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.