Customer Reviews

The Bronze Horseman

5 star:		(103)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

It took a few pages for me to get into this book, but then I couldn't put it down. I'm not interested in wars generally, but it was just the backdrop for a wonderful story. I'm on the third book now, and I'm wishing there were more!

A marvelous story of star-crossed lovers set in Leningrad during the seige of WWII. Paullina Simons has written a classic love story of the new century, chock full of history and characters that you will think about for weeks after reading about them. I felt as though I had lived through that terrible winter in Leningrad. I only wish the book were twice as long, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hoping for a sequel.

Don't let this one pass you by. It's a book you'll always remember, and want to read over and over again.

This is hands down the worst book I have ever read. There is abostuletly no character development, the characters are ..., and as a reader you don't really like or sympathize with any of the characters.... Due to the lack of character development, the story line is implausible and laughable. This book is a poorly written harlequin romance novel set in Russia. Don't waste your time reading it.

At the outset, I was unable to put this huge book down. You will be swept into the heartbreaking love between Tatiana and Alexander almost as though you were experiencing it yourself! When they meet and feel an instant attraction for each other on a Leningrad street, you can't help but feel that it is a great match in the making. However, when Tatiana finds out that Alexander is her sister's beau, she insists that they keep their strong feelings for each other secret in order to protect Dasha's feelings. Not only this, but Alexander's friend Dimitri takes a liking to Tania and since he knows a secret that would destroy Alexander had anyone found out, he cannot know of their feelings for one another. For a great part of the book, they must live this way, until the siege of Leningrad when all of Tania's family perishes of starvation. It is this story that had the power to keep me up all night reading, wondering what was to become of the massive love that they felt for each other.

Unfortunately, just like any other story, once the tension is gone, the it just isn't as spellbinding. When Tania and Alexander find each other and are finally able to consummate (and consummate and consummate) their love for each other...let me break in here and say that I nearly had to skip over about 100 pages of "moaning" and "licking"...their love almost falls flat.

Toward the end of the book, it becomes more engrossing with their fight for their lives and plans to leave the Soviet Union. Alexander's secret both helps and hinders Tania's ambitions to make a better life for herself outside of communist Russia.

"The Bronze Horseman" is beautifully written with lush wording and a genuine sense of longing between the two protagonists. The realistic scenes of Leningrad winters, starvation and death will be sure to impart a feeling of desperation and a need to survive as you're reading. This is a compulsively readable novel, except for the small middle part, and I was disappointed when I reached the end.

I'm not finished with this book yet. I've put it down in order to read one other book. Saying that, I'm now deep into this book and for the first time in my reading career, which is very, very long, I put it down to fix dinner and suddenly felt that I had to divide up the chicken carefully and make sure we had enough food for the next day.

I've never had a book impact me when I put it down to do something else and suddenly feel very cold and careful about how much food I prepare. My country isn't at war and we aren't poor, so I'm either losing my marbles or this book as really gotten under my skin.

I'm not very good with history, but lately I'm learning more and more about World War 2 through well written novels. I check with my husband to make sure the information is correct but I'm sure the author did a lot of research.

I highly recommend this book not only for the writing ability of the author, but for the descriptive words of what Leningrad was like during World War 2 at this period of time.

I haven't gotten to the sex part which others have commented upon, so I'll read it and judge for myself whether it is too much and over the top. I love a good love story but I don't like romance novels. I want a book that makes me think and this one took over one evening of my life. Therefore, I highly recommend this book if you want to really feel what it's like to be freezing, being bombed at, starving, and living in a communal apartment with an emeshed family controlling everything you do.

If you have ever been in love before, then you can relate to this story. The emotions that you feel when you read this book completely takes you over. You wont be able to put this book down until the very end. But even then when you are finished, you will find yourself flipping through the chapters, reading over sentences and passages that made your heart skip a beat, sigh in relfection while imagining each of those memerable moments. This is a book worth reading, especially if you are the romantic type. Even if you are not, this book may convert you into one. Read for yourself and decide how you feel about it. Maybe afterwards you might feel the same way too.

I had no expectations when a friend recommended this trilogy. 5 stars sealed with a kiss! This is story of 17 year old Tatiana and her soldier, Alexander during WWII in Leningrad, Russia. Their story is laced within the historical backdrop that creates more interest and intrigue.
I don't want to give away any spoilers but ****be warned that the sex is implicit in the 2nd half of the book****.

AWESOME, I read this in New Zealand 6 months ago and loved every minute! Its so captivating and pulls on the heart strings in every way. Definitely one of my favourite books and really recommend it; the rest of the series is just as good.

The Bronze Horseman begins in 1941 as the Germans have just invaded Russia, but seventeen year old Tatiana Metanova still stops to enjoy the day with an ice-cream, and as a bus passes she sees a soldier staring at her from across the street. Alexander Belov is mesmerized from the first at the sight of Tatiana, but is in for a surprise when he follows her home and finds her sister is a woman he's met before - and that sister thinks Alexander is in love with her. Out of love for her older sister, Tatiana keeps silent and encourages Alexander to court Dasha. Much of the story continues as the Germans advance on Leningrad, finally resulting in a siege of the city as Tatiana and her family struggles to survive amidst the ever growing shortage of food and fuel, along with the oncoming Russian winter. When on leave Alexander continues to involve himself with the Metanova family, not able to stay away from Tatiana even though he must hide his feelings for her, although his "friend" Dimitri openly courts Tatiana.

Since I am not into book reports and spoilers I'm not going to reveal much more of the plot, although Alexander does have a deep dark secret from his past that Dimitri holds over Alexander's head that threatens both his and Tatiana's eventual happiness, and finally culminates in a hair-raising attempt to escape from Soviet Russia. The good - the scenes in Leningrad were chilling, as people literally starved to death and dropped where they were (and left there) as bombs rained down around them daily. Alexander's devotion to Tatiana was very endearing, and I loved the scenes where he dealt with her injuries after the bombing. Sigh...

The problematic - Tatiana's never ending suffering at the hands of her family as she sacrifices all during the siege without a word of complaint (you know any seventeen year old who would put up with that??). Just stepping aside and letting her self-centered sister have the man she loves? Tatiana getting a private hospital room in overcrowded Leningrad? Once the cast came off her leg she was pretty much healed and able to trudge up and down icy stairs and streets with no discomfort or slowness? But the worst for me was the idyllic setting around page 600 that went on and on and on and on - I got the picture already and I did not need 100+ pages of nothing but sex and sex and more sex. Where was the editor?

So why am I still giving this one 4/5 stars even though I agree with the flaws pointed out by the critical reviewers on Amazon? Since I flat out couldn't keep my nose out of the book and the carpet didn't get vacuumed and the floors didn't get mopped this weekend, I guess that's a good indication that despite the flaws I was pretty much sucked into the story and thoroughly enjoyed it and plan on reading the next in the trilogy Tatiana and Alexander. Just be warned that if you're not able to get past the nitpicks and the author's somewhat repetitive style, I suspect this is not the book for you.

This book is too exceptional even for my word of choice. As for a reader like me, a book has to grasp me from the very beginning in order for it to consume me (I get bored easily). And the BRONZE HORSEMAN by Paullina Simons has done just that. This book contained almost a thousand pages and yet I never stopped reading it (so glad I read it on my summer vacation).

The sequel to this book, TATIANA & ALEXANDER, is just as well written and maybe even better but I felt that it dragged on quite a bit and that the suspense came too late in the story, which took me a year (yes, one WHOLE year) to complete the whole novel (and just because it was such an emotional plot, and as for me being such an overwhelming, emotional person, I couldn't read on at times). And then there is the third part of the series called THE SUMMER GARDEN. I won't tell you the story in case it spoils it for others but if you have read the first and second novel of the series, then research into it. You don't have to read the third one but if you are a fan, I highly recommend it. You definitely have to read the sequel for your heart to rest and have peace of mind. Blame it on the original BRONZE HORSEMAN.

But all in all, the first original, THE BRONZE HORSEMAN, is still my favourite and the best out of the three novels. I feel like I'm telling all of you to read this book but really I came here just to rate it. I don't want to gloat or "over-hype" this novel but look into it and read it for yourself... and then we'll see if you can still hold dear to your heart your current, so-called "favourite" romance novel. Trust me, you'll never read another fiction/romance novel the same.