While her power grows in secret, boosted by forbidden contact with Damien, Anastasia makes a mistake with terrible consequences.įate grants her a single chance to set it right… but saving what she lost may cost everything she loves. Until she collides with a young Cossack rebel, changing both their lives forever.ĭamien is taken from everything he knows and raised as a ward of the Romanovs.Īnastasia develops a strange kind of magic shared only by the Black Monk Rasputin.
Lark should be happy with what she’s done.Anastasia is the princess no one needs: the fourth daughter born to an emperor without a son, and the only royal lacking a magical gift. It definitely feels like a passion project and Ms. I’m glad I read this even though it wasn’t quite what I thought or hoped it would be. Anastasia’s siblings-especially her sisters-have my heart. I enjoyed a lot of the side characters and plots. The fire dance scene really stands out to me. I don’t want to go into spoilers, but there were some very beautiful moments in the romance. For a while I felt the attraction between Anastasia and Damien was forced for the sake of the plot. I liked it-especially when it actually went somewhere. It was stressful waiting to see how she was going to resolve things. Generally, I liked what she did with all of that and I was often on the edge of my seat. There are a lot of the known players like the Tsar and Rasputin, but it’s in a fantastical way. Lark plays with the history of the Romanovs and the Russian uprising. He is a compelling man and I want to know more about him and his magic. I would’ve preferred more of his actual POV. She does also go on a very interesting journey.ĭamien is the love interest and a much easier character to like and connect with. She’s raised in a very specific world which breeds some unlikable characteristics. I found her frustrating, but also fairly real. I can see people not liking her and DNF-ing because of that. I think this would be more enjoyable if you know most of it won’t be romance-heavy.Īnastasia is a difficult character. I’m not sure I can tell you how much romance you need to be classified as a romance, but I think there should be more. The last 30% or so felt like a romance, but not the rest. Is this a fantasy romance? I’m honestly not sure. I think tightening those things up would’ve shaved off like 10K words and made it better in my opinion. Some scenes were just repetitive or a tad navel-gazing like. I think it makes sense for this to cover as much time, but some things should’ve been more like a montage.
This was long and I would argue too long. But that middle bit was a generous 2 star.
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