The Bronze Horseman

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Summary: Stayed up all night!
Review: The Bronze Horseman is the first book in a long time that has kept me up until the wee hours of the morning. I flew through the book. Generally I don't read romance but this book is a riveting mix of outstanding, "real" characters and beautifully written language. It has tons, and tons of depth. In addition to the heart rendering love story and the well crafted personalities that dominate the story, it paints a meaningful and truthful picture of life under the communist "ideal". The ending has me not wanting to leave the characters and hoping that there is a Part II coming soon!

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Summary: One of the best books I have ever read
Review: The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simon's is truly one of the best books I have ever read. I literally could not wait to get home from work each night due to the intense desire to know what happened next. The Bronze Horseman is an intense love story set in Russia during WW11. As well as learning heaps about Russia(and now wanting to go there) and learning heaps about WW11, I fell unbelievably in love with Tatiana and with Alexander. I have not stopped thinking about them since I finished the book. There are many twists and turns throughout the story and many, many emotions are experienced by the reader, from love to hate to anger, envy, annoyance, happiness, desire, betrayal, extreme sadness (and lots of tears) and a heart wrenching empathy for what Russian people went through during the war.
Every women will fall in love with Alexander and every man with Tatiana. Oh, what it would have been like to spend that summer in Lazerevo with Alexander. Rarely has a book affected me so much. I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good read. Well done Paullina Simon's. May you write many more books and especially a sequel to this one.

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Summary: Get out your Kleenex box, girls...
Review: ...because this one will smash your heart again and again. This story was painfully beautiful from the beginning, and I ached the whole way through. I can honestly say this is one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever read. The dialogue was ingenious. This book brings living and suffering and freedom into fresh perspective. It brings fresh meaning to the word sacrifice. The author brings so much pain and sorrow, so much complexity and wisdom, so many layers of meaning and love in this novel. I would like to read more of her books, but I hesitate. It's not that I don't want to read another right away, it's that I don't think I CAN.

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Summary: A Great Book! Must READ!!
Review: The Bronze Horseman is a sweeping epic of vast proportions. Set in 1941 war torn Leningrad, Russia, we meet the Metanovs and their tale of survival in a city under siege. The book focuses on two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha, who both love the same man, Alexander, a soldier in the Red Army. The book spans the coarse of the war and heartache and pain that accompanies it. Simons beautifully tells a story of woe and love with poetic sentiment and a smooth flow. When I first picked it up, I thought, "Here I go, another mushy love story." In fact, it is, but not so much you want to gag. I thought I'd give it a chance and it captured me from the git go. There was only one part that was just a little long, but otherwise, I was pleasantly surprised, I couldn't put it down! I was surprised at how Simons was able to put actual feelings and actions that one would actually do or say. You can't miss a page or you'll miss out on something important!!! GO AND READ THIS BOOK!

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Summary: A Book To Cherish
Review: I have just finished this wonderful book and feel exhausted and emotionally drained. Meal times were a huge inconvenience whereas bath time allowed me to escape to war ravaged Russia and characters , whom I still can't stop thinking about, days after the book has ended. I wonder how it is possible to become so obsessed with fictional people but can only say it is the power of the author's writing. We touch people in our daily lives often just scratching the surface, but not so in this book where we can share their innermost thoughts and questions. Nor did I have any trouble picturing the desolate streets of Lenningrad or imagining the very real hunger of the starving population. Rarely have I read a novel so beautifully sensual. I have to say thank you Paullina and can only hope that a sequel will bring these wonderful people to life again. I usually start another novel immediately, but as yet I am still dwelling pleasantly on The Bronze Horseman.

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Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: The Bronze Horseman", by Paullina Simon. It is a novel that takes place during the horrific times when Germany was fighting the Russians in the Crimea , the streets of Moscow and on the outskirts of Linengrad (now once again called St. Petersburg) during the 2nd-world war. Though it is fiction, it reads like an historical novel, and gives you some insite into the severity, cruelty and punishment the Russian govenment meted out to their own citizens. A real eye-opener! It also has a remarkable and fateful love story, and explains the struggle the lovers had to endure just to survive. It has a twist to it that will lure you on to the final destiny of the two free spirits. The story is filled with deceit, lies, despair, lust, longing, love and finally hope for a new begining. This is a new author and her emotional depth and understanding of human nature is remarkable. I thouroughly enjoyed this book.

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Summary: Never Again!
Review: I have read a number of good works about life in the Soviet era. Unfortunately this wasn't one of them. I found this work tedious, droll and lacking literary value.

This book was recommended to me good human interest story set during the siege of Leningrad. What I read was page after page of narrative prose almost entirely lacking in any imagery. This book was so poorly written, that even many of the shocking events that took place in the siege failed to evoke any emotion.

Even more frustrating was the author's insistence on cataloguing every lovemaking event that look place during the protagonists' honeymoon which,in itself, comprised about a quarter of the work.

I found many reasons to dislike this book, from the incredibly thin plot to the cardboard cutout characters.

The end was as merciful as it was predictable.

Never again will I touch a work by Paullina Simons.

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Summary: A Beautiful Romance Set Against The Siege Of Leningrad
Review: "The Bronze Horseman" is more than a beautiful love story set against the backdrop of WWII Leningrad, where author Paullina Simons was born and raised. Ms. Simons portrays here, with great sensitivity and realism, the terrible suffering that the citizens of Leningrad experienced during the Nazi siege and their struggle to survive. She also probes the intricacies of family relationships, the ties that bind, especially in times of terrible hardship. Simons alludes frequently to Alexander Pushkin's tragic epic poem, "The Bronze Horseman," from which this novel takes its title.

Seventeen year old Tatiana Metanova was wearing her "splendid white dress with red roses" and enjoying an ice cream cone when she looked up and saw a soldier staring at her with "an expression she had never seen before." Thus begins the intense and complex relationship between Tatiana and her Alexander (Shura) Belov, a First Lieutenant in the Soviet Army. Vyacheslav Molotov, Stalin's Foreign Minister, had announced the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union only a few hours before the two young people meet for the first time.

Tatiana lives in a tiny two room flat with her sister and best friend Dasha, her twin brother, parents and grandparents. Her sense of family is very strong, especially since she has never had a truly close relationship with anyone other than her kin. When Tatiana brings Alexander home for the first time she discovers that her sister Dasha had already met him in a club and had bragged about him as her new boyfriend. Dasha takes what had been a casual romance very seriously and believes she is in love. Alexander does not reciprocate her feelings, however. Tatiana has been very sheltered by her family and is quite naive and very innocent. Slight, blonde and lovely, she is thought to be the most fragile member of the family. Tatiana and Alexander continue to see each other, keeping their relationship a secret from everyone. As the love and friendship grows between the couple, Tatiana becomes determined to sacrifice her own happiness for her sister's.

The consequences of war, bombings, starvation and death, overwhelm the city, and take a terrible toll, especially on Tatiana's family. Alexander tries his best to protect them but he has a terrible secret that must be kept at any price, and this secret complicates the intertwined relationships even more.

This is an epic tale that I found almost impossible to put down. It takes unexpected twists and turns that highlight the horrors of war and the inner strength of Tatiana and Alexander, as well as the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the characters. At first I was impatient with Tatiana's obsession to "give" Alexander to her sister. However, as Ms. Simons continues to develop her character the motivation becomes more clear and does make sense.

The author writes with great passion of love, war and survival. Ultimately I think this novel is as much about the human spirit's will to survive as it is about love. The dialogue between Tatiana and Alexander, as well as their love scenes are beautifully written. I will admit to sobbing more than a few times before the final page. I highly recommend this wonderfully romantic and tragic historical novel.
JANA

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Summary: Could have been better, but was worth the read
Review: THE BRONZE HORSEMAN by Paullina Simons

Paullina Simons' epic love story THE BRONZE HORSEMAN takes the reader back to the Soviet Union during the height of WWII, telling the tale of two star-crossed lovers as they fight for their love and their survival.

Young Tatania Metanova and Alexander Belov meet accidentally on the streets of Leningrad at the start of the war in Russia. It's a mild flirtation, but it is obvious Alexander is smitten by this innocent of a girl who is not yet a woman, but no longer a child. Tatania exudes innocence and purity, and this is what attracts Alexander. She is different from the women he has pursued, different from the women that have chased after him.

Tatiana has never been in love, but she finds that she is attracted to this soldier of the Soviet army, and to her dismay, she finds out later that he is the man that her older sister Dasha has been babbling about for days. So as not to hurt her sister whom she loves dearly, Tatania and Alexander agree to keep their love from Dasha, while Dasha thinks her days as a single woman are numbered.

Meanwhile, the country is seized by war and Tatania and her family, who are all squeezed into a 2-room apartment, try to survive. There is a food shortage, a fuel shortage, and people are barely keeping alive. With the Metanova's, it is seven people living day in and day out in this tiny place, with no privacy whatsoever and the threat of death everywhere. Yet, Tatiana manages to keep her feelings about Alexander to herself, while her sister prattles on and on about a man she thinks she loves and loves her in return.

The book is told in epic fashion, with the tragic story lines that are befitting to a tale of love and war. A whopping 890 pages in the mass market edition, THE BRONZE HORSEMAN takes the reader to the cold harsh winter in war-ravaged Leningrad and to the warmer climates in the countryside of Lazarevo. The many twists and turns of this book did keep this reader on edge. However, the writing was somewhat lacking, and at times irritating. The book could definitely have been shorter. The book is a fast read despite the length, but a warning to those who may find the writing tedious and sometimes redundant. In the long run, the story content helped save this novel, and this reader gives THE BRONZE HORSEMAN three and a half stars.

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Summary: Very Moving
Review: After 6 years i decided to read a novel. i went to my local book stoe and picked out a book the was called 'The Bridge to Holy Cross', not knowing it is the sequal to 'The Bronze Horseman'. After reading the second one first, i read the bronze horseman. although i wish i had read it the other way round. i fell in love with Alex and Tatiana, their charaters are are very touching, their undying passion for each other is incedible. i loved it. it is my favourite book and all other books i read i compare it to the the story of Alex and Tatiana. you have to read the book to understand the true emotions, the never ending love of the two characters. i want to thank Paullina Simons for a fantastic novel and i enjoyed it with every bit of my heart. Thank-You, this book will never be forgotten.