Dreaming Anastasia
A Novel of Love, Magic, and the Power of Dreams
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
What really happened to Anastasia Romanov?
Anastasia Romanov thought she would never feel more alone than when the gunfire started and her family began to fall around her. Surely the bullets would come for her next. But they didn't. Instead, two gnarled old hands reached for her. When she wakes up she discovers that she is in the ancient hut of the witch Baba Yaga, and that some things are worse than being dead.
In modern-day Chicago, Anne doesn't know much about Russian history. She is more concerned about getting into a good college—until the dreams start. She is somewhere else. She is someone else. And she is sharing a small room with a very old woman. The vivid dreams startle her, but not until a handsome stranger offers to explain them does she realize her life is going to change forever. She is the only one who can save Anastasia. But, Anastasia is having her own dreams…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this debut novel, Anastasia Romanov, believed to have died in a bloody massacre with the rest of the Russian royal family, is alive, but held captive by Baba Yaga, an evil witch from Russian folklore. In present-day Chicago, 16-year-old Anne Michaelson has recurring dreams of the death of Anastasia's family and Anastasia's imprisonment. Handsome and mysterious Ethan Kozninsky has waited nearly a century to find Anne ("Now it's occurring to me that smashing her to the floor in between classes in order to inform her that she is the girl who alone has the power to save the Grand Duchess Anastasia... is just possibly not the best plan I've ever had," he thinks). This novel of star-crossed love rotates between the perspectives of Anne, Anastasia and Ethan. While Preble's overall concept is interesting, the prose can be rambling, and the alternating points of view make the story feel choppy and, at times, confusing. The dialogue and romantic element come off as clich d and fall short of Preble's ambitious idea. Ages 12 up.
