"We could be the stars/ falling from the sky/ shining how we want/ Brighter than the sun." 
 - Colbie Caillat 
 Trope Check 
 *forbidden love 
 *reckless screw-history globetrotting 
 *afterlife things 
 *purple prose emo-ness 
 2.5 stars 
 My feelings are similar to those with Dreaming Anastasia: 
 "If only there were no Romanovs." 
 The first part was good. Calder was surprisingly sympathetic and the biblical, rather than mythological, universe, is an original choice. However, I didn't get the symbolism of the Cell. There are definitely better ways to symbolize forgiving your sins. 
 The second part: 
 I didn't get what Laura Whitcomb has with "reddish-gold-hair. Alexandra had brown hair. Even in black-and-white, it's pretty obvious. From here, the writing took on a Golden-Compass-esque way-too-fast pace. I guess Whitcomb is trying to make it exciting, but it's not exciting when you don't know what's going on. Other than the pace, the writing could have gotten five stars. The other thing that kept it from two stars is that, as seen in my quiz it had a cliche of Romanov fiction, but fortunately only one. 
 However, I didn't get why Whitcomb waits until page 228 to say that "Ana" is Anastasia. That's not actually a legitimate nickname in Russia. I get it that "Asya" with its Russian pronunciation, sounds like an expletive, and "Nastia" and "Nastinka" sound less than desirable, but what about "Nastasya?" Anastasia is a bit of a mouthful with its Russian pronunciation (ah-na-STAH-see-a), but at least explain it's a nickname and use a legit one. I get why Rasputin has to die earlier than in actual history to explain why he was nearly un-killable during his assassination. 
 The plot, removed from the writing that makes this book addictive in a Princess-Diaries like way (only The Princess Diaries is an intentionally shallow book, while this one tries to be deep but ultimately fails), is really a wild goose chase. 
 Read this (I may have missed a few things.): 
 A death escort guy goes through weird magical doors to take people to heaven because somehow there is no hell and the hell-like place is where souls go when they fall down a crack thingy(?) 
 How is that fair? 
 In one death scene, he sees some pretty lady with a baby and thinks he's in love with her and after seeing her again in another death scene with the same boy and somehow thinks that's enough for him to fall madly in love with her and take her for his apprentice, or "star fetch." He's so madly in love that he takes the body of the next guy he sees that can take him to imperial Russia which breaks some of the gravest sins in the Fetch rule-book. 
 How much smarter is that than the Dauntless in Divergent? 
 Then he realizes this woman is married and not intended to be his apprentice thingy and he ends up with her youngest children whom supposedly have his key that will get him and them back to Heaven and solve everything. However, "Ana" was so unrealistically stupid and weak that she gave the key to her cliched soldier lover who really couldn't have been on the firing squad and not fire. After all, Helen Rappaport and a documentary filmmaker both state that several guards refused to shoot the family. Also, most of the last batch of guards were not exactly friendly. 
 Unfortunately this unrealistic soldier has gone to Los Angeles of all places to find his cousin who paints film sets, so they end up going from Vladivostok to Japan to California, with Rasputin's spirit, somehow in the Land of Lost souls (the place souls fall and don't reach heaven), where you can go anywhere in the world. 
 However, Ilya has no key, so they go to New York and then to London to find Anastasia and Alexis' relatives, when they realize they'll have to go back to Russia to find the key. Somehow, there's a guy crazy enough to take them there even when Europe's still a war zone with enemy ships everywhere. 
 Are our characters, especially the ones who have yet to die, somehow removed from all realism? 
 Honestly, the only good historical piece was the portrayal of Rasputin: Not evil magician or innocent holy man but a mix of both. In that respect, this beats Tsarina, but the latter's politics are a bit more realistic. 
 If only there were not Romanovs.