Anastasia and Her Sisters - Carolyn Meyer

Title: Anastasia and Her Sisters
Author: Carolyn Meyer
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2015 (Hardcover)
Length: 310 pages
Genre: Young Adult; Historical Fiction
Started: June 8, 2015
Finished: June 9, 2015

Summary:
From the inside cover:

Thirteen-year-old Anastasia Romanova lives the extravagant life of the Russian princess that she is, dressing in beautiful clothes and traveling from palace to palace. As she grows up, she sees unrest in the streets of Saint Petersburg and feels more and more unsafe. In 1917, when Anastasia is sixteen, her way of life is threatened when her father, Tsar Nicholas II, is forced to abdicate the throne. Anastasia cannot understand how her father, who always seemed so kind, could have enemies. Suddenly, instead of living a fairy-tale existence, Anastasia is trying not to show how afraid she is.

Revealed in the voice of the strong  and mysterious Anastasia Romanova, Carolyn Meyer's story of Russian revolution is told through invented diary entries that capture the drama of this fascinating time in history.

Review:
We're big history buffs in our house, as evidenced by the piles of books on our shelves, and the fact that we named our daughter after the same Russian grand duchess in the title. So of course, any books on the historical Anastasia are sought after and read voraciously.

This book is similar in style to Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess, also by the same author, except this newer novel is geared toward YA readers as opposed to middle grade, and is more detailed.

The book is narrated by Anastasia, beginning from age ten in 1911 to age seventeen in 1918. Interspersed are diary entries written by her eldest sister Olga (the premise being Anastasia discovers her sister's alternate diary and reads it every so often for years). The novel opens at the height of Romanov rule and details the opulence of their lives traveling from their palaces to vacation areas and yachts, and continues along through the events of the First World War and the Russian Revolution.

I need my historical fiction novels to be well-researched, which this one definitely is, the author even included things I wasn't previously aware of, and that's saying something regarding this subject area. I liked the little details in the sisters' relationship, it made them very relatable, which is hard to do with historical figures, especially royalty.

Recommendation:
Well-researched and engaging account of the Romanov sisters.

Thoughts on the cover:
Although the picture on the cover isn't of Anastasia at all, the pose and the colouring and the sliver of light down her face comes together to make an impressive cover.