Behind the Pages

This is a great book. The story is compelling, making me want to continue reading the whole book, waiting and wondering what will come next. The ending made me cry when Anastasia was yelling at Victor for all of the pain and hurt she has caused her family, while saying sorry is not enough and can never replace what he has done just to prove his point that he was worth something and not nothing (which is why I thought that he took in Ethan to the brotherhood, so that he could prove to himself and to the Tsar that everyone is worthy no matter how poor you are or of what family you come from, but then risks Ethan as he realises that there is nothing that will help change his mind or consider him).

I like the idea that has been incorporated within this novel from the letters that Anastasia writes to her family while trapped in Baba Yaga's hut, making you feel a lot more connected to Anastasia than just through Anne's dreams. We get to know the Anastasia that has been created within this story and her contribution to the mystery of the Romanov family and that cursed day when her family were massacred and she was taken.

I do enjoy having Tess there in the novel most of the time, but sometimes she doesn't really learn to stay away and she needs to be a background character and not try and be a shining one. I do like her character but for how she is, there's too much of her. I also would have thought that Anne should have been hesitant when going to tell Tess about what has happened when she calls from Ethan's phone, but she tells her basically everything, when I would have thought she would've been hesitant at telling this sort of information when she doesn't really believe it herself. I loved how Ethan was strong yet shy and stumbling for words, and wasn't afraid to show emotion (especially when Alex died), and was, for an immortal, very normal. *sigh! his eyes!*

What I don't understand is that once the group is on the horses and are riding away, that Victor doesn't try to stop them from doing anything to get back to the outside world and goes along with them. I would have thought that he might've tried something to make Anastasia stay or try and compel Baba Yaga to snatch her while she was still in the forest and under the power for Anastasia to stay, not risking the chance of her getting to the outside world and destroying -most importantly- his (and the brotherhood's) immortality.