Anastasia's Secret by Susanne Dunlap

Anastasia's Secret by Susanne Dunlap 2 of 5 stars.

The life of a Russian princess rests in the hands of her secret love
For Anastasia Romanov, life as the daughter of Russia's last tsar is about to be torn apart by the violence of revolution. Ousted from the Imperial Palace when the Bolsheviks seized control, Anastasia and her family are exiled to Siberia as the rebels determine their future. But even while their captivity stretches out and the threat to their lives grows more menacing, romance quietly blossoms between Anastasia and a sympathetic guard named Sasha. Will their secret love be enough to help her and her family avoid the firing squad? Inspired by the mysteries that have long surrounded the fate of Russia's last princess, this is a compelling and romantic vision of what might have been.

I was extremely excited to read Anastasia's Secret having been intrigued by Anastasia Romanov for quite some time, but I was sadly disappointed. While Susanne Dunlap's prose was nice, the story wasn't able to hold my attention. It lacked suspense. There were a few scenes that I enjoyed and I think were done well but on the whole the book wasn't very interesting. I think Susanne Dunlap is a good writer and the initial plot was a great idea but I feel she could have done more with it. The characters were well laid, but the action, I feel was not. I kept hoping toward some sort of surprise as I got closer to the end but it never came. The author left off the real ending to the story, in my opinion, and left us with what is known through historical evidence which wasn't very satisfying. It was like there was no point in reading about this secret life of Anastasia's if we weren't able to see how it could have ended. I would I liked to read something entirely fictitious and then be told how it really happened. But that is just me. I'm sure some of historical fiction readers might fall head-over-heals for this novel, but I did not.