I've always been intrigued by the mystery surrounding Anastasia and her family, so I was eager to get my hands on this book. Trigger warnings started surfacing, and I looked into them to see if I would be comfortable reading this book. I read that some pretty triggering things happen, which honestly makes sense considering the subject matter. But the more detail I found, and the more I saw people say they had a very hard time reading some of these scenes, the more I began to feel that this title is not the right one for me. However, I know many patrons who I'm sure would be interested, so I'll be recommending it to people who enjoy historical fiction and are curious about Anastasia.

I love Ariel Lawhon and especially loved I Was Anastasia. I found myself constantly googling while reading I Was Anastasia, trying to decipher fact from fiction, always a fun activity in my book. What I particularly love about Ariel Lawhon is her ability to bring a small part of history to life. Her books are propulsive, educational, and enjoyable. I Was Anastasia was no exception. If you like historical fiction and particularly enjoy the mystery behind the Romanov family, I think you will love this book. 4 stars

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book brought to life the history of Anastasia and the events surrounding the possibility that she may still be alive. Wonderful detail and kept you guessing throughout the story. Highly recommended for historical fiction lovers!

I have a special fondness for historical fiction books set in Russia - I love the atmosphere and the romantic yet eerie setting. This book was exactly that! I felt truly immersed in the scene page after page, and I was entertained by this story the entire way through.

I hate to not finish a book, however, we are in the process of moving and this is just not holding my interest. I’ve struggled to get 50% through and have no desire to fight my way through the rest. This story’s timeline bounces around a lot which is extremely distracting & I made the huge mistake of Googling the people mentioned which ruined the story for me. I’m a Googler when it comes to true events... it usually enhances the story for me by allowing me to picture the people & places. This time it backfired, big time.

This is a dramatization of the lives of two different historical figures: Anastasia Romanov, daughter of the Russian tsar and Anna Anderson, the woman who fought for 50 years to be recognized as Anastasia. The book alternates between the two storylines: Anastasia’s begins in first person at the revolution when her father is overthrown, moving chronologically forward in time, and Anna’s begins in third person in 1970 when her appeal to be recognized as Anastasia is rejected, moving chronologically backward in time.

This book was soooo good! The storytelling was immersive, the pacing was good, and even if you already know what happens, it’s still suspenseful, and you can’t help but hope that maybe this time things will turn out differently. It probably helps that I’ve been obsessed with Anastasia for a long time. Like many young girls, I fell in love with the animated movie. Then in middle school, we watched a movie about what ACTUALLY happened, and once I got over being traumatized, I was very intrigued. I read many books about Anastasia and the Romanovs over the years in middle school and high school, and one of them included a lot of details about Anna Anderson. Between my love for the movie and some pretty compelling evidence in her favor, I felt sure that Anna was actually Anastasia. That probably fed into my love of this book, which lays out the evidence for the reader to draw their own conclusions as they read.

Many of the reviews complained about the format of the story. I will admit, a non-linear storyline can be difficult. As luck would have it, I recently read another book that did something similar—the main narrative was in third person and progressed normally but then any time a character was reminiscing about the past it switched to first person and was not always in chronological order. It bugged me at first, but once I got used to it, I actually really liked it. Therefore, I was already used to this sort of format and could just enjoy the story. The author explains at the end why she wrote Anna’s story backwards, and I think it’s genius. Plus, it was like piecing together a mystery because Anna would reference something that had happened previously, and then a few chapters later when the event actually happened, you could say, “Oohhh, now I get what she was talking about!”

I’d give this 4 1/2 stars.I rounded down to a 4 because occasionally the writing was a bit clunky and took me out of the story for a bit, and because I reserve 5 stars for books I’d love to read over and over. While I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it would be hard to read about the unpleasant events in the last year and a half of Anastasia’s life and throughout Anna’s multiple times. Thanks to NetGalley for the free ebook.

I enjoyed elements of this book, but I didn't love the backwards timeline, where every chapter is earlier than the previous. I have a hard time getting into books like this one or ones with non-linear timelines, so I think that kept me from really loving it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for this reader's copy. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.

The story of Anastasia is one made of fairy tales and intrigue. Did she survive her family? Did she go on to live life...sort of?

Lawhon's story of Anastasia is based on a very real person who insisted she was THE Anastasia. To the moment of her death, she insisted she was the Princess. In the early 1990s, it was determined she most definitely was not Anastasia and THE Anastasia did, in fact, perish alongside of her family in 1918.

I don't know what it was about this story but it rubbed me the wrong way. Perhaps because I think it is ludicrous that anyone would try and claim to be Princess Anastasia and I'm annoyed that so many did and one woman, in particular, refused to budge. Lawhon brings the Anastasia of the early 1900s to meet up with the Anastasia of present-day(ish). Are they one and the same? She builds the case toward yes.

I found both Anastasia and her counterpart, Anna, annoying. Their voices grated on my nerves. I don't know if that is because of Lawhon's writing style or if I just didn't appreciate their character(s) - maybe a little of both. I was quite bored while reading the book and almost put it down several times but was waiting for the promised, "This thrilling saga is every bit as moving and momentous as it is harrowing and twisted." That was not a promise kept in my opinion.

I'm giving it 2 stars for the effort Lawhon clearly went to in order to craft such a tale from fact for fiction.

Fascinating and wonderful research and I really enjoyed the historical parts - found myself liking the "fiction" parts less.

I was not able to finish this one because the time of each chapter kept going in the past and future. It was hard to keep track and so I couldn’t go on with it.

The mystery of Anastasia has always been an interesting one to me and the Romanov story is so sad, so I was immediately drawn in by the subject. I thought the author did a great job portraying the character and the writing kept my interest from page one.

this was an ambitious novel by Lawhon about a character/person and time that people have a lot of opinions on. Anastasia has always intrigued me. Lawhorn humanized her for me. great story. will stay with me forever

<i>I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This book was incredible! I feel like it was a fresh take on the mystery and intrigue that surrounds the life of Anastasia Romanov. I enjoyed the structure of the book and the way she weaved the two story lines together in addition to using multiple viewpoints without it feeling clunky. You don't have to know a lot of the history of the Romanov dynasty or the Bolshevik revolution to enjoy this book either. This was a really good novel and I will be checking out other books from this author as well! If you're looking for a great historical fiction novel, this one may be for you.

Let me start by saying that it is historical fiction, and historical fiction both intrigues and frustrates me. Writers always take way too many liberties (my opinion) and change the story.

That being said, I like the way the book swapped timelines and moved both forward and backward, but It was also frustrating as just when I felt like I was going to finally figure something out, we swapped to a different person and a different time.

I also enjoyed the story and felt that it was a decent book..

I really wanted to love this book. I love historical fiction about Anastasia and have read many of them. This one though, I couldn't finish. It got slow and was very long.

Thank you Netgalley for this copy of I was Anastasia. Such a well written story that had me very invested from the first few chapters.
Anastasia and her family are taking to the basement to be all taken out by a firing squad. No one comes out alive, or do they? Two years later in Germany a women is pulled from the canal scared and unwilling to talk. She is taken to the hospital and her exam shows her body is covered in scars. When the girl finally speaks she announces that she is the Grand Duchess from Russia, Anastasia! No one believes Anastasia because it's simply not possible that she could have survived.
The history behind this story is fascinating and I really thought it was well written. I felt it was a little long and some parts seemed drawn out, but I enjoyed the story and characters.

I thought I had felt all the pain for the story of Anastasia before I had read this novel. Sadly, I was wrong. This historical fiction novel tells the story of a woman who claimed to be Anastasia and the trial she was forced to go through while trying to claim her name and money. The reader is truly able to feel her pain as she feels her name and pride dragged through the mud, as she has the people she trusted turn on her, and as she continually struggles to build a life and has it fall to pieces again. This novel is a must read for anyone who loves stories of the Romanovs and the rumors of what may have happened to Anastasia.

I was granted access to an electronic ARC of this novel from Doubleday Books through NetGalley. All opinions written here are my own and in no way influenced by receiving a free copy of the book!

This title intrigued me last year because I have been loving historical fiction and it seemed like there was a bit of a surge in attention around the Romanov's both on the page and the screen. I don't think this really affected my opinion of the book, but I will admit I didn't love this novel as much as I thought I would.

I went in with really high expectations because I thought the story premise sounded amazing, but I got a bit bored about halfway through the book. It wasn't enough to make me stop reading, because I really did want to know how the story would end, so after reading half of the eARC, I started reading along with the audio-book to push me through the slump I had gotten into. The plot centers around a woman who may or may not be the real Anastasia Romanov who could have escaped execution in Russia during the Russian Revolution. I'll be honest, I knew nothing about the Romanov family aside from the plot of the 20th Century Fox animated film from the 1990's (which I love but Rasputin terrified me as a child!). I found myself Googling things constantly while reading this book though because I was so shocked by the events and I had to find out if it was true! That's something I do love about historical fiction in general, if it's really true historical fiction, the events are based in truth and it feels like I'm learning something new. This book definitely did that well, my only issue was that the events towards the middle of the story got a bit dull. This story is told in a kind of reverse-chronology because the story of young Anastasia is told forwards from 1916-1918 and the story of adult Anna is told backwards from the 1960s back to 1918. I thought this was a really clever idea because the whole point is that the story is supposed to convince us the Anna is Anastasia, and you're supposed to question this until the very last page where the truth is revealed. I think the plot overall was really compelling, I just struggled through the middle when there was less exciting action.

A good fictional representation of the historical mystery of Anastasia Romanov and her possible survival from her family's assassination. Through a non linear narration that gets confusing at times, Lawton builds suspense and although I sadly knew the DNA proven ending, I was still hoping.

Copy provided by publisher and NetGalley

This book is actually one I DNF-ed. But I’m going to talk about it anyway.
I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon begins with Ana Anderson, a woman in a lawsuit trying to prove she is Anastasia Romanov. I requested this book on NetGalley since I’m always a fan of Romanov history. Why, I don’t know. But I was looking forward to reading this.
The first thing I didn’t like about this book was the time hoping. The book shares two narrators, young Anastasia in the time before her family’s murder and older Anastasia trying to prove her identity. The book jump from present day back to 1917, the present day, then 30 years later, 3 years later. It was just all jumbled and didn’t make sense whatsoever. I just didn’t flow with the rest of book.
The second thing I didn’t really care for was the treatment of poor Ana. Every person that comes into her life is trying to exploit her in some way or another. Or even to destroy the proof she has that she is Anastasia. I would cringe so much that I finally decided to put it down.
Over all, the book is interesting and an intimate look at the Romanovs during the revolution. The rest of the book is just bleh. It’s slow and didn’t hold my attention at all. I really wanted to enjoy this book, but unfortunately I did not.