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IT. IS. TOMORROW! Sign up here and join us at 7:30pm Central Time in discussing Alyssa Cole’s thriller When No One Is Watching at Virtual Book Club. Nikki and I are well on the way to finishing. As of this post I’m at 86% and Nikki’s at 55%. We won’t be struggling to finish because phew once that plot gets moving it’s hard to put down. I’m having some big, BIG feelings about neighborhood dynamics, but I’m not going to spoil them here, you’ll just have to join us tomorrow to find out what really got my heart rate up.

Who else was low-key obsessed with the 1997 animated film Anastasia? You KNOW the one – where Anya, suffering from amnesia, is found by the servant boy Dimitri who saved her from the riots that killed her parents and siblings. Where Rasputin is an evil sorcerer who is determined to remove the Romanov line from existence and has an adorable white bat as a sidekick. (Yes, I know it’s now a Broadway Musical!) Well, author Molly Tullis has taken her obsession of all things historical Russian empire and recreated the story of the end of the Romanovs by giving Anastasia the actual and magical power to save or destroy the family and therefore Russia. The Romanov Oracle is the angsty, sexy, trope-filled homage to Molly’s history obsession and everyone’s desire to be the one making decisions for their own life.

I need to admit that I found darling Molly one night during my late night Instagram Reels doom scrolling, sent some Reel (or multiple of them) to Nikki – probably pertaining to the ACOTAR Bat Boys (IYKYK) – and we became OBSESSED with her presence on Bookstagram. Molly is authentic, relatable, and accessible to her fans and fellow bookworms. She gives almost daily coffee pep-talks in her Instagram stories where she also shares her love of Cassian, videos of her French bulldog Jean Valjean, and reminds us to drink some water. She espouses red lipstick, black clothes, finger tattoos, dark-haired and morally-grey men, and loving yourself for who you are. The Romanov Oracle is her debut novel, and she’s currently working on a four-book Greek Mythology series, the first of which, Consort of Darkness (Asphodel Series #1), has already been released. (Truthfully, we debated adding Nyx and Erebus’ story to Mythology in March last month, but we wanted to review her debut novel on the blog first and already had it planned for April Showers.) She is, and you’re probably getting tired of us saying this on the blog, our people.  #NotSorry

Now, if you haven’t figured it out yet, The Romanov Oracle IS a Romance Novel. We have Anastasia and Mikhail with all of the tropes working against them (and FOR us!) – enemies to lovers, one bed, with a bit of an age gap. We still get that Happily Ever After we expect and crave. Nikki will cover the struggles we both had getting into their story, but once it got going, we were absolutely along for the personal and political rides. This story is more than just those Romance Novel Tropes we love and adore, there’s definitely an underlying commentary on economic disparity and the ways in which people can help those less fortunate. For Anastasia, helping those in poverty in St. Petersburg required her to be just a little bit evil to those of her own class. There were moments of levity, like when Anastasia must explain to Mikhail that there was a woman at the ball indicating with her fan, to him and everyone else in attendance, that she would like to take him to bed! The embarrassment is delicious. 

Finally, my favorite line was repeated at least three times: “She’s magnificent when she’s burning.” And when Molly is burning to tell a story, it’s magnificent. Solid 4 star review debut novel, and even though I probably won’t re-read The Romanov Oracle, The Asphodel Series is on my TBR. (Like that is even a surprise for you.)

Drink Some Water.

~Ashley

Growing up in the early nineties, it felt required to have strong feelings towards all things princesses (#ThanksButNotReally Disney).  We were still in the days of female leads “needing” rescuing from an assortment of struggles by dashing men (*eyeroll*), so while I’ve still not seen Anastasia, I do love a good story about a lost princess and also feel like Russia (particularly before the revolution) is this larger-than-life empire bathed in mystery and glamour.  Maybe that’s just me, but reading Anna by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles in my mom’s Reader’s Digest compilation hardback got me interested, and then in 2019, Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy definitely helped to stoke that interest in a big way!  All that said, when we learned darling Molly we’d come to adore from Instagram also had a novel about Russia I was all in.  I didn’t know anything about it, but it didn’t matter because I’d gotten to know Molly and her reading taste, so it was going to be a fun ride, and was it ever.

I love a good historical reimagining, and that’s how The Romanov Oracle reads.  What if Anastasia had magic?  What if that magic was key to freeing the Russian people from their plight under the rule of the Romanov dynasty?  And what if there was a dashing man there to support (note, I did not say save or help on purpose) her in her efforts?  That is this book, and while it doesn’t start strong, it certainly ends fantastically.  Shockingly, I didn’t want more from the ending.  It’s tied up nicely, with just enough epilogue, and the ending fits the history of Anastasia disappearing.  Everything else doesn’t align that nicely, as Molly’s Anastasia is about ten years older than the historic person, and our leading male is significantly younger than his historical counterpart, and very different in character as well.  Readers should note this is a debut novel, and it reads like one in the beginning.  There’s a bit of backstory in a prologue that is, well, it’s just very underwhelming to read.  Then there are a few chapters that I didn’t love before we jump ahead 15 years and really dig into the story.  I wanted more or better or something from those initial chapters, but Molly more than makes up for it in the remainder of the book.  I’m assuming these pieces are simply Molly and her editor finding their way through the text and hoping for better with her second book.  Again, the rest of the book redeems this for me, and so much more.

Overall, I’m giving The Romanov Oracle 4 solid stars.  The story is solid and creative, and the writing becomes what I wanted and expected after following Molly for several months on Instagram.  I want to tell you the best part for me, but that’s going to take some setup, just like the book.  Molly is very open on Instagram, about who she is, about her past, and about her life.  From following her, I know that she’s working with a therapist to move past a traumatic, religious, patriarchal upbringing (my words, her word is cult).  She’s moving away from all of those pieces of her life before, putting up firm boundaries with her family of origin, and finding herself.  The work of her religious deconstruction is very present in her Instagram, and she’s taken it down to the core and is building up exactly what she wants it to be in its place (tarot cards, crystals, odes to Hades, and all).  I can see Molly working through her trauma, her past, and the way she was treated by those who should have been protecting and nurturing her in this book, through her main characters, and it’s just gorgeous to see all of her internal work come out of her being in this way and to see how far she’s come.  While Molly and Ann Voskamp have very different views on religion, they just might have similar views on writing – that writing a book is the way they process life experiences.  Personally, I don’t need to subscribe to all of Molly’s religious beliefs to appreciate her writing, or her message of independence and self-love on social media, and I relish every time I hear “Good morning babies, it’s coffee time” and just know she’s got a good pep talk coming ahead (and this one might be my favorite).  

What is a book that you read that you read differently because you had some familiarity with the author?

~Nikki 

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