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tessaofthepnw's review
1.0
This book is called "Anastasia and her siblings", but Anastasia is just a narrator. Her oldest sister Olga seems to be the real focus. There's excerpts from Olga's diary, she focuses on Olga's love life, etc. I made it a quarter of the way in and quit, there's no real difference in story between this and the Royal diaries version of Anastasia's diary, this is just the PG or PG-13 version. But the author wrote both books, so no surprise there.
lucygwrites's review
2.0
I am really disappointed in this book because I have loved every other book I’ve read by Meyer and I really didn’t like this one. I couldn’t get into the story and it felt really flat.
smart_girls_love_trashy_books's review
3.0
-POTENTIAL SPOILERS-
This was alright, but I don't really think I was in the proper target audience for this. I'm not talking about being too old to read this, since I read lots of childrens' books and enjoy them. I'm talking about the fact that this was obviously written for someone who was just starting to read about the Romanovs.
Most of the book is just nothing but exposition and explanations about who her servants were and their nicknames, and the nicknames of her family and everything, and that might be helpful to someone who wanted to learn more about the Romanovs, but it's not really helpful to me, who already knew so much about the Romanovs by the time I read this. Plus a lot of the stuff you're told in this book you can easily find out on Google. Did you know Anastasia's favorite color was pink and wore a giant pink sunhat during the summer constantly? Did you know when she was given her name, which came from Greek, a lot of Russians grew concerned and asked the Tzar to change it since Anastasia wasn't considered a proper Russian girl name? Well you do now, but you wouldn't learn that from this book.
Aside from that, like I said, this book was just alright. It was more a recollection of various important events in Anastasia's life like her other books about famous royalty, narrated by Anastasia of course. The personalities in this one seem fine, but they could always be better. I did like how Anastasia found Olga's secret diary and started reading it to herself-now THAT'S something Anastasia would do!
As stated before, if you've never read very much on the Romanovs before and want a good start, this would be a great one to try. But if you're like me and breathe the Romanovs every day of your life, well you should probably skip this one unless you want to be really bored.
This was alright, but I don't really think I was in the proper target audience for this. I'm not talking about being too old to read this, since I read lots of childrens' books and enjoy them. I'm talking about the fact that this was obviously written for someone who was just starting to read about the Romanovs.
Most of the book is just nothing but exposition and explanations about who her servants were and their nicknames, and the nicknames of her family and everything, and that might be helpful to someone who wanted to learn more about the Romanovs, but it's not really helpful to me, who already knew so much about the Romanovs by the time I read this. Plus a lot of the stuff you're told in this book you can easily find out on Google. Did you know Anastasia's favorite color was pink and wore a giant pink sunhat during the summer constantly? Did you know when she was given her name, which came from Greek, a lot of Russians grew concerned and asked the Tzar to change it since Anastasia wasn't considered a proper Russian girl name? Well you do now, but you wouldn't learn that from this book.
Aside from that, like I said, this book was just alright. It was more a recollection of various important events in Anastasia's life like her other books about famous royalty, narrated by Anastasia of course. The personalities in this one seem fine, but they could always be better. I did like how Anastasia found Olga's secret diary and started reading it to herself-now THAT'S something Anastasia would do!
As stated before, if you've never read very much on the Romanovs before and want a good start, this would be a great one to try. But if you're like me and breathe the Romanovs every day of your life, well you should probably skip this one unless you want to be really bored.
dadandmom12's review
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
katscribefever's review
3.0
My favorite thing about reading this historical novel was the countless inclusions of details that I had just read about in the nonfiction book [b:The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia|18691014|The Family Romanov Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia|Candace Fleming|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387147384l/18691014._SX50_.jpg|26537337]. Of course, Carolyn Meyer took liberties in crafting this story, but it was a really interesting look at the inner emotional lives of a family as they hurtle towards calamity--particularly of the four rapidly-growing daughters.
ericadeb's review against another edition
1.0
This book has so many details it makes it hard to read. Imagine reading the minutes from a meeting in book form. Not my cup of tea.
vmilosek's review
3.0
The book was alright. I enjoyed reading the historical context of the situation as well as reading further into the mind of Anastasia. I thought the author (Caroline Meyers) did an excellent job characterizing the tsar's family (from their day to day life to their individual personalities). Anastasia's character was fun to read, especially her snooping Olga's journal entries.
I only gave it 3 stars because the book didn't captivate me. It took me 10 days to read, which is really long for me, especially since it's rather short. I think the main reason that it took me so long to read was the drawn out events, which just got very repetitive and dull.
So in all, I enjoyed learning more about Anastasia, her family, and that entire situation. I appreciated that the book chronicled from way before WWII to the end (their execution). I liked the author's characterizations, but I disliked the slow pace the book moved.
I only gave it 3 stars because the book didn't captivate me. It took me 10 days to read, which is really long for me, especially since it's rather short. I think the main reason that it took me so long to read was the drawn out events, which just got very repetitive and dull.
So in all, I enjoyed learning more about Anastasia, her family, and that entire situation. I appreciated that the book chronicled from way before WWII to the end (their execution). I liked the author's characterizations, but I disliked the slow pace the book moved.
sharonfalduto's review
A young adult book from Anastasia's point of view; we watch her descend from the height of monarchy as a Grand Duchess of Russia to the pitiful end in the cellar of the House of Special Purpose.
chalkycharo's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
notevahere's review
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5