"[This] magnetic reimagining of Anastasia's story has the potential to reach a broad audience." -Publishers Weekly
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Dunlap's novel combines life in imperial Russia during World War I and young love. Anastasia encounters an adolescent royal guard named Sasha, and the two become friends and lovers. The guard educates her on life outside of the palace walls, and, through Anastasia, Sasha sees the humanity of the royal family. The writing is quite atmospheric, providing a sense of the physical, political, and historical environment at the time. It also conveys an incredible amount of detail about the Romanovs' daily lives before and during their captivity, humanizing even the tsar and tsarista. The author articulates the emotions of the characters well, and Anastasia grows from a naive duchess to a young woman attuned to the social and political situation of the day. The romantic relationship, which is consummated and continues while the family is under house arrest, is less believable given the security surrounding the royals. A list of the family members, primary servants, and head guards precedes the story. Dunlap also provides an epilogue that details the conclusion of the Romanov dynasty.-Hilary Writt, Sullivan University, Lexington, KY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Anastasia Romanov lives a charmed childhood-her father is the czar of Russia and she is one of its grand duchesses. She grows up among the aristocracy, and elaborate palaces are her and her many siblings' playgrounds. However, those familiar with Russian history also know that her family is quickly heading toward its demise. Dunlap (The Musician's Daughter) steps boldly into this famous historical narrative, envisioning another possible future for Anastasia-one that includes a handsome suitor-soldier named Sasha, who falls in love with Anastasia and hopes to save her from the doom awaiting her family. The author's prose is heavy on telling, largely because she packs it with an impressive amount of Romanov and Russian history. The romantic dimension of this novel sparkles when it appears and Dunlap's treatment of Anastasia's family is full and tender, but as the years pass and revolution appears on the horizon, the story grows expectedly bleak. Dunlap persuasively inhabits the thoughts and emotions of her embattled protagonist; her magnetic reimagining of Anastasia's story has the potential to reach a broad audience. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
This romantic historical novel imagines the teenage years of Anastasia Romanova, the youngest daughter of Russia's last csar. Anastasia's first-person narration conveys both the opulence of her royal life and the terror of her family's exile. The princess's growing maturity and secret relationship with a young Bolshevik guard propel the baroque story to a conclusion where the future is appropriately uncertain. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
What if Grand Duchess Anastasia had a secret lover among the guards who watched over the Romanovs? That conceit provides the arc, such as it is, for this first-person account of the last years of the Russian monarchy. This Anastasia is an immature, sweet and spoiled innocent whose world revolves around her family, all of whom can be summed up in one or two flattening adjectives (sensible, kindly, sickly). The romance between Anastasia and Sashawho manages to go from the youngest imperial guard to a commander of Bolshevik troops, making his character even more obviously fictionalwill appeal to romantics, but Anastasia's navet (late in the book she is startled to realize "a loaf of bread had a fixed price") grates and detracts from the sympathy a doomed heroine should command. Even a near escape has no excitement as the ending is a matter of historical record (neatly laid out in an epilogue, which also references the 2007 grave and the various false Romanovs). Anastasia has never been so dull. (cast of characters, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12 up) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Even though more than 90 years have passed since the murder of Russia's royal family by the Bolsheviks, books about them, and in particular the youngest daughter, Anastasia, continue to be written. This fanciful novel posits a romance between the Grand Duchess and one of her guards. A sheltered Anastasia learns about the outside world from Sasha, a young soldier with whom she strikes up a friendship in the palace. The misery of the Russian people jolts her, but before long it is she and her family who are in dire straits after the revolution turns them into captives. If there's one thing that can keep a girl going during a revolution, however, it's romance, and Anastasia has it in spades as Sasha, now one of her guards, becomes her lover. Dunlap weaves a strong sense of the historical into the sometimes far-fetched drama. Many will know this is a doomed romance from the start, and the inevitability makes the story seem longer. But the last tender moments between the lovers will make readers sigh.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist