While I generally liked this book, there were points were I really struggled to get through the book. Some of the plot felt contrived, and I couldn't really get into Anne and Ethan's story. To be honest, I was more interested in Anastasia's story and how she would deal with Baba Yaga. I did like that Tess got involved in the main plot, but she felt more incidental. I also couldn't grasp Viktor as a villain, I didn't understand what his full motives were and the random theories that Anne sprouted off just felt random. ("Oh, he hates his family! Oh, he wants to live forever!") If this wasn't the start to a series and treated more as a stand-alone novel, I would probably have liked it a lot better.