For example, 'baba' is a word they give to a girl who has lost her virginity. I even learned some fascinating things about the Russian language.

This is an element I wish more of the modern fairy tale mystery treatments would do, like Grimm (although if the characters did more of this recently I wouldn't know, I stopped watching it). I also liked that the characters turned to reading fairy tales to help them find the clues they needed to get to Baba Yaga's hut (spoiler: it involves the rule of threes so common in fairy tales). She is the only one who can save Anastasia. The vivid dreams startle her, but not until a handsome stranger offers to explain them does she realize her life is going to change forever. And she is sharing a small room with a very old woman. She is more concerned about getting into a good college-until the dreams start. In modern-day Chicago, Anne doesn't know much about Russian history. When she wakes up she discovers that she is in the ancient hut of the witch Baba Yaga, and that some things are worse than being dead. Instead, two gnarled old hands reached for her. Surely the bullets would come for her next. What really happened to Anastasia Romanov?Īnastasia Romanov thought she would never feel more alone than when the gunfire started and her family began to fall around her. There were other factors I liked too, like references to ballet, the story of Swan Lake, and a Chicago setting.įrom the book description you get a pretty good idea of the plot: However, it was still entertaining, if not a bit predictable. Maybe just because I haven't read and YA novels in a while (at least not that weren't fairy tales set back in Once Upon a Time where none of the characters had cell phones) but I was initially shocked by the speech of the main characters, which consisted of a lot of 'likes' and 'whatevers' and talking about how hot certain boys were and how far they would go with them (am I sounding enough like an old lady yet? Not to mention this was my first time ever reading a book on Kindle.I know I'm old fashioned but I just like holding and flipping through books).

Overall, it's not the best writing I've ever come across, even for young adult novels. I'm pretty sure that, had I not already been nerdy about the Romanov family, this novel would have gotten me into it. However, the story is still not without mystery-the life and death of Rasputin are fascinating and downright creepy to read about. Even their bodies were discovered not too long ago, confirming the fact that none of the Romanovs survived the shooting. First of all, it was never Anastasia's body that was missing-it was Alexei's and Maria's-the famed daughter's remains were with her family all along while the world searched for her. Unfortunately the truth is not quite as romantic.

Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble