With “Romanav,” Nadine Brandes takes the historically true story of the Russian Romanov family — their exile and execution — and puts a new “what if” spin on it — what if siblings Anastasia and Alexei survive through the power of spells.
Brandes does an excellent job of combining enough fact with fantasy to provide an intriguing story. In her version, Anastasia, or Nastya as her family calls her, is learning to be a spell master — mainly to help ease the pain of and eventually cure Alexei’s hemophilia. But her family is sent into exile before she can further learn the craft and procure enough spell ink to ease her brother’s misery.
While in exile, Nastya befriends Zash, a young Bolshevik who is only serving to protect his own spell master grandmother. They must learn to rely on and trust each other as they both face horrific moments.
“Romanov” is a story filled with deeply horrible moments — it does contain quite a bit of violence so this may not be suitable for the youngest of readers — but it also has moments of hope, glory, freedom and redemption. And although the Romanov’s story is deeply political, Brandes doesn’t overburden the reader, providing just enough information to educate.
The author also does an amazing job of bringing these characters — Tsar Nikolai and his wife and children — to life, making them real and relatable. She shows not only their strengths, but their weaknesses and quirks. You can tell she fully researched the Romanov family. She also creates some truly evil characters, also straight from the history pages. (Be sure to read her author’s note at the end of the book to find out what’s true and what’s made up).
Nastya’s story reveals several amazing themes, like reminding us to show kindness, be humble and hold on to hope; a rhythm in life is a fierce weapon against despair; a kind word turns away wrath; holding on to hope always leads to surprises; everyone’s heart has its own ache; and the power of defying “supposed to(s).”
A huge theme running throughout the novel is forgiveness, showing us that it takes more strength and courage to forgive than to enact revenge. Choose love, not hate. It isn’t always easy, but it is necessary. As Nastya tells herself: “ … I realized that a part of forgiveness was accepting the things someone had done — and the pain that came with that — and moving on with love. Forgiveness was a personal battle that must always be fought in my heart. Daily.”
“Romanov” is a perfect blend of historical fiction and fantasy. I believe fans of series like “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “Harry Potter” will enjoy this story just as much as historical fiction and conspiracy theory fans. Although not overtly religious, the Romanov’s faith weaves throughout the story, and Nastya repeatedly calls out to Iisus (Jesus) for help.
Five stars out of five.
Thomas Nelson provided this complimentary copy for my honest, unbiased review.