Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble

Summary:

Sixteen year old Anne thinks her life is pretty ordinary – until she smacks into handsome, mysterious, and okay, annoying Ethan on her way to chemistry class. Now Anne has powers she doesn’t understand, a history altering mission she may not want, and a growing attraction to this blue-eyed stranger. And Ethan- who at eighteen made some choices he’s starting to regret – realizes that Anne is the girl for whom he’s been searching – for a very, very long time. Stir in doomed Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia – who is definitely not quite as dead as the history books say – and Baba Yaga, the legendary witch from Russian folklore, and you’ve got DREAMING ANASTASIA, a contemporary YA fantasy that alternates between the voices of Anne, Ethan, and Anastasia as Anne and Ethan join forces to battle the bad guys and save Anastasia. Only problem is – no one’s quite sure who’s really bad and who’s good. And everyone has some secrets.

Review:

In school one of my favorite subjects is History ( well, besides America's because it's just a bit boring. lol). So, when I found out there was going to be a book featuring Anastasia Romanov, I was ecstatic. Luckily, Dreaming Anastasia was a pretty good book, but sometimes falled short of my exceptions.

First off, the premise of this novel was very interesting. I loved the idea of having Anastasia still be alive because of a spell that bound her to the care of Baba Yaga. It was exciting to see the process Anne and Ethan went through to save her and how Anastasia was originally captured by Baba.

Sadly, the start of the novel was poorly done. Since, I felt that it was hard to get into Dreaming Anastasia. Though, after about the first 100 or so pages, I became immersed in the story, leaving the rest of the pages to go by in a rapid speed.

The characters were another one of my favorite parts. Anne was someone who was easy to relate to. Since, even though she had this extraordinary ability, she was still dealing from normal things a teen goes through. Plus, her best friend Tess was hilarious. Ethan was also a great add. Though, I would have loved to seen Anastasia have a bigger part in the narrative section of the story.

Overall, Dreaming Anastasia is a decent debut my Ms. Preble.

Grade: B

Dreaming Anastasia is now out! And also to see previous and future tour stops for DA Tour head on over to Joy's blog.

* Much thanks to Joy and PS for sending me a copy of this book! :)