Romanov by Nadine Brandes **ARC REVIEW**

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. 

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've read this book two months ago and yet I didn't write my review right away.I felt so much after finishing this book and I didn't know how to put my emotions into thoughts. How to express how this book made me feel. Also, I wanted to put 5 stars right away, but many times I've rated books with high ratings and later on I regretted them. So I needed to sit this one down, let it pass some time so I can be 100% sure that this was indeed a 5 star read for me.

And guess what? It still is. It's been two months and I still remember how this book made me feel, I still treasure the tears that I shed while reading this, I still feel my heart beating loudly in my chest. I'm still in love with this story and it's still one of my favorite books this year so far.

"Because it takes more strength and courage to forgive than it does to enact revenge."

Now let me say here that I didn't know much about Anastasia or her family's story. I don't think I'm educated enough about Russian history all in all, but this book made me want to be educated and as soon as I finished it, I started searching the web, I started watching YouTube videos and I fell so intrigued and interested in this story. But let's not forget that this book, even though it was based on Anastasia's story and had many facts that were rumored to be real, we shouldn't forget that this is a FICTIONAL story, from ANASTASIA'S POV.

Was her father a saint? No. Was he the best man in the world for her? Yes. I don't care if there are inaccuracies or if this book collides beliefs with people having a different political POV, but what happened to her family that dreadful night cannot be justified, because they were innocent and they were kids. That's my opinion, like it or not.

I just preordered the hardback edition of this book, because I want to have it in my collection. I really loved the story and the cover is also stunning, so I couldn't help it. I also enjoyed the author's writing and I'm looking forward to reading more by her. I hope more people will give this book a chance and appreciate this author's fictional work , because her way of storytelling truly captured my attention and I'm so grateful I've been selected to read an ARC of this :)

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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