Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble

Dreaming Anastasia:
What really happened to Anastasia Romanov?
Anastasia Romanov thought she would never feel more alone than when the gunfire started and her family began to fall around her. Surely the bullets would come for her next. But they didn't. Instead, two gnarled old hands reached for her. When she wakes up she discovers that she is in the ancient hut of the witch Baba Yaga, and that some things are worse than being dead.
In modern-day Chicago, Anne doesn't know much about Russian history. She is more concerned about getting into a good college—until the dreams start. She is somewhere else. She is someone else. And she is sharing a small room with a very old woman. The vivid dreams startle her, but not until a handsome stranger offers to explain them does she realize her life is going to change forever. She is the only one who can save Anastasia. But, Anastasia is having her own dreams…


Joy Preble wrote an incredible tale of what could have happened to Anastasia Romanov, the famous Russian Princess who went missing after the assassination of her entire family. I found the story interesting enough to hold my attention but there were times that I found the pace a little slow going. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, and Anne’s realistic reaction to Ethan made this story feel all the more real. A witch named Baba Yaga is compelled by magic to save Anastasia during the massacre and for nearly one hundred years she has been trapped with Baba Yaga. Anastasia was betrayed by someone she thought she could trust and both she and her family paid the price. Anne lives in modern day Chicago and strange dreams are just the beginning to her adventure. When she discovers Ethan, a mysterious boy with incredible blue eyes following her, she confronts him and finds out that she is connected to Anastasia in a way that no one would have guessed. Filled with twists and turns as they try to solve the mystery of how to rescue Anastasia, Anne and Ethan learn that the path to survival depends on their ability to trust one another, and believing in their feelings for one another. I can't wait to see what happens in Haunted Joy's next book in this series.