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I liked Romanov. Really, I did.
But.

The settings. I expected more, except what should be descriptions of places were nothing more than tired, uninspired snippets of text. And sure, there was that whole house arrest shebang, so it'd be unfair of me to fault the setting for being as claustrophobic as it was, but I guess I can fault the writing for being so atmosphereless. Which brings me to the worldbuilding.
Ugh, all that wasted potential. For the most part, the worldbuilding was lost in a sea of vague, confusing information, and there was nothing to anchor the details to anyplace specific, or y'know, to twentieth-century Russia.
And I am so, so cheesed off. I mean, seeing as how the Russian Revolution was happening at the protagonist's literal doorstep, I was hoping that at some point, I'd read something about�� hmm, an actual revolution? But nope, nada. Moving on.

Then there was the plot—which, to be honest, felt more like two mismatched halves than a whole.
Alright, so I did like the slowness of the first half. The unfortunate thing was that this slowness worked against the novel later on—going into the second half, there was a significant pickup in speed, and it was jarring enough to pull me out of the ride. What's more, some parts of the plot were incredibly contrived, aand I'll leave it at that, lest I start yanking my hair out.

Regardless, there was something about Brandes' portrayal of the Romanovs that touched me. The fabric of their lives worn and unravelling at the seams. And the unwavering thread of love running in between, binding them all together.
And I have to applaud Brandes for her writing, for her playful yet elegant turn of phrase which imparted such a fierce vitality to Nastya's voice. Because the truth is, I adored Nastya, whose hope shone bright and unrelenting throughout the darkness and despair. Someone who possessed a deep compassion for all her people, who loved friends and enemies alike. And in the end, Romanov was as much triumphant as it was tragic—a story about suffering and loss, but above all, about survival and forgiveness.

3.0/5

note: note: thank you to nadine brandes and the publisher, thomas nelson, for the arc! this review reflects my honest thoughts, and although i know i wrote more about the bad than the good in this review, i'm not discouraging people from reading this, because i did appreciate this book for what it was. and like i said, it did touch me in the end :)