Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble

Main Characters: Anne, Ethan, Anastasia, Tess

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.

Anna’s Thoughts:

I have putting off this review for so long, I couldn’t even list all of the reasons why. The main reason however, is that I simply cannot figure out how I feel about it. I like it, but then I don’t (not in general, for very specific reasons I will touch on). Let me start out though by telling you what I liked about Dreaming Anastasia, which equals out to a whole lot! First, the world! I loved the setting of Dreaming Anastasia, be it in the ‘real world’ or in Baba Yaga’s hut in the forest! I always knew where I was and I could always SEE where I was. I also loved the characters, Anne was a brave heroine, and Tess was everything a good best friend should be, Ethan was also very protective of both his secret, Anne and Anastasia which left me kind of putting him on the ‘Anna does not like you’ list.

I love love love love love hearing about folklore, be it Russian, Greek, Irish, American, it doesn’t matter I enjoy it beyond the ends of the earths. So I also LOVED learning more about the Slavic folklore behind Baba Yaga. I had heard of her before but I wasn’t aware she actually was a part of any sort of folklore. I loved the descriptions of her, as well as her hut and the forest! I can tell you one thing, I’m an adult and her description almost scared me, I can’t imagine being a child and being told her story.

Now… onto the bad stuff. Basically there are very few things in the history of the world that I am passionate about or feel connected to, I can’t explain it, I just am. The Romanov assassination is one of those things. It was such an absolutely HORRIBLE thing that happened, and not even 100 years ago. I think what gets me the most isn’t that people were killed – that happens every single day – but the fact that CHILDREN were killed (the youngest, only 14), and so brutally for that matter. Anyway, the most appalling thing about Dreaming Anastasia (and this is a minor spoiler) is the reference to Nicholas II having an illegitimate child. Now Nicholas had a lot to answer for for his treatment of his country, and while I’m not scholar on the matter, I have never read even ONCE a belief that he was unfaithful to Alexandra (except from people who like to stir up trouble). Now I am sure no one NOW knows for sure, and of course it could have happened, but every report I have ever read about Nicholas one thing has always been the same: That he absolutely adored and loved his family -wife included- beyond a shadow of a doubt. I understand that this is Fiction too, but there is a really fine line between meddling with the past, and defamation of character. It’s fine when the person is made up but the situation is real, however when it’s the other way around you’re walking on glass, and I think that Joy may have crossed a line for me personally.

But like I said in the beginning, I DID also like the book. I wasn’t completely put off by the history meddling, I was able to read the book without it effecting it very much, but whenever I think back to it that little piece gets under my skin. On the bright side though, it’s the only thing that bothered me about it!