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The Storyteller
With the mystery of Maureen Johnson and Brittany Cavallo and the historical intrigue of Romanov, this enthralling story follows a teenage girl’s quest to uncover the truth behind her secretive great aunt Anna, who just might be the long lost Russian princess Anastasia.
It’s not every day you discover you might be related to Anastasia…or that the tragic princess actually survived her assassination attempt and has been living as the woman you know as Aunt Anna.
For Jess Morgan, who is growing tired of living her life to please everyone else, discovering her late aunt’s diaries shows her she’s not the only one struggling to hide who she really is. But was her aunt truly a Romanov princess? Or is this some elaborate hoax?
With the help of a supremely dorky, but undeniably cute, local college student named Evan, Jess digs into the century-old mystery.
But soon Jess realizes there’s another, bigger truth waiting to be revealed: Jess Morgan. Because if she’s learned anything from Aunt Anna, it’s that only you can write your own story.
Part mystery, romance, and historical fiction, this genre-bending YA will pull readers into one girl’s journey of discovering the impossible tale of a long-lost aunt—and through her, the importance of being true to yourself.
It’s not every day you discover you might be related to Anastasia…or that the tragic princess actually survived her assassination attempt and has been living as the woman you know as Aunt Anna.
For Jess Morgan, who is growing tired of living her life to please everyone else, discovering her late aunt’s diaries shows her she’s not the only one struggling to hide who she really is. But was her aunt truly a Romanov princess? Or is this some elaborate hoax?
With the help of a supremely dorky, but undeniably cute, local college student named Evan, Jess digs into the century-old mystery.
But soon Jess realizes there’s another, bigger truth waiting to be revealed: Jess Morgan. Because if she’s learned anything from Aunt Anna, it’s that only you can write your own story.
Part mystery, romance, and historical fiction, this genre-bending YA will pull readers into one girl’s journey of discovering the impossible tale of a long-lost aunt—and through her, the importance of being true to yourself.
368 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 11, 2022
59 people are currently reading
6890 people want to read
About the author
Kathryn Williams
28 books103 followersKathryn Williams is the author of four young adult novels, a handful of bestselling Disney junior novelizations, and a humorous guide to living with roommates.
Originally from the South, she now lives with her family in Portland, Maine, where she finds inspiration in the woods, by the water, in antique stores full of old stuff, and at The Telling Room, a nonprofit creative writing center where she helps kids and teens write and publish their own stories.
Originally from the South, she now lives with her family in Portland, Maine, where she finds inspiration in the woods, by the water, in antique stores full of old stuff, and at The Telling Room, a nonprofit creative writing center where she helps kids and teens write and publish their own stories.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 318 reviews
December 27, 2021
A fascinating blend of mystery, romance and historical fiction that perfectly captures the age old (and relatable) struggles of identity and self discovery.
In Jess we find a hardworking and smart teenage girl who, through the discovery of her deceased great aunt’s journals (and with help from the attractively nerdy, Evan Hermann) Jess may just have solved the mystery surrounding Anastasia Romanov, the long lost daughter of Russia’s last Czar.
But was mysterious great-aunt Anna really the lost princess or is this all an elaborate hoax?
In trying to solve the mystery of a lifetime, Jess’s tireless search leads her to her own startling discovery—learning to embrace her true self, let go of unhealthy relationships and to value the power (and importance) of storytelling.
This was an absolutely captivating and enjoyable read that I literally couldn’t put down. The mystery surrounding Anastasia has fascinated the world for more than a century and given I was huge fan of the animated movie as a child I knew as soon as I read the premise I’d need to get my hands on a copy—and trust me it doesn’t disappoint!
It’s told through two interwoven timelines and the POV of two people,Jess a seventeen year old girl in living in New Hampshire 2007 and through the translated journal entries of Anastasia: from indulgent childhood, to her families subsequent imprisonment and life post revolution, impoverished and on the run.
I really enjoyed the dual alternating perspectives of Jess and Anna which really brought both characters to life, especially social chameleon Jess,who manages to find a kindred soul within the pages of her great-aunts’ journals. It’s through this connection (as well as her burgeoning friendship with Evan) that we truly start to see the real Jess.
As a character Jess is really brilliantly written, she’s complex and flawed but still really relatable. I also have to applaud the romance here, which was stunning though a bit of a slowburn , I was 100% invested in it and was definitely satisfied with how it plays out. 10 out of 10 for that!
However, there were a few times during the journal scenes when the pace did slowdown but other than that, The Storyteller is a genuinely compelling and though provoking read that I highly recommend. Especially if you love historical YA and anything Anastasia related!
I also wanted to say a massive thank you to Harper360YA and Edelweiss for the e-arc.
In Jess we find a hardworking and smart teenage girl who, through the discovery of her deceased great aunt’s journals (and with help from the attractively nerdy, Evan Hermann) Jess may just have solved the mystery surrounding Anastasia Romanov, the long lost daughter of Russia’s last Czar.
But was mysterious great-aunt Anna really the lost princess or is this all an elaborate hoax?
In trying to solve the mystery of a lifetime, Jess’s tireless search leads her to her own startling discovery—learning to embrace her true self, let go of unhealthy relationships and to value the power (and importance) of storytelling.
This was an absolutely captivating and enjoyable read that I literally couldn’t put down. The mystery surrounding Anastasia has fascinated the world for more than a century and given I was huge fan of the animated movie as a child I knew as soon as I read the premise I’d need to get my hands on a copy—and trust me it doesn’t disappoint!
It’s told through two interwoven timelines and the POV of two people,Jess a seventeen year old girl in living in New Hampshire 2007 and through the translated journal entries of Anastasia: from indulgent childhood, to her families subsequent imprisonment and life post revolution, impoverished and on the run.
I really enjoyed the dual alternating perspectives of Jess and Anna which really brought both characters to life, especially social chameleon Jess,who manages to find a kindred soul within the pages of her great-aunts’ journals. It’s through this connection (as well as her burgeoning friendship with Evan) that we truly start to see the real Jess.
As a character Jess is really brilliantly written, she’s complex and flawed but still really relatable. I also have to applaud the romance here, which was stunning though a bit of a slowburn , I was 100% invested in it and was definitely satisfied with how it plays out. 10 out of 10 for that!
However, there were a few times during the journal scenes when the pace did slowdown but other than that, The Storyteller is a genuinely compelling and though provoking read that I highly recommend. Especially if you love historical YA and anything Anastasia related!
I also wanted to say a massive thank you to Harper360YA and Edelweiss for the e-arc.
March 13, 2023
WARNING: SPOILERS TO FOLLOW. I'm not going to hide them in spoiler tags because Goodreads formatting has been really wonky lately and I don't feel like dealing with that headache right now. I will put another warning when spoilers start, though.
The Storyteller is a YA contemporary novel (well, set in 2007) about a teenage girl whose dead great-aunt claimed to be Anastasia Romanov. The girl discovers her aunt's diaries in her attic, detailing the story of how she (allegedly) escaped the Bolsheviks and found her way to America. The diaries are written in fluent Russian, display a suspiciously intimate knowledge of Russian court life, and are obviously too old to be a recent fabrication. So naturally, our protagonist is like ???? And the Russian-language nerd she hired from the local college to help her translate the diaries is also like ????
As you can imagine, this plot was catnip for a history lover like me. I raced through the book in less than two days. I knew the aunt probably wouldn't turn out to be the real Anastasia, given we know from recent DNA evidence that Anastasia was murdered in 1918 with the rest of her family and it would be insensitive for the author to claim otherwise; but I was like, "if she isn't Anastasia, then WHERE DID THESE DIARIES COME FROM??? I MUST KNOW"
Spoilers start here:
Okay so, the way the aunt's "true story" was presented at the end was just... so freaking funny to me? Like genuinely but unintentionally hilarious? Apparently, this girl's aunt wasn't Anastasia, but she was a Russian aristocrat, the daughter of a bona fide Russian count, who grew up in a grand house with tons of servants LITERALLY NEXT DOOR TO THE TSAR'S PALACE. She had the Tsar himself for a next-door neighbor. (I'm not even kidding.) Then her father disappeared and she fell on hard times due to the Communist revolution, and some nasty people started exploiting her, so she escaped to America and pretended to be Princess Anastasia in order to con money to survive. Because Princess Anastasia was the only high-born Russian most Americans had heard of; she couldn't just be like "I am the daughter of Count So-and-So, now give me money" and have her marks be like "whomst??" Also, she wrote a bunch of diaries from Anastasia's point of view in order to keep her story straight.
This is fine //as far as it goes//, and it does explain the weird plot elements like the diaries being in perfect Russian and the writer knowing all these odd random facts about Russian court customs. But we're still asked to believe that this girl's aunt, an ordinary old lady in an ordinary little New Hampshire town, was a blooming RUSSIAN ARISTOCRAT who used to LIVE NEXT DOOR TO THE TSAR and, like, NEVER EVEN TOLD HER FAMILY? And we're supposed to accept this as the "boring" explanation, the "realistic" explanation. "Hey, protagonist, give up all these silly childish fairy tales about your aunt being Anastasia and learn to accept cold hard reality as it is." Cold hard reality being that I'm related to Russian nobility and never knew it??? Oh, wow, I'm so disappointed... how will I ever learn to live in the everyday world after this :-P
I have to say, I think a better plot twist, both more believable and more emotionally compelling, would be for the aunt to be a former servant in the Tsar's palace. Say she was the same age as Anastasia and grew up as her lady's maid or chambermaid or something. That way, she would know Anastasia personally and form an emotional bond with her (as it is, the aunt never actually TALKED to Anastasia, she just saw her around town and at parties). If she were a trusted servant, super close to the Tsar's family but not actually part of it, she would probably feel a mixture of envy for their privileged lives plus guilt at not being able to save them. And the envy and guilt would make it more realistic for her to pretend to BE Anastasia and even, in a sense, come to believe she really was?? Because I feel like the author never quite explained why the aunt was so overly invested in those diaries she wrote from Anastasia's POV. If she was just trying to keep her story straight to con her American victims, a simple timeline would have worked way better. There was no need to write pages and pages and pages about the halcyon days in the Tsar's palace before the Communists came... unless she actually thought she was Anastasia, or wanted to be so badly she couldn't tell the difference anymore. Idk, I think the servant angle would have worked better than the disgraced aristocrat angle. It would feel more personal, at least. "This girl was my friend and I let her down."
Anyways, the book was a wild ride and had me giggling for days thinking about the whole Russian-noblewoman-in-a-tiny-New-Hampshire-town schtick, so that's something. XD
The Storyteller is a YA contemporary novel (well, set in 2007) about a teenage girl whose dead great-aunt claimed to be Anastasia Romanov. The girl discovers her aunt's diaries in her attic, detailing the story of how she (allegedly) escaped the Bolsheviks and found her way to America. The diaries are written in fluent Russian, display a suspiciously intimate knowledge of Russian court life, and are obviously too old to be a recent fabrication. So naturally, our protagonist is like ???? And the Russian-language nerd she hired from the local college to help her translate the diaries is also like ????
As you can imagine, this plot was catnip for a history lover like me. I raced through the book in less than two days. I knew the aunt probably wouldn't turn out to be the real Anastasia, given we know from recent DNA evidence that Anastasia was murdered in 1918 with the rest of her family and it would be insensitive for the author to claim otherwise; but I was like, "if she isn't Anastasia, then WHERE DID THESE DIARIES COME FROM??? I MUST KNOW"
Spoilers start here:
Okay so, the way the aunt's "true story" was presented at the end was just... so freaking funny to me? Like genuinely but unintentionally hilarious? Apparently, this girl's aunt wasn't Anastasia, but she was a Russian aristocrat, the daughter of a bona fide Russian count, who grew up in a grand house with tons of servants LITERALLY NEXT DOOR TO THE TSAR'S PALACE. She had the Tsar himself for a next-door neighbor. (I'm not even kidding.) Then her father disappeared and she fell on hard times due to the Communist revolution, and some nasty people started exploiting her, so she escaped to America and pretended to be Princess Anastasia in order to con money to survive. Because Princess Anastasia was the only high-born Russian most Americans had heard of; she couldn't just be like "I am the daughter of Count So-and-So, now give me money" and have her marks be like "whomst??" Also, she wrote a bunch of diaries from Anastasia's point of view in order to keep her story straight.
This is fine //as far as it goes//, and it does explain the weird plot elements like the diaries being in perfect Russian and the writer knowing all these odd random facts about Russian court customs. But we're still asked to believe that this girl's aunt, an ordinary old lady in an ordinary little New Hampshire town, was a blooming RUSSIAN ARISTOCRAT who used to LIVE NEXT DOOR TO THE TSAR and, like, NEVER EVEN TOLD HER FAMILY? And we're supposed to accept this as the "boring" explanation, the "realistic" explanation. "Hey, protagonist, give up all these silly childish fairy tales about your aunt being Anastasia and learn to accept cold hard reality as it is." Cold hard reality being that I'm related to Russian nobility and never knew it??? Oh, wow, I'm so disappointed... how will I ever learn to live in the everyday world after this :-P
I have to say, I think a better plot twist, both more believable and more emotionally compelling, would be for the aunt to be a former servant in the Tsar's palace. Say she was the same age as Anastasia and grew up as her lady's maid or chambermaid or something. That way, she would know Anastasia personally and form an emotional bond with her (as it is, the aunt never actually TALKED to Anastasia, she just saw her around town and at parties). If she were a trusted servant, super close to the Tsar's family but not actually part of it, she would probably feel a mixture of envy for their privileged lives plus guilt at not being able to save them. And the envy and guilt would make it more realistic for her to pretend to BE Anastasia and even, in a sense, come to believe she really was?? Because I feel like the author never quite explained why the aunt was so overly invested in those diaries she wrote from Anastasia's POV. If she was just trying to keep her story straight to con her American victims, a simple timeline would have worked way better. There was no need to write pages and pages and pages about the halcyon days in the Tsar's palace before the Communists came... unless she actually thought she was Anastasia, or wanted to be so badly she couldn't tell the difference anymore. Idk, I think the servant angle would have worked better than the disgraced aristocrat angle. It would feel more personal, at least. "This girl was my friend and I let her down."
Anyways, the book was a wild ride and had me giggling for days thinking about the whole Russian-noblewoman-in-a-tiny-New-Hampshire-town schtick, so that's something. XD
January 5, 2022
“We’re all made up of stories, the ones we tell ourselves and the ones we tell each other.”
While helping her other clean out her deceased great-aunt’s belonging, Jess Morgan finds a collection of journals. Intrigued, Jess hires a college student fluent in Russian to translate Jess’s finds, and Jess learns more than she ever expected. Could her great-aunt be Anastasia Romanov, the Russian princess rumored to have been assassinated with the rest of her family? As Jess learns about her aunt’s past, she must also face the challenges in her own life, including strained relationships at home, fights with her friends, and not being entirely honest with her boyfriend or herself.
An interesting coming-of-age novel, The Storyteller is told in two timelines – the early 2000s with Jess and the years before and after the assassination of the Romanov family. I like that the book includes translated passages of Aunt Anna’s journal from when she was young. These journals document her thoughts and feelings and add such a strong voice to Anna’s story.
I always find historical fiction like this so fascinating. What if Anastasia survived? What kind of life would she have had? The story delves into Anastasia’s life, as well as world politics, and Russian culture during the time of Anastasia’s life. References to literature, Anastasia’s family, the turbulence of the times, and more add depth and context to the story. I didn’t know a lot about Anastasia before reading this book, and I found her journals so interesting. I actually went and read more articles online about Anastasia and her family because of this story.
The more Jess learns about her aunt, the more she learns about herself. She identifies with this princess, a young woman who, like Jess, pretended to be someone she wasn’t. This is especially noticeable when Jess is with her boyfriend. She is a totally different person when she is with him and his friends, and she does things she wouldn’t ordinarily do just to fit in and be accepted. I feel like this is something so many people do, and I, myself, have done it a time or two. The desire to be accepted and loved is strong, and Jess’s character shows this so well.
I think Jess is a pretty relatable protagonist. She’s an intelligent, hard-working teenager, eager to fit in and be liked, a bit insecure, and very curious. She is a people pleaser who tries to appease those around her, yet she is not entirely happy. I like how Jess slowly learns to be true to herself and shows people who she really is. I think teens will relate to many of the problems Jess faces, and there are some great messages throughout the book about knowing one’s worth, discerning between healthy and unhealthy relationships, and the importance of storytelling.
Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author, and Harper Teen for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
While helping her other clean out her deceased great-aunt’s belonging, Jess Morgan finds a collection of journals. Intrigued, Jess hires a college student fluent in Russian to translate Jess’s finds, and Jess learns more than she ever expected. Could her great-aunt be Anastasia Romanov, the Russian princess rumored to have been assassinated with the rest of her family? As Jess learns about her aunt’s past, she must also face the challenges in her own life, including strained relationships at home, fights with her friends, and not being entirely honest with her boyfriend or herself.
An interesting coming-of-age novel, The Storyteller is told in two timelines – the early 2000s with Jess and the years before and after the assassination of the Romanov family. I like that the book includes translated passages of Aunt Anna’s journal from when she was young. These journals document her thoughts and feelings and add such a strong voice to Anna’s story.
I always find historical fiction like this so fascinating. What if Anastasia survived? What kind of life would she have had? The story delves into Anastasia’s life, as well as world politics, and Russian culture during the time of Anastasia’s life. References to literature, Anastasia’s family, the turbulence of the times, and more add depth and context to the story. I didn’t know a lot about Anastasia before reading this book, and I found her journals so interesting. I actually went and read more articles online about Anastasia and her family because of this story.
The more Jess learns about her aunt, the more she learns about herself. She identifies with this princess, a young woman who, like Jess, pretended to be someone she wasn’t. This is especially noticeable when Jess is with her boyfriend. She is a totally different person when she is with him and his friends, and she does things she wouldn’t ordinarily do just to fit in and be accepted. I feel like this is something so many people do, and I, myself, have done it a time or two. The desire to be accepted and loved is strong, and Jess’s character shows this so well.
I think Jess is a pretty relatable protagonist. She’s an intelligent, hard-working teenager, eager to fit in and be liked, a bit insecure, and very curious. She is a people pleaser who tries to appease those around her, yet she is not entirely happy. I like how Jess slowly learns to be true to herself and shows people who she really is. I think teens will relate to many of the problems Jess faces, and there are some great messages throughout the book about knowing one’s worth, discerning between healthy and unhealthy relationships, and the importance of storytelling.
Thanks so much to NetGalley, the author, and Harper Teen for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
April 27, 2022
Prior to DNA testing, a tale persisted for decades that imperial princess, Anastasia Romanov, survived the assassination of her entire family by the Bolsheviks, perpetuated infamously by a woman named Anna Anderson. This is a reimagined tale of “what happened to Anastasia?” I was wary of this novel - even in the midst of reading it because we know what happened to her based on science. But the author did a great job weaving history and fiction together for a wonderful, satisfying story and conclusion, navigated by scholarly Jess and her nerdy friend, Evan.
The audiobook narrator was EXCELLENT - her Russian accents as perfect as one could expect. Bravo.
The audiobook narrator was EXCELLENT - her Russian accents as perfect as one could expect. Bravo.
November 25, 2024
So that was...a book...I guess...
In all honesty, for the most part, if Joy Preble's "Dreaming Anastasia" was Romanov YA fiction if it was done in the style of Lauren Kate's Fallen, The Storyteller is Romanov YA fiction if it was done in the style of Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries series.
I wish I could say, in this instance, I mean that as a compliment, but alas, not so much.
I'm not sure if I'd exactly call "The Storyteller" itself a mixed bag, but it's definitely a novel I have mixed feelings about; there's honestly a lot, maybe too much, about it that simply doesn't WORK, but the general idea (which is good, and why I bought and read it in the first place) paired with the handful of elements that DO work, the stuff I have to admit despite myself I legitimately liked, keeps it from dipping below three stars in my rating (though I toyed with giving it two as it was just "okay" overall) and me from putting it on my list of worst Romanov books.
The first problem with this book is the characters; they're pretty much all horrible people with precious few redeeming qualities, except for Evan, the love interest, who was a darling cinnamon roll and honestly way too good for the entitled, whiny protagonist.
Jess admittedly SHOULD be awful when the story begins, because she's a social chameleon being a bitch because that's what everyone else WANTS her to be, I get that; but she should be "Tree before the time loop"/"Landon Carter before he loved Jamie"/"Ethan Wate if he never met Lena" awful, not "awful awful". Come on, man.
Jess, though, is the prime example of a selfish "why is MY life so awful, why does the universe hate me, wah" YA female lead, and only seems decent by the end because a) she has some minor development and dumps her cheating loser boyfriend who insulted her new love interest for working at a shoe store and saying "shall" instead of will (way to lower the bar and do the bare minimum, Jess), and b) because everyone else in her family is worse, making her a shining beacon of goodness by default/comparison.
Seriously, Jess's dad's a deadbeat, her mom is a complete bitch (what kind of sick cow gets mad at an old woman for sitting in a corner during Thanksgiving; screw you, Jess's mom, and maybe YOU should date Ryan if you think he's all that and a box of Crackerjacks), and her brother is just pathetic.
Katie, while the book tries to make her the true blue friend who knows the real Jess, she comes across as almost controlling as everyone else in Jess's life. She does apologize for the meanest thing she does though (pegging Jess that finger), so there's that.
Tyler is literally only in this book because he's gay. He has no other characteristics, and I'm not sure he even has any on page dialogue. He's just there so Ryan can use him as an example of a gay guy, so we the duh-duh-dumb audience can get our obligatory toats on the nose "homophobia, bad" message. Because God forbid a book for teens should be published in the year of our lord 2022 without one being shoehorned in. This is the YA equivalent of a historical fiction novel trying to make a protagonist look "extra good" by making them antislavery even if it doesn't fit their circumstances in the time period.
Case in point as to why I don't think even the author actually cares Jack poo-poo about Tyler: we literally never find out if he gets back together with his on again, off again boyfriend; the plot thread is just dropped the second the "homophobic jerk gets told off" scene is accomplished.
So why is he even in this thing?
If this was just a coming of age book, with only the modern parts, and no historical intrigue, this would be a one-star book, regardless of the awesomeness that is Evan.
Thankfully, there is a historical mystery and it saves it from being a complete dud.
But, I'm just going to come out and say it, it's (almost painfully) derivative of Romanov stuff we've seen in other books, much better executed, before.
The ending to Anna's story basically being "But we WANT Anastasia to have lived" was already done to great effect in the vastly superior "I Was Anastasia" by Ariel Lawhon, and the only people I'd recommend this to instead of that masterpiece would be lazy people who find backwards timelines too "difficult" to follow.
Worse, the major twist, of the real Anna being present in the diaries as a separate character, isn't shocking because it's a clumsier version of the twist in Robert Alexander's "The Kitchen Boy", in which we find out the significance of the blonde guard we met once in the narrative before.
(My apologies to anyone I just spoiled The Kitchen Boy for.)
But, and this I've got to hand it to Williams for, I DID really like, even love, that Anna was the daughter of a Russian count and so WOULD have known enough to convincingly pass as Anastasia since she already looked a lot like her. And I LOVE how Anna inserted her own love interest into her fictionalized Anastasia's life in the fake diaries, as a wounded solider. This was a stroke of pure genius. And so well written, I'm honestly confused by the rest of the book not being nearly as clever. So much of this sent me looking to see what else Williams has written and exclaiming, exasperated, "oh, of COURSE she did," when I realized she did a Camp Rock novel; but that final letter by Anna was brilliant. I also liked how Jess stole the letter so it didn't sit in the archives; it reminds me, in a good way, of the ending to "The Red Violin".
I think this could have been a brilliant book if instead of making it a story about Jess solving a mystery about Anna, it actually focused on Anna herself, or if it had dual narratives (not just letters, diaries and sum ups) and instead of Jess as the modern narrator, we had Evan's pov, starting from when he comes across Jess's ad on craigslist.
If he was the protagonist, it also would have helped me to understand why someone like Evan, so open, honest, creative and fun, liked Jess as more than a friend at the end; the story seems to forget how much older than her he is, like it's somehow a given he couldn't get a girlfriend his own age because he's a nerd.
And to make it more annoying, after randomly shoving them as a pairing into the reader's brains, it's implied they don't even end up together in a completely unnecessary post script!
Just why...?
Backing up a bit to my complaint about the writing itself, in fairness, I'm not in the YA age group anymore, so I 100% GET this was not written for ME, but I don't think that fully excuses how mind numbingly juvenile this comes across at times; a few times, I tried to rationalize this was actually written for really YOUNG teenagers, despite the characters themselves being older, like fourteen and under young, but the language used doesn't support that. For example there's literally a scene where Jess uses the F-word three times in a single sentence. It's not excessive in that it's only the one scene, she's legitimately mad at someone, and since it doesn't actually refer to anything sexual, could just pass for the book equivalent of that one f bomb allowed in a PG-13 film, but it was still enough to convince me this wasn't written for kids fresh off their Percy Jackson obsessions but older teens.
But what older teen would be interested in something that at best could be a B-movie on ABC Family in the mid-2000s (no insult intended by this comparison to Holiday in Handcuffs, which was actually fun, or Princess, which was legitimately awesome), when there are SOOO MANY other YA Romanov books for them to check out? Who would rather read this over Anastasia's Secret, Anastasia and her Sisters, or The Lost Crown? And for those who maybe haven't heard of those slightly older treasures, why wouldn't they just read Romanov by Nadine Brandes?
As an aside: I liked the brief reference to the animated Anastasia in this.
Lukewarm recommendation.
In all honesty, for the most part, if Joy Preble's "Dreaming Anastasia" was Romanov YA fiction if it was done in the style of Lauren Kate's Fallen, The Storyteller is Romanov YA fiction if it was done in the style of Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries series.
I wish I could say, in this instance, I mean that as a compliment, but alas, not so much.
I'm not sure if I'd exactly call "The Storyteller" itself a mixed bag, but it's definitely a novel I have mixed feelings about; there's honestly a lot, maybe too much, about it that simply doesn't WORK, but the general idea (which is good, and why I bought and read it in the first place) paired with the handful of elements that DO work, the stuff I have to admit despite myself I legitimately liked, keeps it from dipping below three stars in my rating (though I toyed with giving it two as it was just "okay" overall) and me from putting it on my list of worst Romanov books.
The first problem with this book is the characters; they're pretty much all horrible people with precious few redeeming qualities, except for Evan, the love interest, who was a darling cinnamon roll and honestly way too good for the entitled, whiny protagonist.
Jess admittedly SHOULD be awful when the story begins, because she's a social chameleon being a bitch because that's what everyone else WANTS her to be, I get that; but she should be "Tree before the time loop"/"Landon Carter before he loved Jamie"/"Ethan Wate if he never met Lena" awful, not "awful awful". Come on, man.
Jess, though, is the prime example of a selfish "why is MY life so awful, why does the universe hate me, wah" YA female lead, and only seems decent by the end because a) she has some minor development and dumps her cheating loser boyfriend who insulted her new love interest for working at a shoe store and saying "shall" instead of will (way to lower the bar and do the bare minimum, Jess), and b) because everyone else in her family is worse, making her a shining beacon of goodness by default/comparison.
Seriously, Jess's dad's a deadbeat, her mom is a complete bitch (what kind of sick cow gets mad at an old woman for sitting in a corner during Thanksgiving; screw you, Jess's mom, and maybe YOU should date Ryan if you think he's all that and a box of Crackerjacks), and her brother is just pathetic.
Katie, while the book tries to make her the true blue friend who knows the real Jess, she comes across as almost controlling as everyone else in Jess's life. She does apologize for the meanest thing she does though (pegging Jess that finger), so there's that.
Tyler is literally only in this book because he's gay. He has no other characteristics, and I'm not sure he even has any on page dialogue. He's just there so Ryan can use him as an example of a gay guy, so we the duh-duh-dumb audience can get our obligatory toats on the nose "homophobia, bad" message. Because God forbid a book for teens should be published in the year of our lord 2022 without one being shoehorned in. This is the YA equivalent of a historical fiction novel trying to make a protagonist look "extra good" by making them antislavery even if it doesn't fit their circumstances in the time period.
Case in point as to why I don't think even the author actually cares Jack poo-poo about Tyler: we literally never find out if he gets back together with his on again, off again boyfriend; the plot thread is just dropped the second the "homophobic jerk gets told off" scene is accomplished.
So why is he even in this thing?
If this was just a coming of age book, with only the modern parts, and no historical intrigue, this would be a one-star book, regardless of the awesomeness that is Evan.
Thankfully, there is a historical mystery and it saves it from being a complete dud.
But, I'm just going to come out and say it, it's (almost painfully) derivative of Romanov stuff we've seen in other books, much better executed, before.
The ending to Anna's story basically being "But we WANT Anastasia to have lived" was already done to great effect in the vastly superior "I Was Anastasia" by Ariel Lawhon, and the only people I'd recommend this to instead of that masterpiece would be lazy people who find backwards timelines too "difficult" to follow.
Worse, the major twist, of the real Anna being present in the diaries as a separate character, isn't shocking because it's a clumsier version of the twist in Robert Alexander's "The Kitchen Boy", in which we find out the significance of the blonde guard we met once in the narrative before.
(My apologies to anyone I just spoiled The Kitchen Boy for.)
But, and this I've got to hand it to Williams for, I DID really like, even love, that Anna was the daughter of a Russian count and so WOULD have known enough to convincingly pass as Anastasia since she already looked a lot like her. And I LOVE how Anna inserted her own love interest into her fictionalized Anastasia's life in the fake diaries, as a wounded solider. This was a stroke of pure genius. And so well written, I'm honestly confused by the rest of the book not being nearly as clever. So much of this sent me looking to see what else Williams has written and exclaiming, exasperated, "oh, of COURSE she did," when I realized she did a Camp Rock novel; but that final letter by Anna was brilliant. I also liked how Jess stole the letter so it didn't sit in the archives; it reminds me, in a good way, of the ending to "The Red Violin".
I think this could have been a brilliant book if instead of making it a story about Jess solving a mystery about Anna, it actually focused on Anna herself, or if it had dual narratives (not just letters, diaries and sum ups) and instead of Jess as the modern narrator, we had Evan's pov, starting from when he comes across Jess's ad on craigslist.
If he was the protagonist, it also would have helped me to understand why someone like Evan, so open, honest, creative and fun, liked Jess as more than a friend at the end; the story seems to forget how much older than her he is, like it's somehow a given he couldn't get a girlfriend his own age because he's a nerd.
And to make it more annoying, after randomly shoving them as a pairing into the reader's brains, it's implied they don't even end up together in a completely unnecessary post script!
Just why...?
Backing up a bit to my complaint about the writing itself, in fairness, I'm not in the YA age group anymore, so I 100% GET this was not written for ME, but I don't think that fully excuses how mind numbingly juvenile this comes across at times; a few times, I tried to rationalize this was actually written for really YOUNG teenagers, despite the characters themselves being older, like fourteen and under young, but the language used doesn't support that. For example there's literally a scene where Jess uses the F-word three times in a single sentence. It's not excessive in that it's only the one scene, she's legitimately mad at someone, and since it doesn't actually refer to anything sexual, could just pass for the book equivalent of that one f bomb allowed in a PG-13 film, but it was still enough to convince me this wasn't written for kids fresh off their Percy Jackson obsessions but older teens.
But what older teen would be interested in something that at best could be a B-movie on ABC Family in the mid-2000s (no insult intended by this comparison to Holiday in Handcuffs, which was actually fun, or Princess, which was legitimately awesome), when there are SOOO MANY other YA Romanov books for them to check out? Who would rather read this over Anastasia's Secret, Anastasia and her Sisters, or The Lost Crown? And for those who maybe haven't heard of those slightly older treasures, why wouldn't they just read Romanov by Nadine Brandes?
As an aside: I liked the brief reference to the animated Anastasia in this.
Lukewarm recommendation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 11, 2021
Thank you, Harper Audio (Harper Collins) & NetGalley, for allowing me to read/listen to this book early in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions on the work.
Telling the story of two young women; one who is trying to decide if being herself is better than the one she pretends to be and another who could be the lost Princess Anastasia and the other girl great Aunt!
As you can see that even with this premise, I didn't love it. I will be waiting until the release to reveal my thoughts.
Telling the story of two young women; one who is trying to decide if being herself is better than the one she pretends to be and another who could be the lost Princess Anastasia and the other girl great Aunt!
As you can see that even with this premise, I didn't love it. I will be waiting until the release to reveal my thoughts.
October 29, 2025
I really liked this! The plot was unique and the vibe was very fall! My issue was that is just seemed sooo pick me…his whole character was just cringey. I liked the unique spin on a historical fiction tho! And the cover art was so pretty!!
September 17, 2022
3/5 🌟
This was a good story but I found myself so disappointed and dissatisfied at the end of it.
This was a good story but I found myself so disappointed and dissatisfied at the end of it.
March 29, 2022
This was a tough listen, I was very frustrated with most of the story. It is told in two parts, a "modern-day" story that takes place in the early 2000s and the other in the early 1900s in Russia. I just don't understand why a book that was just written would decide to put itself 20 years ago. I can't think of a single reason - even the news articles they mention are more recent discoveries (not more on this because *spoilers*).
As for the star rating, I just didn't enjoy it, it is lacking too much. Now, for the review.
Plot: The plot was slow-moving for me, I think there just wasn't enough to this story. The sub-stories are all really surface-level, and although they really affect the life of the main character, they just don't seem important. The plot is shallow, which isn't always bad, but you need the other two main areas of the book to hold the plot up, and the world-building and characters don't do that.
World-Building: The historical elements are filled out okay from Jess' questions and not understanding things, but the current day elements are so lacking. There is no physical description of places (except for the cemetary for some reason) and it leaves the book feeling empty. Like these actions are just floating around. As a reader we fill in these things, but every restaurant looking vaguely like Chili's in my mind means they just weren't described well.
Characters: I don't think that the correlations between Anna and Jess are enough throughout the story and I feel like that is supposed to be a big part of the story. The emotion of this book is very plain, very vague, very shallow. The secondary characters are superficial and the two main characters (three if you want to include Evan) are just not enough to support the other issues.
In the end, this story just wasn't deep enough. I would say it read like a middle-grade novel except for the copious amount of alcohol drank by underage characters keep me from recommending it for that age group. It needed more. More description, more complexity in the story, more emotion from the characters. The secondary characters needed to be more interesting instead of taking on the personalities of a bad sitcom. Literally, the only surprise is that the main character is quirky and has a boyfriend while her fun, outgoing bestie doesn't.
Note on my star rating system:
* DNF or really loathed
** Didn't enjoy or there were major issues with the story
*** Average read - most books I read are three-star books. They are good stories I recommend, but they didn't change my life.
**** - Amazing. Seriously. AMAZING. I've already been recommending it. I'm already adding the author's other books to my TBR. I am having a hard time starting a new book because it was so good I can't stop living in the story just yet.
***** - Life changing. Everything a four-star book is, but MORE. I'm already planning a re-read. I've bought it in a second format. I'm comparing the characters I love to other characters I love. I'm in love with the story. I'm referencing it in my daily life.
As for the star rating, I just didn't enjoy it, it is lacking too much. Now, for the review.
Plot: The plot was slow-moving for me, I think there just wasn't enough to this story. The sub-stories are all really surface-level, and although they really affect the life of the main character, they just don't seem important. The plot is shallow, which isn't always bad, but you need the other two main areas of the book to hold the plot up, and the world-building and characters don't do that.
World-Building: The historical elements are filled out okay from Jess' questions and not understanding things, but the current day elements are so lacking. There is no physical description of places (except for the cemetary for some reason) and it leaves the book feeling empty. Like these actions are just floating around. As a reader we fill in these things, but every restaurant looking vaguely like Chili's in my mind means they just weren't described well.
Characters: I don't think that the correlations between Anna and Jess are enough throughout the story and I feel like that is supposed to be a big part of the story. The emotion of this book is very plain, very vague, very shallow. The secondary characters are superficial and the two main characters (three if you want to include Evan) are just not enough to support the other issues.
In the end, this story just wasn't deep enough. I would say it read like a middle-grade novel except for the copious amount of alcohol drank by underage characters keep me from recommending it for that age group. It needed more. More description, more complexity in the story, more emotion from the characters. The secondary characters needed to be more interesting instead of taking on the personalities of a bad sitcom. Literally, the only surprise is that the main character is quirky and has a boyfriend while her fun, outgoing bestie doesn't.
Note on my star rating system:
* DNF or really loathed
** Didn't enjoy or there were major issues with the story
*** Average read - most books I read are three-star books. They are good stories I recommend, but they didn't change my life.
**** - Amazing. Seriously. AMAZING. I've already been recommending it. I'm already adding the author's other books to my TBR. I am having a hard time starting a new book because it was so good I can't stop living in the story just yet.
***** - Life changing. Everything a four-star book is, but MORE. I'm already planning a re-read. I've bought it in a second format. I'm comparing the characters I love to other characters I love. I'm in love with the story. I'm referencing it in my daily life.
January 9, 2022
You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
3.5*
Anastasia-inspired stories have always appealed to me, so I was quite excited to see what this one had to offer! And it was enjoyable, even though I had some mixed feelings. Let's break it down!
What I Liked:
►Without saying too much, I liked the direction the story ended up taking. Sometimes, stories that are inspired by the Romanov family can come off as... insensitive, considering they're a real family, gone for barely a century. And I'll say that I worried a bit when this one started. But if you are worried about that, I think that it ended up going in a direction that worked.
►It was cool that the author included a lot of authentic historical components. I really enjoyed the historical aspects. While I'd heard the story of Anna Anderson, there were a lot of other new-to-me tidbits from the time around and after the murders that were quite interesting.
►There was a lot of character growth. While Jess was kind of infuriating to me in the beginning (see below), she really did grow a lot during the course of the story. Finding out who her aunt was helped Jess find her own authentic self, which is great.
What I Didn't:
►Honestly, Jess just felt quite blah to me most of the time. I mean, when I started, I straight up couldn't stand her, honestly. She just... became whatever she thought people wanted her to be, and that was frustrating. I admit to not fully understanding this sort of thinking, but because she spent so much time not being her authentic self, I guess I never got a real sense of who she was as a person? She just felt a little generic to me. I think had I connected to her more, perhaps I would have been more engaged in the story as a whole.
Bottom Line: Unique twist on the Anastasia lore, with some great messages about being your true, authentic self.
3.5*
Anastasia-inspired stories have always appealed to me, so I was quite excited to see what this one had to offer! And it was enjoyable, even though I had some mixed feelings. Let's break it down!
What I Liked:
►Without saying too much, I liked the direction the story ended up taking. Sometimes, stories that are inspired by the Romanov family can come off as... insensitive, considering they're a real family, gone for barely a century. And I'll say that I worried a bit when this one started. But if you are worried about that, I think that it ended up going in a direction that worked.
►It was cool that the author included a lot of authentic historical components. I really enjoyed the historical aspects. While I'd heard the story of Anna Anderson, there were a lot of other new-to-me tidbits from the time around and after the murders that were quite interesting.
►There was a lot of character growth. While Jess was kind of infuriating to me in the beginning (see below), she really did grow a lot during the course of the story. Finding out who her aunt was helped Jess find her own authentic self, which is great.
What I Didn't:
►Honestly, Jess just felt quite blah to me most of the time. I mean, when I started, I straight up couldn't stand her, honestly. She just... became whatever she thought people wanted her to be, and that was frustrating. I admit to not fully understanding this sort of thinking, but because she spent so much time not being her authentic self, I guess I never got a real sense of who she was as a person? She just felt a little generic to me. I think had I connected to her more, perhaps I would have been more engaged in the story as a whole.
Bottom Line: Unique twist on the Anastasia lore, with some great messages about being your true, authentic self.
November 18, 2022
Was not one of my favorites
March 6, 2022
Wow!
What an amazing book.
First off mad props to Once Upon A BookClub for not only picking this fan-tabulous book but for the best bookish box presents ever! I recommend this bookish box to anybody interested in…bookish boxes. They really outdid themselves with this particular book. The gifts were perfection!
Now onto the book…man alive I loved loved loved it!
First, I love me a good dual timeline. Really I love any books about time: time travel, dual timeline, historical fiction…Alas I digress.
This book... The 2007 timeline was fabulous. Not only in regards to the story: coming of age…discovering oneself…YA. The story was so well done. I’m of age. I came, saw and am in the midst of conquering. Yet I still loved this timeline! It was done well. I always compare YA female protagonists to Bella and Katniss. (if you know, you know). Jess was a happy medium of the two. I could totally have been friends with Jess in high school. Sure there was teen drama with boyfriend trouble as well as BFF trouble. But Jess, I thought, handled it all with aplomb. It didn’t drag down the present (2007) storyline or distract from the epistolary (of sorts) flashback storyline.
The 2007 storyline was quite nostalgic actually. I know it was not that long ago but Kathryn Williams brings the reader back to: My Space (haha!), Hotmail, BlackBerry, and flip phones. Man, how quickly things change! Right before our eyes, yet it’s hardly noticeable.
On page 55 I see one of my all time favorite quotes: Trust But Verify. I thought Ronald Reagan coined the term. But according to Duck Duck Go, it’s a Russian Proverb. Reagan adopted it.
I digressed, yet again.
The author writes so vividly. She paints each scene so well. My favorite “painting” was Evan’s grandmother’s house. It gave me such joy. I loved when Jess was there. Jess was truly herself there.
Now onto the “flashbacks”. The Romanovs. Anastasia. Forget what you know from the animated movie. (Which I love – and I feel is one of the best soundtracks to any animated movie, ever). This book gives us the Romanovs – mostly Anastasia in a very different way. I can’t say too much about this timeline without giving too much away. I will just say I love this author. I loved this book – both timelines equally.
Read this book – and be yourself.
P.S. Evan is one of my favorite characters ever! I'd love to see him get his own book!
What an amazing book.
First off mad props to Once Upon A BookClub for not only picking this fan-tabulous book but for the best bookish box presents ever! I recommend this bookish box to anybody interested in…bookish boxes. They really outdid themselves with this particular book. The gifts were perfection!
Now onto the book…man alive I loved loved loved it!
First, I love me a good dual timeline. Really I love any books about time: time travel, dual timeline, historical fiction…Alas I digress.
This book... The 2007 timeline was fabulous. Not only in regards to the story: coming of age…discovering oneself…YA. The story was so well done. I’m of age. I came, saw and am in the midst of conquering. Yet I still loved this timeline! It was done well. I always compare YA female protagonists to Bella and Katniss. (if you know, you know). Jess was a happy medium of the two. I could totally have been friends with Jess in high school. Sure there was teen drama with boyfriend trouble as well as BFF trouble. But Jess, I thought, handled it all with aplomb. It didn’t drag down the present (2007) storyline or distract from the epistolary (of sorts) flashback storyline.
The 2007 storyline was quite nostalgic actually. I know it was not that long ago but Kathryn Williams brings the reader back to: My Space (haha!), Hotmail, BlackBerry, and flip phones. Man, how quickly things change! Right before our eyes, yet it’s hardly noticeable.
On page 55 I see one of my all time favorite quotes: Trust But Verify. I thought Ronald Reagan coined the term. But according to Duck Duck Go, it’s a Russian Proverb. Reagan adopted it.
I digressed, yet again.
The author writes so vividly. She paints each scene so well. My favorite “painting” was Evan’s grandmother’s house. It gave me such joy. I loved when Jess was there. Jess was truly herself there.
Now onto the “flashbacks”. The Romanovs. Anastasia. Forget what you know from the animated movie. (Which I love – and I feel is one of the best soundtracks to any animated movie, ever). This book gives us the Romanovs – mostly Anastasia in a very different way. I can’t say too much about this timeline without giving too much away. I will just say I love this author. I loved this book – both timelines equally.
Read this book – and be yourself.
P.S. Evan is one of my favorite characters ever! I'd love to see him get his own book!
March 29, 2022
4.5/5 rounded up.
I've always had a fascination with Anastasia Romanov, so when I saw the premise of THE STORYTELLER I was intrigued. THE STORYTELLER was a genuine pleasant surprise with how much I savored it, as it isn't my typical read. There's a thrill in the feeling of discovering something about loved ones and ancestors, and that thrill of discovery matched with my interest in history made me really be invested in Jess Morgan's search for the truth about her Aunt Anna. What she discovers is a roller coaster life, devastating losses, and survival stories she could never have imagined. Jess was a delightful main character and I loved watching her own character arc of self-actualization. And Evan, good holy mama, he was swoony. That was a really great slow burn. I honestly wasn't sure where the plot was going to end up even though I know how the story for the search for Anastasia ended, which was really great plotting on the author's part. It's a mystery that enraptures that is for sure. What remains is the story of two young women who must survive impossible circumstances, and the lengths one young woman will go to do so.
I've always had a fascination with Anastasia Romanov, so when I saw the premise of THE STORYTELLER I was intrigued. THE STORYTELLER was a genuine pleasant surprise with how much I savored it, as it isn't my typical read. There's a thrill in the feeling of discovering something about loved ones and ancestors, and that thrill of discovery matched with my interest in history made me really be invested in Jess Morgan's search for the truth about her Aunt Anna. What she discovers is a roller coaster life, devastating losses, and survival stories she could never have imagined. Jess was a delightful main character and I loved watching her own character arc of self-actualization. And Evan, good holy mama, he was swoony. That was a really great slow burn. I honestly wasn't sure where the plot was going to end up even though I know how the story for the search for Anastasia ended, which was really great plotting on the author's part. It's a mystery that enraptures that is for sure. What remains is the story of two young women who must survive impossible circumstances, and the lengths one young woman will go to do so.
August 28, 2022
Jess lives a life of lies. She's learned to become the person her mother, her boyfriend, and her friends want her to be, because that's how they like her. When she finds a trunk of her diseased aunt's Russian diaries, Jess knows her excitement about them won't fit her persona, so she doesn't tell anyone. Instead, she secretly starts translating them with the help of Evan, an undeniably cute nerd who speaks Russian.
As the pair realizes that Jess's Aunt may have been Anastasia, the presumably dead Russian princess, Jess starts pressing for answers, both about her Aunt's secret and her own life.
I have never started a book so in love and ended it so disgusted. I'm obsessed with the Romanovs, so at first, I was super excited about the diaries. The more the story went on, though, the more I started to get bored and displeased. I get where the author was coming from with the twist at the end, but I really wasn't a fan. There was also so much time passed towards the end, it felt dragged on. Overall, this book disappointed me, but the beginning earned it a few stars.
As the pair realizes that Jess's Aunt may have been Anastasia, the presumably dead Russian princess, Jess starts pressing for answers, both about her Aunt's secret and her own life.
I have never started a book so in love and ended it so disgusted. I'm obsessed with the Romanovs, so at first, I was super excited about the diaries. The more the story went on, though, the more I started to get bored and displeased. I get where the author was coming from with the twist at the end, but I really wasn't a fan. There was also so much time passed towards the end, it felt dragged on. Overall, this book disappointed me, but the beginning earned it a few stars.
February 11, 2023
The Storyteller is a young adult book, but I still enjoyed it. It took a little while for it to really get interesting for me, but as we get more and more of Anastasia's journal entries, the more I started to fly through the book. The ending of the book was not something I saw coming, so that was a nice surprise. However, I don't know if I would have enjoyed this as much if I didn't already like the conspiracies surrounding Anastasia so much. Overall, I give The Storyteller a solid 3.5.
December 11, 2021
Anything with Anastasia tends to draw me in, so this book was one I was looking forward to read just having that element. The storyline was fine enough, I didn't love the main character which made the storyline sometimes difficult. There were a couple side characters that were more enjoyable. The dual timelines helped the story, and kept you interested especially when you went back in time and such, plus it was nice to see the similarities throughout each of their lives yet in different timelines. The writer did a good job of weaving the story to keep you invested, but overall it wasn't a favorite. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating, and rounded down because it wasn't strong enough to be a 4 star. Overall, a decent read and if you're a fan of Anastasia it's an enjoyable book.
Thanks to NetGalley and Edelwiess for the ARC!
Thanks to NetGalley and Edelwiess for the ARC!
February 26, 2022
Loved the light blend of Russian history, romance and teen years...it's got some amazing lines in the beginning as well! A book that captured and retained my attention after a long time 💓
May 26, 2024
Love, love, loved it!!!! Ik wil meer. Nu al heimwee naar dit boek.
May 30, 2022
I loved this book. So much. I think I was in need of a good contemporary, but I also just love history and the historical mystery just hooked me. Mostly, though, the writing style just made me want to keep reading. A very nice book to binge over a long weekend.
July 30, 2024
the end was so good!!
June 7, 2024
Bookclub read: This was a good little palate cleanser from the fantasy series I've been diving into. Being that it was set in 2007, I had a bit of nostalgia going on. With Myspace and the way that we spoke in those days I had a good time~ It didn't feel like it was TOO young adult, so that's always good especially when it comes to contemporary YA.
August 12, 2022
***Once Upon a Book Club Box***
I loved this book!
Imagine: One of your relatives, just happens to be the missing Anastasia Romanov. Your AUNT of all things. When you get your hands on her diaries and you want to know the whole story... but there is a problem.... You don't read Russian. So a cute guy gets to translate... SIGN ME UP PLEZ!! Haha.
If I remember correctly (I read this book a few months ago... hehe... I got busy... sorry!) this book is clean!! I highly recommend to everyone who loves a nice (almost) historical book!
I loved this book!
Imagine: One of your relatives, just happens to be the missing Anastasia Romanov. Your AUNT of all things. When you get your hands on her diaries and you want to know the whole story... but there is a problem.... You don't read Russian. So a cute guy gets to translate... SIGN ME UP PLEZ!! Haha.
If I remember correctly (I read this book a few months ago... hehe... I got busy... sorry!) this book is clean!! I highly recommend to everyone who loves a nice (almost) historical book!
April 8, 2024
The Storyteller left me with mixed feelings, and when I read a book like that, I'm compelled to write a review. My opinion of this gripping look at a teenage girl finding her identity when she feels lost and her aunt's unbelievable story of Russian nobility is complex, and perhaps that's fitting, because so is the story itself.
The Storyteller has a strong opening line: "I'm not sure when I became an impostor." It sets up the themes of pretending that connect the main character Jess and her mysterious aunt Anna. These themes are developed consistently, which is one of the positives I see. If you're a reader like me, it's frustrating to see too many unrelated threads running through a story, especially when some of them are thin. That wasn't the case here. The only thing I would have streamlined was the timeline. The six month break at the end seems unnecessary and, though clearly written to have some impact on the reader, I only felt frustration. There's also a subplot with Jess's dad that is is neither fully developed nor fully resolved.
For the most part, I liked how Jess and Ryan's relationship was written. It was a great strategy on the author's part to have the reader discover the unhealthy relationship at a similar pace to the main character. First there are only subtle hints, like how Jess doesn't tell Ryan about her real interests, how Ryan only says "love ya" and never "I love you", and the grey sweatshirt left in his bedroom. Later, Jess begins to see she'll never be able to show her personality around Ryan.
But at the beginning, there weren't indications that Ryan made Jess feel like she had to lie to him. She chose to, as insurance against the chance that he wouldn't like the real Jess. And aside from several insensitive comments, which start to come later in the book, and a beer or two, Ryan might not seem that bad to a teenage reader. If it took him cheating on Jess to make me completely hate him, which it did, he may not have been written as easy enough to dislike.
Two more aspects of the writing and, to some extent, the characters, stuck with me. First, the bad news: I didn't find Jess very likable at times. I found her to be jealous and wished she would try to communicate with her family and friends more clearly. Overall, I believe the author's writing has the potential to become even better with experience, but ideally, she'd drop some informal phrases. The inconsistency in the writing style, going from eloquent to a style that sounds casual, interfered slightly with my enjoyment of the book. But overall, I did enjoy it.
The question that haunted me throughout the book was "Is Aunt Anna struggling because of her past, or did she fabricate her past because of her struggles?" To find out the answer, you must read The Storyteller.
--------------------------------------
A few lines that impressed me:
- "Then there are the other stories, the stories we don't tell, the ones we lock away within the hidden, dark rooms of ourselves- the secrets. Here's what I also know now: secrets tend to seek the light."
- "Every inch of the space is crammed with the ephemera of bygone eras, bygone lives."
- "From an old Singer sewing table, I grasp the rough, heavy handle of a cast-iron pan. This is what my mom doesn't get- that objects, especially old ones, are stories in physical form. I'll never know what it was like to cook my son a final meal of salt pork and johnnycakes before sending him off to Gettysburg, but in the ache of my wrist holding that pan, I am momentarily transported into another life, another time."
- "Still, I can feel that these words hold meaning, the way a voice carries emotion even when you don't know the language being spoken. Underlined words suggest passion or anger. A splotch of ink spells the hesitation of nostalgia. Downward-sloping sentences show the frenzied rush to get thoughts down before they disappear."
- "A twinkle dances in Evan's eyes, fire behind ice, the skepticism he'd shown earlier evaporated like mist off a lake."
- "Can the people not raise their voices instead of guns?"
- "[He] excitedly catalogues the characters of various foreign languages. German is exacting. Italian is extravagant. French is romantic. Chinese is efficient. And Russian is honest."
- "Winter was the only season she dressed for, bundled in a scarf and coat even on days when the August heat glimmered from the sidewalk, and although her clothes were shabby, she always had a new pair of shoes."
(That detail about the shoes is significant later. I love Kathryn Williams's small details, like how Katie shares her name, Kathryn W, and Jess mentioned that sometimes authors put pieces of people they know into characters.)
- "He was eighteen, four years older than me. Still young for a blood-soaked battlefield."
- "We discussed the role of the author in society. He believed a writer's responsibility was truth; I believed it was beauty."
- "This life, this city of bubbles and gleam is a drug. Lulled by diversion, I've sought escape from the hideous truth in illusion."
- ""The sky is blue, Jess. One plus one equals two. We all agree on these things. We have to." "But sometimes the sky is red, and if my parents are any indication, one plus one equals zero...""
But unfortunately, there are a number of lines that did not impress me.
- "In his sleep, Dad gently snarffles."
- "There are no two ways about it: Evan's friends are Nerds with a capital N. They celebrate their nerdery. They revel in it. They jump in and do the backstroke in it, swimming cap on, nose plug in."
- "Words spill onto the screen like so much digital ink... and there's a knock at my door."
Jess and some other characters said things that made me stop and cringe. For example:
- "With honey-tan skin and boy-band hair, Ryan was certifiably, undeniably, trademark Cute™..."
(was the trademark symbol necessary?)
- Jess's jealousy of another character's body is found on several pages that I almost skipped because the high-school aged characters were acting immature, making fun of people, and giving me secondhand embarrassment in general.
- "I don't want to tell her that I'm pretty sure the guy I just saw onstage is not into girls."
(Jess's assumptions bother me.)
- "Evan wears a navy polo tucked into-dear God, no-pleated khakis."
- "I am fairly confident I cannot detect your sexual orientation from this choice of footwear."
- "I don't mean to shout it. "My life is not some house for you to stage.""
There are numerous relatable lines for those of us who are writers and readers:
- "I'm not usually an early bird, but sometimes I'm pulled from the quicksand of sleep by story ideas- nonsense that fills a small red journal by my bed: She has a celestial twin. A snowstorm in July. Something about a walrus???"
- "It's a sagging farmhouse at the edge of town that I remember smelling of baked beans and damp earth, but it was also filled with books- on mantels, on tables, stacked against the walls, bowing bookshelves. Like they owned the house, not her."
- "When the diary was accidentally left in a hotel room the summer we drove to Palm Beach to see my grandparents, I cried across two whole states."
(I would too, Jess. I would too.)
- "She turned, chin trembling, and smiled. "You're a writer." Her voice was watery, but it was a statement, not a question, and my heart skittered like a stone skipped over a pond. To write is one thing, but to call yourself a writer is another thing."
- "I love writing. I feel the urge to write like I feel the urge to breathe or to sleep or to eat...I see the laptop sitting on my bed, and all I feel is dread."
(Writing is both a passion and a burden.)
And three allusions to elves for those of us who love fantasy:
- "On a whim, I Google elvish scripts, thinking maybe my bookish aunt was a Tolkien fanatic."
- "His thick eyebrows arch dramatically upward, giving him a mischievous, elven look."
- "With his bald, shiny head and pointy beard, the notorious Communist always looked to me like a sinister elf."
And some laugh-out-loud funny ones:
- "Since he hit puberty and developed the burning need to make fun of everything and everyone, my brother and I so carefully avoid each other that I'd almost forgotten he's been gone all week. The absence of slammed doors and toothpaste smeared across the bathroom counter should have reminded me."
- "Katie doesn't like the fancy consignment store on Main Street. "House of Hipster," she calls it."
- "I'm one fourteen-thousandth of the way through War and Peace-I've read the title."
- "And you know, if you throw one more thing at me, I'm going to have to quit because of workplace harassment."
The Storyteller has a strong opening line: "I'm not sure when I became an impostor." It sets up the themes of pretending that connect the main character Jess and her mysterious aunt Anna. These themes are developed consistently, which is one of the positives I see. If you're a reader like me, it's frustrating to see too many unrelated threads running through a story, especially when some of them are thin. That wasn't the case here. The only thing I would have streamlined was the timeline. The six month break at the end seems unnecessary and, though clearly written to have some impact on the reader, I only felt frustration. There's also a subplot with Jess's dad that is is neither fully developed nor fully resolved.
For the most part, I liked how Jess and Ryan's relationship was written. It was a great strategy on the author's part to have the reader discover the unhealthy relationship at a similar pace to the main character. First there are only subtle hints, like how Jess doesn't tell Ryan about her real interests, how Ryan only says "love ya" and never "I love you", and the grey sweatshirt left in his bedroom. Later, Jess begins to see she'll never be able to show her personality around Ryan.
But at the beginning, there weren't indications that Ryan made Jess feel like she had to lie to him. She chose to, as insurance against the chance that he wouldn't like the real Jess. And aside from several insensitive comments, which start to come later in the book, and a beer or two, Ryan might not seem that bad to a teenage reader. If it took him cheating on Jess to make me completely hate him, which it did, he may not have been written as easy enough to dislike.
Two more aspects of the writing and, to some extent, the characters, stuck with me. First, the bad news: I didn't find Jess very likable at times. I found her to be jealous and wished she would try to communicate with her family and friends more clearly. Overall, I believe the author's writing has the potential to become even better with experience, but ideally, she'd drop some informal phrases. The inconsistency in the writing style, going from eloquent to a style that sounds casual, interfered slightly with my enjoyment of the book. But overall, I did enjoy it.
The question that haunted me throughout the book was "Is Aunt Anna struggling because of her past, or did she fabricate her past because of her struggles?" To find out the answer, you must read The Storyteller.
--------------------------------------
A few lines that impressed me:
- "Then there are the other stories, the stories we don't tell, the ones we lock away within the hidden, dark rooms of ourselves- the secrets. Here's what I also know now: secrets tend to seek the light."
- "Every inch of the space is crammed with the ephemera of bygone eras, bygone lives."
- "From an old Singer sewing table, I grasp the rough, heavy handle of a cast-iron pan. This is what my mom doesn't get- that objects, especially old ones, are stories in physical form. I'll never know what it was like to cook my son a final meal of salt pork and johnnycakes before sending him off to Gettysburg, but in the ache of my wrist holding that pan, I am momentarily transported into another life, another time."
- "Still, I can feel that these words hold meaning, the way a voice carries emotion even when you don't know the language being spoken. Underlined words suggest passion or anger. A splotch of ink spells the hesitation of nostalgia. Downward-sloping sentences show the frenzied rush to get thoughts down before they disappear."
- "A twinkle dances in Evan's eyes, fire behind ice, the skepticism he'd shown earlier evaporated like mist off a lake."
- "Can the people not raise their voices instead of guns?"
- "[He] excitedly catalogues the characters of various foreign languages. German is exacting. Italian is extravagant. French is romantic. Chinese is efficient. And Russian is honest."
- "Winter was the only season she dressed for, bundled in a scarf and coat even on days when the August heat glimmered from the sidewalk, and although her clothes were shabby, she always had a new pair of shoes."
(That detail about the shoes is significant later. I love Kathryn Williams's small details, like how Katie shares her name, Kathryn W, and Jess mentioned that sometimes authors put pieces of people they know into characters.)
- "He was eighteen, four years older than me. Still young for a blood-soaked battlefield."
- "We discussed the role of the author in society. He believed a writer's responsibility was truth; I believed it was beauty."
- "This life, this city of bubbles and gleam is a drug. Lulled by diversion, I've sought escape from the hideous truth in illusion."
- ""The sky is blue, Jess. One plus one equals two. We all agree on these things. We have to." "But sometimes the sky is red, and if my parents are any indication, one plus one equals zero...""
But unfortunately, there are a number of lines that did not impress me.
- "In his sleep, Dad gently snarffles."
- "There are no two ways about it: Evan's friends are Nerds with a capital N. They celebrate their nerdery. They revel in it. They jump in and do the backstroke in it, swimming cap on, nose plug in."
- "Words spill onto the screen like so much digital ink... and there's a knock at my door."
Jess and some other characters said things that made me stop and cringe. For example:
- "With honey-tan skin and boy-band hair, Ryan was certifiably, undeniably, trademark Cute™..."
(was the trademark symbol necessary?)
- Jess's jealousy of another character's body is found on several pages that I almost skipped because the high-school aged characters were acting immature, making fun of people, and giving me secondhand embarrassment in general.
- "I don't want to tell her that I'm pretty sure the guy I just saw onstage is not into girls."
(Jess's assumptions bother me.)
- "Evan wears a navy polo tucked into-dear God, no-pleated khakis."
- "I am fairly confident I cannot detect your sexual orientation from this choice of footwear."
- "I don't mean to shout it. "My life is not some house for you to stage.""
There are numerous relatable lines for those of us who are writers and readers:
- "I'm not usually an early bird, but sometimes I'm pulled from the quicksand of sleep by story ideas- nonsense that fills a small red journal by my bed: She has a celestial twin. A snowstorm in July. Something about a walrus???"
- "It's a sagging farmhouse at the edge of town that I remember smelling of baked beans and damp earth, but it was also filled with books- on mantels, on tables, stacked against the walls, bowing bookshelves. Like they owned the house, not her."
- "When the diary was accidentally left in a hotel room the summer we drove to Palm Beach to see my grandparents, I cried across two whole states."
(I would too, Jess. I would too.)
- "She turned, chin trembling, and smiled. "You're a writer." Her voice was watery, but it was a statement, not a question, and my heart skittered like a stone skipped over a pond. To write is one thing, but to call yourself a writer is another thing."
- "I love writing. I feel the urge to write like I feel the urge to breathe or to sleep or to eat...I see the laptop sitting on my bed, and all I feel is dread."
(Writing is both a passion and a burden.)
And three allusions to elves for those of us who love fantasy:
- "On a whim, I Google elvish scripts, thinking maybe my bookish aunt was a Tolkien fanatic."
- "His thick eyebrows arch dramatically upward, giving him a mischievous, elven look."
- "With his bald, shiny head and pointy beard, the notorious Communist always looked to me like a sinister elf."
And some laugh-out-loud funny ones:
- "Since he hit puberty and developed the burning need to make fun of everything and everyone, my brother and I so carefully avoid each other that I'd almost forgotten he's been gone all week. The absence of slammed doors and toothpaste smeared across the bathroom counter should have reminded me."
- "Katie doesn't like the fancy consignment store on Main Street. "House of Hipster," she calls it."
- "I'm one fourteen-thousandth of the way through War and Peace-I've read the title."
- "And you know, if you throw one more thing at me, I'm going to have to quit because of workplace harassment."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 25, 2021
Aunt Anna was a quiet reclusive relative that Jess barely knew. The last items that Jess and her mother remove from Aunt Anna's home prove to be a multitude of diaries written in Russian. Jess is eager to know what they say so she puts an ad in at the local community college where she meets a nerdy albeit attractive young man that is fluent and knowledgable of the Russian language and history. Meanwhile, Jess's relationship with her own boyfriend is proving uncomfortable. He is an athletic young man with an ego and a penchant for partying that is not part of Jess's preference for how to spend her downtime. In addition, Jess's parents' distance from each other is increasing and causing strain at home that affects both Jess and her brother. Jess has a rift with her best friend. The letters become her solace.
As the translator reads and interprets the contents of the letters and he and Jess research more into the family of Anastasia Romanov it appears that Aunt Anna may be part of the royal Russian family, all of which were thought to be murdered. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It grabbed me from the beginning with its interesting characters, not the least of which were Aunt Anna. I loved the history that was revealed through the digging of the main characters and how author Kathryn Williams was able to insert that in such an interesting way in the book.. As a lover of historical fiction, I highly recommend this book. Thanks to #TheStoryteller#NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this excellent book.
As the translator reads and interprets the contents of the letters and he and Jess research more into the family of Anastasia Romanov it appears that Aunt Anna may be part of the royal Russian family, all of which were thought to be murdered. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It grabbed me from the beginning with its interesting characters, not the least of which were Aunt Anna. I loved the history that was revealed through the digging of the main characters and how author Kathryn Williams was able to insert that in such an interesting way in the book.. As a lover of historical fiction, I highly recommend this book. Thanks to #TheStoryteller#NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this excellent book.
January 20, 2022
First let me say received this as an advanced copy from NetGalley.
Holy smokes I am glad this book came into my life. It is a story of finding oneself while exploring the life of another. Speckled with romance and a huge mystery I could not stop reading! I laughed, I cried, I cringed, but most importantly I fell in love. Well written and a good blend of characters with dilemmas and resolutions. AND THE ENDING!! No spoilers so read for yourself!
Holy smokes I am glad this book came into my life. It is a story of finding oneself while exploring the life of another. Speckled with romance and a huge mystery I could not stop reading! I laughed, I cried, I cringed, but most importantly I fell in love. Well written and a good blend of characters with dilemmas and resolutions. AND THE ENDING!! No spoilers so read for yourself!
February 14, 2023
A really interesting and heartfelt interpretation of the myth of the escaped Anastasia Romanov. I liked how the story had so many historical details but being centred around the modern day, was interwoven with another story. A lovely read :)
will-not-finish
August 26, 2021DNF at 20%
Unfortunately I hate every single character. I'm moving on.
**Thanks Netgalley for the arc**
Unfortunately I hate every single character. I'm moving on.
**Thanks Netgalley for the arc**
May 8, 2022
I did not have a good reading week.
All of the characters are stock characters. It's nothing special. The historical mystery part isn't even that great. (I really wanted to like this.)
All of the characters are stock characters. It's nothing special. The historical mystery part isn't even that great. (I really wanted to like this.)
June 22, 2022
Clunky in parts, but an enjoyable read. I really wanted it to turn out differently (though of course that would be predictable and not really fun) but I thought the story was clever.
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