I was Anastasia / Ariel Lawhon.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An enthralling feat of historical suspense that unravels the extraordinary twists and turns in Anna Anderson's fifty-year battle to be recognized as Anastasia Romanov. Is she the Russian Grand Duchess or the thief of another woman's legacy?

Countless others have rendered their verdict. Now it is your turn.

Russia, July 17, 1918: Under direct orders from Vladimir Lenin, Bolshevik secret police force Anastasia Romanov, along with the entire imperial family, into a damp basement in Siberia, where they face a merciless firing squad. None survive. At least that is what the executioners have always claimed.

Germany, February 17, 1920: A young woman bearing an uncanny resemblance to Anastasia Romanov is pulled shivering and senseless from a canal. Refusing to explain her presence in the freezing water or even acknowledge her rescuers, she is taken to the hospital where an examination reveals that her body is riddled with countless horrific scars. When she finally does speak, this frightened, mysterious young woman claims to be the Russian grand duchess.

As rumors begin to circulate through European society that the youngest Romanov daughter has survived the massacre at Ekaterinburg, old enemies and new threats are awakened. The question of who Anna Anderson is and what actually happened to Anastasia Romanov spans fifty years and touches three continents. This thrilling saga is every bit as moving and momentous as it is harrowing and twisted.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

1. ANNA Folie à Deux 1970 & 1968     Charlottesville, Virginia, February 17, 1970   Fifty years ago tonight Anna threw herself off a bridge in Berlin. It wasn't her first brush with death, or even the most violent, but it was the only one that came at her hands. Anna's husband does not know this, however. She watches him, watching her, and she knows he only sees a fragile old woman who has waited too long for vindication. He sees the carefully cultivated image she presents to the world: a crown of thinning, silver hair and tired blue eyes. Age and confusion and the gentle aura of. This could not be further from the truth. She has been many things through the years but--even at seventy-four--helpless is not one of them. At the moment, however, Anna is simply impatient. She sits in this living room, two thousand miles from her past, waiting for a verdict.             Jack is like a frightened rabbit, all nerves and tension. He springs from his chair and begins to pace through the cluttered den.  "Why haven't they called? They should have called by now."             "I'm sure they read the verdict hours ago," Anna says, leaning her head against the fold of her wingback chair and closing her eyes.             Whatever news awaits them is not good but Anna does not have the heart to tell him this. Jack is so hopeful. He's already written the press release and taken a polaroid so he can bring both to The Daily Progress first thing in the morning. Jack spoke with the editor this afternoon, suggesting they reserve a front-page spot for the story. He's hoping for something above the fold. He's hoping for exclamation points. Even though Jack hasn't admitted it, Anna knows that he is looking forward to reporters showing up again. They haven't had any in months and she suspects he's gotten lonely with only her and the animals for company. She feels a bit sad for him, being saddled with her like this. But there was no other way. Gleb insisted on it, and in all the years she knew him, Gleb Botkin remained her truest friend, her staunchest champion. He's been dead two years now. Another loss in an unending string of losses. And Jack is kind to her--just as Gleb promised--and beggars can't be choosers anyway. Anna reminds herself of this daily.             The phone rings. Three startling metallic alarms and then Jack snatches it from the cradle.             "Manahan residence." A pause, and then, "yes, she's here. Hold on a moment." The cord won't stretch across the room so Jack lays it on the sideboard. He grins wildly. "It's from Germany."             "Who?"             "The Prince." He beams, then clarifies--there have been a number of princes in her life. "Frederick."             Anna feels a wild stab of anger at the name. She hasn't forgotten what Frederick did, hasn't forgotten the burn pile behind her cottage at the edge of the Black Forest. All those charred little bones. If the news had come from anyone else she would take the call. "I don't want to speak with him."             "But--"             "He knows why."             "I really think it's time you--"             Anna holds her hand up, palm out, a firm, final sort of motion. "Take a message."             Jack pouts but doesn't protest. He knows that arguing is futile. Anna does not change her mind. Nor does she forgive. He picks up the receiver again. "I'm sorry. She doesn't want to speak right now. Why don't you give me the news?"             And then she watches Jack's countenance fall by tiny, heartbreaking increments. First his smile. Then his lifted, expectant brows. His right arm drops to his side, deflated. "I don't understand," he says, finally, then clears his throat as though he's swallowed a cobweb.             "Write it down," Anna instructs. "Word for word." She doesn't want to interpret the verdict through his anger once he hangs up. Anna wants to know exactly what the appeals court has to say. Jack is too emotional and prone to exaggeration. He needs to transcribe it or vital bits of information will be lost the moment he hangs up. Gleb wouldn't need this instruction. He would know what to do. He would know what questions to ask. But Gleb is no longer here and, once again this reality leaves her feeling adrift.             "Let me write this down," Jack says, like it's his idea. She watches him shuffle through piles of paper on the cluttered sideboard, looking for a notebook with blank pages. Finding none, he grabs an envelope and turns it over. "Go ahead. I'm ready."             A decade ago Anna's lawyer told her this lawsuit was the longest running case in German history. This appeal has stretched it into something worse, something interminable. And there stands Jack, writing the footnote to her quest on the back of their electric bill in his tidy, ever-legible script. "How do you spell that?" he asks at one point, holding the phone with one hand and recording the verdict with the other. He doesn't rush or scribble but rather pens each word with painstaking precision, occasionally asking Frederick to repeat himself.             Jack and Anna don't have many friends. They haven't been married long, only two years, and theirs is a relationship based on convenience and necessity, not romance. They are old and eccentric and not fit for polite society in this quaint college town. But a handful of people--mostly former professors at the University of Virginia, like Jack--are due to arrive shortly. Anna doesn't want to know how he convinced them to come. It would have been awkward before. It will be excruciating now. Anna decides there won't be a party tonight. She doesn't have the heart to entertain strangers this evening.             But Jack, in all his eagerness, has catered for a celebration. Their small den is littered with trays of fruit and sandwiches. Deviled eggs and cheese platters. Tiny brined pickles and cocktail sausages skewered with toothpicks. He even bought three bottles of champagne and they sit in a bowl of ice, unopened beneath the string of Christmas lights he's stapled to the ceiling. Anna stares at the bottles with suspicion. She hasn't touched the stuff in almost four decades. The last time Anna drank champagne she ended up naked on a rooftop in New York City. The entire setting is tacky and festive--just like her husband. Jack bought a rhinestone tiara from the costume shop near the college campus just for the occasion. It sits on a gaudy red velvet pillow next to the champagne. He's been dying to crown her since they met and only today, only in the hopes of a positive verdict, has she humored him. But that hope is gone now. Snuffed out in a German courtroom on the other side of the world.             "Thank you," he finally says, and then lower, almost a whisper, "I will. I'm sorry. You know how it can be with her. I'm sure she'll speak with you next time. Goodbye."             When he turns back to Anna, Jack has the envelope pressed to his chest. He doesn't speak.             "We need to call our guests and tell them the party's cancelled."             He looks crushed. "I'm so sorry."             "This isn't your fault. You did what you could." A deep breath. A shrug. "What did Frederick say?"             "Your appeal was rejected. They won't reverse the lower court's ruling."             "I gathered that. Tell me his words exactly ."             Jack looks to the paper. "They regard your claim as a ' non liquet .'"             "Interesting."             "What does that mean?"             "'Not clear' or 'not proven.'"             When Jack frowns, he puckers his mouth until his upper lip nearly touches his nose. It's an odd, childish expression and one he's used with greater frequency the longer he has known her. "Is that German?"             "Latin."             "You know Latin ?"             "Very little at this point." Anna swats at him. "Go on."             "The judges said that even though your death has never been proven, neither has your escape."             "Ah. Clever." She smiles at this dilemma. It is the ultimate Catch 22. Her escape can't be proven without a formal declaration of identity from the court. "Read the rest please."             He holds the envelope six inches from his nose and slowly recites the verdict. "'We have not decided that the plaintiff is not Grand Duchess Anastasia, but only that the Hamburg court made it's decision without legal mistakes and without procedural errors.'" He looks up. "So they have decided... nothing ?"             She shakes her head slowly and then with more determination. "Oh they have decided everything, Jack."             "It was that photo, wasn't it? The court must have seen it. There's no other reason they would rule against you. Damn that Rasputin. Damn her!" Jack begins to pace again. "We could make a statement--"             "No. It's over." Anna lifts her chin with all the dignity she can muster and folds her hands in her lap. She is resigned and regal. "They will never formally recognize me as Anastasia Romanov."   Two Years Earlier Charlottesville, Virginia, December 23, 1968   Anna does not want to marry Jack Manahan. She would rather marry Gleb. Even after all the trouble he's caused through the years. But theirs is a story of false starts and near misses. Bad timing. Distance. And rash decisions. They were not meant to be. So Gleb has urged her to marry Jack instead. This whole fiasco is his idea--the courthouse, the silly pink dress, the bouquet of roses and pinecones, the white, rabbit fur hat that she's supposed to wear out of the courthouse to greet the photographers (these arranged by Jack because the damnable man cannot help but make a scene everywhere he goes). Gleb insists the hat makes her look the part of Russian Grand Duchess. She refuses to wear the thing. Poor rabbit.             When they discussed this ridiculous plan in August, Gleb said his health was to blame, that he couldn't marry her himself. He said that she would end up caring for him instead, but Anna believes that this is punishment for a long-held resentment. Tit for tat. Wound for wound. He has loved her for decades and she has never been able to fully reciprocate. Now he stands as witness to her unwilling nuptials. As best man, in fact.             It is snowing outside the courthouse. Not the angry, hard, blistering shards of snow she's used to in Germany, but fat, lethargic flakes that drift and flutter and take their time getting to the ground. Lazy snow. American snow.             Anna's had only a single a tryst since that limpid summer in Bavaria all those years ago, but Gleb moved on. Got married. Had children. They've never talked about the intervening years and it's not worth bringing up now. Anna is seventy-two--too old to get married at all, much less for the first time. Jack Manahan is twenty years her junior. A former professor enamored with Russian history, with her--or, at least, the idea of her. Regardless, he hasn't put up much of a fight since being presented with the plan. Jack's only show of hesitation was a long, curious look at Gleb. Assessing his attachment and willingness to let Anna go.             It occurred to her, far too late into this arrangement, that she had not considered the issue of sex. Jack is young. Younger at least. And she is...well...she is not . The idea of consummation almost caused her to back out entirely. All of those hormones have shriveled up, turned to dust, and blown away. Desire is little more than a fond memory these days. Gleb has taken care of that issue as well, however, assuring her that sex isn't a necessary part of this bargain. She and Jack will have separate bedrooms. This will be a legal marriage, enough to keep her in the United States once her visa expires in three weeks, but it will be a marriage of convenience only. Gleb swore this, endless times, over what ended up being their last shared bottle of wine. Jack will not set a hand on her. Unless she wants him to. Why Gleb added that last part she isn't sure. He wouldn't meet her eyes as he said it and she said nothing in return. It was a small cruelty. This is how it is with them, apparently. Little wounds. Paper cuts. Just enough to sting but not really harm. Perhaps it's best that they aren't marrying one another after all.             Gleb slips into the antechamber beside the courtroom and surveys her tiny, slender form. "You look nice."             He looks weary and pale and infirm. He's lost weight recently and his once broad shoulders seem to have narrowed with illness and age. Anna wants to ask Gleb if his heart has gotten worse. But she's afraid of what his answer might be. So she says. "I look ridiculous."             "All brides look ridiculous. That's why they're so charming."             Anna turns back to the window. It's late afternoon, getting darker by the moment, and the overhead light bounces off the glass, throwing her reflection back at her. She touches a hand to her cheek. Traces one deep wrinkle after another, each of them telling a story she's long since decided to cast into the sea of forgetfulness.             "I am too old for this," she says.             "I know."             "You admit it then?" She studies his reflection too, hovering over her shoulder. "But no apology I see."             "It is this or you return to Germany," he says. "We are out of time."             "That always seems to be the case with us, doesn't it?"             "Ships in the night," he whispers and sets a large, warm hand on her shoulder. "Are you ready? Sergeant Pace is waiting. So is Jack."             " Sergeant ?"             "Judge Morris called in sick this morning."             Anna turns to him and looks, not at his face, but at the knot in his tie. Stares at the red and blue alternating stripes on the fabric, those thin lines circling back on themselves, all twisted and turned around. She's knotted up as well, but now, suddenly, it's with mirth.             "I am to be married," she asks, tilting her chin to meet those twinkling green eyes, "not by a priest, or a judge, but by a police officer ?" "It gives an entirely new meaning to being read your rights, doesn't it?" They laugh, then, long and loud. She turns back to the window and they stand in comfortable silence, watching Charlottesville disappear beneath the snow. Finally Anna leans her head back against Gleb's chest. "How did I get here?" Anna sighs, already knowing the answer. She has gotten here, she has survived, by always doing the thing that needs to be done. Excerpted from I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, has 354 entries in WorldCat; hers is a familiar story told in many forms. With nearly a century of doubts and imposters to build on, Lawhon (Flight of Dreams) mimics DNA's twisting strands by telling two tales, one of the real Anastasia, the other of Anna Anderson, who claimed to have survived the 1918 execution of the Tsar and his family. Until clear DNA evidence emerged in 2007 that proved Anastasia died with her family, Anna had the most credible claim on the Romanov title and bank accounts. Can we still even want to believe that Anastasia somehow survived? As a historical fiction novelist, Lawhon adjusts the facts to fit her dual narratives. Writing as "an enthusiast, not an expert," the author relies on meaningful items from letters and other records to add convincing details. VERDICT If you want to relive the legend of -Anastasia, this engrossing tale will not disappoint. Readable, masterful, and grisly, it entices belief. [See Prepub Alert, 10/9/17.]-Barbara Conaty, Falls Church, VA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Lawhon's spectacular, emotionally rich third historical thoroughly imagines the events leading up to the execution of Russia's royal family in 1918, after the October Revolution by the Bolsheviks. In a dual narrative, Lawhon also tackles the life of Anna Anderson, a woman who claimed to be Anastasia Romanov in Berlin in 1920. She has what look like scars from old bullet wounds, consistent with the manner in which the Romanovs were murdered. Anna's claims spread fast, and she's wooed by a long list of wealthy patrons who jump at the chance to be near possible royalty. Using material from the correspondence of the Romanov servants, Lawhon (Flight of Dreams) fleshes out the minutiae of the life of young Anastasia, a vibrant young lady confronting the loss of everything she's ever known. The tragic story of Anastasia is an enduring one, and the woman who laid claim to her birthright is a testament to the world's desire to believe in Anastasia's survival. This sprawling, immersive tale travels from revolutionary Russia to interwar France and Germany, bringing its characters to sparkling life. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

Not long after the execution of the Romanov family, headed by Tsar Nicholas, rumors fly that their youngest daughter, Anastasia, has escaped the carnage and is alive and well. Anna Anderson, a young woman rescued from a canal in Germany, bears an uncanny resemblance to the young tsarina, and her supporters are sure that she is, in fact, Anastasia and can regain the Romanov fortune and power. Her detractors see her as a money-hungry fake. Neither side offers definitive proof. Anastasia's story moves forward from the early months of 1917 to the executions in 1919, while Anna's begins when she is an older woman in the 1960s and works backward through time to the moment she is plucked from the canal. Readers move in and out of time and perspectives, switching sides and opinions along the way. The fate of the Romanovs directly clashes with the modern world that is emerging from the industrial revolution, the rise of social consciousness, and the questioning of the historical privilege granted to monarchs. Anastasia's tale reveals the family's disconnect with the common people, while Anna's narrative highlights the cultural shifts that underlie the time period. This is an excellent read for teens. The storytelling makes the novel come alive with tension and intrigue. -VERDICT For those who like mysteries and historical fiction.-Connie Williams, Petaluma Public Library, CA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

The mystery about the fate of Grand Duchess Anastasia, youngest daughter of Russia's imperial family, has officially been resolved, but the subject still exerts fascination. Was she murdered alongside her parents and siblings after the Russian Revolution, or did she survive? Incorporating themes of identity and hope, Lawhon's novel intertwines two strands: one following Anastasia up to that horrific night in 1918 and another about Anna Anderson, whose unwavering claims to be Anastasia inspired and confounded her contemporaries. Anastasia's story, evoking her youthful spirit, becomes increasingly tense as her world grows dangerously constrained, while Anna's story unfolds in snapshots flipping backward in time from 1970. The suspense hinges on the reader's unfamiliarity with the real history, and John Boyne's The House of Special Purpose (2013), also about Anastasia, handles the dual-chronology structure more smoothly. However, Anna's narrative, involving institutionalizations, glamorous excursions, legal battles, and meetings with people who want to support, exploit, or debunk her, compels with its many contrasts. Recommended mainly for readers unacquainted with this twentieth-century mystery or anyone interested in Anna Anderson's troubled life.--Johnson, Sarah Copyright 2018 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Anna Anderson's claim to be Anastasia Romanovsole survivor of the murder of the czar's family during the Bolshevik Revolutionis explored in this drama of historical suspense.In her third novel, Lawhon (Flight of Dreams, 2016, etc.) fictionalizes the story of a woman named Anna Anderson, who was pulled out of a canal in Germany after a 1920 suicide attempt. She claimed to be the surviving daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra Romanov. The czar, his wife, and his five children, along with a few family servants, were famously shot en massebut this woman claims she escaped. Not only does she resemble Anastasia, but she has the scars on her body that would necessarily be there if she had survived the shooting, and in the course of the 50-year period during which she makes this claim, she wins important supporters, including a childhood friend of the czarevnaas well as many detractors, particularly among the extended Romanov family. Lawhon tells Anna's story in reverse: from 1970 in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she awaits the results of the final German court ruling on her identity, going backward to 1920, when she was pulled out of the canal. Anastasia's tale is told in the first person in the opposite direction, starting in 1917 with the Romanovs being taken prisoner in their palace and going forward through their exile in Siberia to the night of the murders. This makes a certain amount of sense, as it allows the story to converge on the moment of truth, when we will find out if Anna is, as she certainly seems to be, Anastasia. What pushes it a little too far from the point of view of readability is the decision to tell individual Anna chapters backward. So, for example, a chapter that covers the period 1928-29 starts in November '29, then has a section set four months earlier, then six months earlier, then one month earlier, and so forth. Anna's globe-trotting trials and tribulations are hard enough to follow without this level of intricacy. So the Anastasia story ends up being the more compelling of the two, hurtling as it does to its grisly ending. Then comes an interesting Author's Note, where Lawhon discusses her process and decisions.Somewhat overcomplicated but ultimately satisfying. Anastasia Romanov lives yet again! Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.