The Summer Garden by Paullina Simons
Book 3 in The Bronze Horseman series
e-Book and Paperback; 752 pages
William Morrow Paperbacks
June 21, 2011
DNF
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Received from William Morrow for review
Book Blurb:
Through years of war and devastation, Tatiana and Alexander suffered the worst the twentieth century had to offer. Miraculously reunited in America, they now have a beautiful son, Anthony, the gift of a love strong enough to survive the most terrible upheavals. Though they are still young, the ordeals they endured have changed them--and after living apart in a world laid waste, they must now find a way to live together in postwar America.
With the Cold War rising, dark forces at work in their adopted country threaten their lives, their family, and their hard-won peace. To regain the happiness they once knew, to wash away the lingering pain of the past, two lovers grown distant must somehow forge a new life . . .or watch the ghosts of their yesterdays destroy their firstborn son.
The Summer Garden . . . their odyssey is just beginning.
Oh how I wanted to love this story! I really, really did! And I gave it such a valiant effort – I’ve been attempting to go back and finish this book four times since I started it in 2014 and I’ve only made it 33% of the way through, which in a book of this length is about 250 pages. I LOVED the first two books, The Bronze Horseman and Tatiana and Alexander (my reviews are linked). However, The Summer Garden just didn’t do the same for me. This book felt SLLLLOOOOWWWW…. Where the other two books zipped along and had a lot of action (both of the battlefield and romance variety), The Summer Garden just plods nowhere. Alexander is simply brooding and inside himself, Tatiana keeps worrying about him, and at least as far as I made it, nothing else happens. It is BORING. I understand that the author is attempting to deal with all the psychological drama that they encountered during the events of the first two books, but I just couldn’t become interested in these characters that I had loved in the first two novels. While I want to know what the end result is for these two, I can’t push myself through another 500 pages of what I read so far.
Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court
Sorry you couldn't make it through. I've read one book by this author and loved it. I keep thinking I should start with The Bronze Horseman, but just haven't made the time. Maybe someday...
ReplyDeleteI LOVED the Bronze Horseman, was my favorite by this author. It had war, bsttlefield, love, home front etc.
DeleteI finished this one but it was a real struggle - it was almost like someone else wrote it! Definitely nowhere near as good as the first two.
ReplyDeleteOk, I'm glad it's not just me! It was SO different than the first two books.
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