Royal Diaries:Anastasia:The Last Grand Duchess

When I first heard the story about Anastasia Romanov it was actually through the animated movie from 1997. I was 9 when it came out and it was one of my favorite movies. Little did I know that Anastasia was a real person and the true story about her is absolutely heartbreaking, unlike the movie; the movie had a happy ending. The author, Carolyn Meyer, agrees that the true story of Anastasia is rather heartbreaking, but while writing her book she decided to embrace the romantic fantasy that there is a possibility that Anastasia escaped from execution. I am a major history buff and always have been! When I was young I always loved reading books like these that intertwined real history with fiction. The fiction bit just enhances the actual historical events a little more. What I love about this book is that it is actually set up like a diary. We are reading Anastasia's journal entries. It reminds me a lot of the Diary of Anne Frank. The book begins with a twelve year old Anastasia. Being a grand duchess of Russia, she seems to have everything. Her life is great until Germany declares war on Russia. From there things just go down hill and her family is eventually forced to move to Siberia where they are held prisoners. Her life is then turned upside down and lives a lot less luxuriously than before. From there she can only wonder what will happen to her and her family but still remains hopeful.