Dreaming Anastasia: A Novel of Love, Magic, and the Power of Dreams

Joy Preble

Sep 2009 · Dreaming Anastasia Book 1 · Sourcebooks, Inc.

About this ebook

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...

Ratings and reviews

"Dreaming Anastasia" is truly one of the best books I have EVER read. There is so much suspense and excitement, Anne is a great protagonist; the perfect combination of witty, feisty and funny. Joy Preble uses humour so well - there is always a joke in just the right place - and has the teenage voice down to a T. "Dreaming Anastasia" tells the story of Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, believed to be dead by the world, but alive. Compelled by an ancient spell cast by the Brotherhood, a group of monks dedicated to stopping the forces bent on corrupting Russia, the witch Baba Yaga keeps Anastasia within her hut in the forest. Only the girl told of in the prophecy, who would be related in some way to the bloodline of the Brotherhood, could free her. 18 year old Ethan, a member of the Brotherhood, seems to have found her. But Anne wants nothing to do with him, the Brotherhood, or her so-called "destiny." But when her life is turned upside down, and giant hands reach down from the sky to grab her, she is forced to believe him. He is becoming much harder to dismiss... I couldn't put this book down, an amazing piece of teenage paranormal/fantasy fiction, with a hint of romance. Looking forward to book 3...

Anne is sixteen-years-old and even though her family is still recovering from the loss of her brother to cancer two years ago, she still maintains a typical teenage life. She hangs out with her best friend, Tess, stresses over school work, and takes an advanced ballet class. While attending a performance of Swan Lake, she learns that not everything in the world can be explained. From this night on, she is thrust into a world involving danger, betrayal, and magic. Ethan is a member of the Brotherhood, a group created in the early 1900’s to protect Tsar Nicholas II and his family. He is intent on finding the girl destined to release the Grand Duchess Anastasia from captivity where she has been since the assassination of her family. Anastasia is stuck at age seventeen until she can be released from Baba Yaga, a witch from Russian Folklore, just like Ethan is stuck at eighteen until he can release her. After almost one hundred years, Ethan has finally found the girl who can help him – Anne. Anne dreamed of Anastasia even before Ethan came into her life. Anne is in the basement with the Romanov family looking through Anastasia’s eyes as her family is being murdered in front of her. She knows there is something strange about what happened to Anastasia, but doesn’t know enough to put the pieces together. What she witnesses during the dreams doesn’t make sense in a realistic world. When Ethan approaches Anne, she must make the decision whether or not to believe him and if she is going to help him or not. She finds out that she holds more than one life in her hands.

Amazing book! I am so amazed at it that I can't... You'll firgure it out.

About the author

Joy Preble grew up in Chicago where— possibly because she was raised by an accountant and a bookkeeper—she dreamed of being a back up singer, but instead earned an English degree from Northwestern. Eventually, she began to write books so she could get paid for making up stuff. She now lives in Texas with her family, including a basset/boxer mix rescue dog named Lyla— who never met a shoe she didn’t want to eat. Visit Joy at joypreble.com