The Lost Crown
by Sarah Miller
Young Adult
Read From: June 7, 2012 - June 10, 2012
Review
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cover Blurb: It’s pretty and attractive, and thankfully doesn’t leer at me. The title font isn’t anything exciting, though I like how half of it is in purple. The style of the cover might deter hardcore historical fiction fans, though, since it looks a lot like a historical romance. I honestly expected a girly book when I first picked it up.
What I Liked: So many books on this topic are always, always told from Anastasia’s point of view, and while I certainly love it when Anastasia is the protagonist, it was really nice to read from the point of views of her sisters as well. It would have also been interesting if the Author had told a few chapters in Alexei’s point of view, but just the sisters worked for me fine.
What I Disliked: Quite honestly, nothing. I suppose I could be super nit-picky and find some small sentence that bugged me, but I won’t.
Believability: I will confess that I don’t actually know a whole lot about the Romanov family, but given the massive Author’s Note in the back (complete with pictures), I am pretty confident that the Author really did do a lot of research. The fact that she admits there are a lot of holes and lots of different opinions about what sort of man the Tsar was tells me that she took the time to look in history book and archives.
Writing Style: It is present-tense. But considering everyone dies in the end, I suppose the Author really couldn’t choose any other tense. Each chapter being told by a different sister was nice, and the Author gave each girl a very distinctive narration voice, so it didn’t get confusing. Her portrayal was also not at all one-sided or felt like it was clouded by her own personal opinions. The opinions voiced in the book clearly felt like the girls’ opinions; it felt like the Author was saying, “This book is told from the sisters’ point of views, and this might be what they thought of their mother and father.”
Content: I have nothing to neither report nor complain about.
Conclusion: Needless to say, it’s sad. This isn’t an alternate history where the Author writes about the theory that maybe Anastasia survived. Everyone dies, and the Author does a tremendous job in making this scene dramatic (but not overly so), realistic, and very much a “frozen time in history.”
Recommended Audience: Historical fiction fans. This isn’t a romance novel, despite its cover.
What I Liked: So many books on this topic are always, always told from Anastasia’s point of view, and while I certainly love it when Anastasia is the protagonist, it was really nice to read from the point of views of her sisters as well. It would have also been interesting if the Author had told a few chapters in Alexei’s point of view, but just the sisters worked for me fine.
What I Disliked: Quite honestly, nothing. I suppose I could be super nit-picky and find some small sentence that bugged me, but I won’t.
Believability: I will confess that I don’t actually know a whole lot about the Romanov family, but given the massive Author’s Note in the back (complete with pictures), I am pretty confident that the Author really did do a lot of research. The fact that she admits there are a lot of holes and lots of different opinions about what sort of man the Tsar was tells me that she took the time to look in history book and archives.
Writing Style: It is present-tense. But considering everyone dies in the end, I suppose the Author really couldn’t choose any other tense. Each chapter being told by a different sister was nice, and the Author gave each girl a very distinctive narration voice, so it didn’t get confusing. Her portrayal was also not at all one-sided or felt like it was clouded by her own personal opinions. The opinions voiced in the book clearly felt like the girls’ opinions; it felt like the Author was saying, “This book is told from the sisters’ point of views, and this might be what they thought of their mother and father.”
Content: I have nothing to neither report nor complain about.
Conclusion: Needless to say, it’s sad. This isn’t an alternate history where the Author writes about the theory that maybe Anastasia survived. Everyone dies, and the Author does a tremendous job in making this scene dramatic (but not overly so), realistic, and very much a “frozen time in history.”
Recommended Audience: Historical fiction fans. This isn’t a romance novel, despite its cover.
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