Book Review- Romanov

Title: Romanov

Author: Nadine Brandes

Published: 30th May 2019

Pages: 352

Genre: YA, Historical, Fantasy, Magic

The history books say I died.

They don’t know the half of it.

Anastasia “Nastya” Romanov was given a single mission: to smuggle an ancient spell into her suitcase on her way to exile in Siberia. It might be her family’s only salvation. But the leader of the Bolshevik army is after them . . . and he’s hunted Romanov before.

Nastya’s only chances of survival are to either release the spell, and deal with the consequences, or enlist help from Zash, the handsome soldier who doesn’t act like the average Bolshevik. Nastya’s never dabbled in magic before, but it doesn’t frighten her as much as her growing attraction for Zash. She likes him. She thinks he might even like her . . .

That is, until she’s on one side of a firing squad . . . and he’s on the other.-Goodreads

My thanks to Harper Collins 360 YA for the ARC of this book.

I was intrigued by the description of this novel. Brandes’ other novel Fawkes (a Guy Fawkes retelling) is one I have been eager to get my hands on, and when I saw she had written another historical retelling, I was desperate to read it.

I love love love historical fiction, although I normally read mostly Victorian literature, and Russian history is not something I know anything about, so this was a new area for me. However, it has certainly sparked a fascination with all things Russian literature, and I’ve found myself desperate to read more and discover more about Russian history.

Now onto the actual novel! I liked the things Brandes did with the story of the Romanovs and where she decided to take the plot, but I was overall a touch disappointed by the novel. I just didn’t feel connected to any of the characters or really felt that engrossed in the story at all, and this makes me feel sad. 

The first half of the novel is quite accurate and is obviously based on a lot of research from the author, but the second half is where the author used some artistic license. Although I did enjoy the magical/fantastical elements of the novel, and how the author quite cleverly entwined the two together. But the first half of the novel was also quite slow, it seemed to take a long time for the action in the novel to actually begin, and although the author did spend this time setting up the characters, the narrative and the romance, it could’ve been quicker, and the action could’ve been quicker to take place.

This book focuses on Anastasia, or Nastya as she is known in the book, the youngest Romanov sister, and it took me a long time to warm to her. She is very self-obsessed and I spent more time being annoyed by her than feeling any sympathy for her. She was a very inward-focused character and it was difficult to get to know her and to sympathise with her situation. But slowly I came around to her and actually by the end, although I didn’t love her, I enjoyed her narrative voice, and I was rooting for her throughout the dramatic ending.

Brandes also adds a romantic element to the novel between Nastya and a guard called Zash, who is a Bolshevik soldier, though it’s through necessity rather than choice that he finds himself in the role. His and Nastya’s relationship/kindling romance is sweet, and although it is completely inaccurate, it was a nice addition to the story, and stopped the novel from getting too dark and somber.

Overall although I love the subject matter of this novel, and it has definitely sparked my love of Russian history and literature, unfortunately the book didn’t quite deliver.

You can buy the novel from the Book Depository here (affiliate link)

Have you read this novel? Did you enjoy it? Let’s chat books!