Review: Dreaming Anastasia

Title: Dreaming Anastasia

Author: Joy Preble

Release Date: September 1^st 2009

Series: Dreaming Anastasia #1

Number of Pages: 310

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Source: Bought

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Anastasia Romanov thought she would never feel more alone than when the gunfire started and her family began to fall around her. Surely the bullets would come for her next. But they didn't. Instead, two gnarled old hands reached for her. 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.

In modern-day Chicago, Anne doesn't know much about Russian history. She is more concerned about getting into a good college—until the dreams start. She is somewhere else. She is someone else. And she is sharing a small room with a very old woman. 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. She is the only one who can save Anastasia. But, Anastasia is having her own dreams…

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The cover of Dreaming Anastasia made me curious. I had heard a little about the sequel, but didn’t anything about this one. I was kind of disappointed by it. There was something that just wasn’t right to me.

The plot was good, but I have a problem with the fact that it is playing with history, and the big mystery about Anastasia Romanov. It just felt wrong to add magic to that story. Still, I thought it was well constructed, and captivating. The ending was good; it fitted the story really well. Overall I liked it.

The characters were good. I like Ethan, the mysterious and strange Ethanovich. The others were okay; it is just that none of them really stood out for me.

The writing was good, but my big problem was the fact that she constantly changed point of view between Anne, Anastasia an Ethan. The second thing was the letter/diary part. I just couldn’t understand what was written. It wasn’t about the style, but the font used.

Overall, the story was good. The point of view and the letters were really the main reasons why I couldn’t really get into this book. I would give this book a 7/10. I’ll have to read the sequel, and luckily, there is no letters in it.