Anastasia and Her Sisters

As she has done in Cleopatra Confesses, Victoria Rebels, and other titles, Meyer imagines the life of a historical royal, this time Anastasia Romanova, the teenage daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. On the cusp of the revolution that will doom her family and its way of life, Anastasia chronicles the last days of their glory, as well as the years leading up to their demise. Meyer is on sure footing with this story, her prose lush with vivid detail. That same attention to historical detail can impede the story’s momentum, but the passage of years and looming war, along with Anastasia’s mischievous spying on her sister Olga’s love life and her thoughts on Father Grigory (aka Rasputin), will entice readers onward. Anastasia’s endearing narrative voice, coupled with her intimate observations of her family and their royal adventures, make her chronological account all the more bittersweet. Meyer chooses not to re-imagine the fate that eventually befalls this Russian princess, giving the novel a tragic and moving end, though an epilogue details the family’s deaths and 21st-century efforts to authenticate their remains. Ages 12–up. (Apr.)