DNF Discussions: The Summer Garden by Paullina Simons

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

Book Review: Tatiana and Alexander by Paullina Simons

Tatiana and Alexander by Paullina Simons
Book 2 in The Bronze Horseman series

Paperback, 559 pages
Avon
June 29, 2010
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance

Source: My personal collection

Tatiana is eighteen years old, pregnant, and widowed when she escapes war-torn Leningrad to find a new life in America. But the ghosts of her past do not rest easily. She becomes consumed by the belief that her husband, Red Army officer Alexander Belov, is still alive and needs her desperately.

Meanwhile, oceans and continents away in the Soviet Union, Alexander barely escapes execution, and is forced to lead a battalion of soldiers considered expendable by the Soviet high command. Yet Alexander is determined to take his men through the ruins of Europe in one last desperate bid to escape Stalin's death machine and somehow find his way to Tatiana once again.

Like many readers, I LOVED The Bronze Horseman and I was excited to jump into Tatiana and Alexander to see how their story continued – however, I didn’t quite get what I was looking for. I have come to the conclusion, after reading this and part of the third book, that I enjoy the story more when our two protagonists are separated. Even in the prior book, the story would drag for me when we would get caught up in extended love scenes or when they are just arguing about what to do.

Fortunately for me, throughout most of this novel, they are separated by the Atlantic Ocean, with Tatiana in New York and Alexander in Russia. Individually, I did enjoy both of their stories. Tatiana’s is a story of immigration into the United States and how many worked to build new lives for themselves, even when not losing hope or the connection to the old home country. She is also dealing with the belief that her husband is dead and how does she deal with that. Some may find this a little boring, but I enjoyed this attempt at some normalcy after finally escaping war torn Russia. Now Alexander’s story on the other hand is one full of action and escape attempts. He is stuck in the Soviet machine and things could not be more life or death for him. These two different lives juxtapose well against each other.

I won’t lie, there is a lengthy, somewhat boring section toward the middle of the book. Here, the author essentially retells a significant portion of The Bronze Horseman from the perspective of Alexander (while in the first book it came from the perspective of Tatiana). While I understand that the author wanted to establish the story for Alexander and how that relationship affects the circumstances he is currently facing, for me it felt just like a rehash. I don’t think that it was necessarily needed to add to the trauma Alexander was facing. It could have been a much shorter flashback to achieve the same results.

I love the beautiful characters that Simons creates, and I enjoyed this book overall because of that. Tatiana and Alexander are a historical fiction love story that is among my favorites. Book 3, The Summer Garden, which I have started at the time of writing this review, is proving to be a little more of a struggle than this one to get through.

If you would like to preview the story before reading it, why not try out this excerpt of the book [http://paullinasimons.com/books/tatiana-and-alexander/excerpt/]?

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Vilma’s Book Blog
• School for Us

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

Also by Paullina Simons in The Bronze Horseman Series:

Children of Liberty (Prequel Book 1)

Bellagrand (Prequel Book 2)

The Bronze Horseman (Book 1)
[My Review]

The Summer Garden (Book 3)

Tatiana’s Table (Cookbook)

Find Paullina Simons: Website | Facebook | Twitter

 

 

Copyright © 2015 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons

The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
Book 1 in The Bronze Horseman series

Paperback, 832 pages

William Morrow Paperbacks

September 8, 2009

★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Romance

Source: From my personal collection

“Leningrad 1941: the white nights of summer illuminate a city of fallen grandeur whose beautiful palaces and stately avenues speak of a different age, when Leningrad was known as St Petersburg. 

Two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha, share the same bed, living in one room with their brother and parents. It is a hard, impoverished life, yet the Metanovs know many who are not as fortunate as they. 

The family routine is shattered on 22 June 1941 when Hitler invades Russia. For the Metanovs, for Leningrad and for Tatiana, life will never be the same again. On the fateful day, Tatiana meets a brash young officer named Alexander.”

This was such a wonderful read that I am so glad I was able to squeeze it in this year. I hadn’t read any books set in Russia previously and I really haven’t read very much at all about WWII so this was a great combination on time and place for me. I also don’t typically read a lot of historical romance novels – which I didn’t realize this was until I saw the words “a love story” – but there was so much historical detail and a world brought to vivid life that I didn’t even care…that much.

Russia and particularly Leningrad became characters unto themselves. We walk the streets with Tatiana and Alexander and learn all about the monuments and buildings. You get a vivid picture of what it was like to live in Soviet style apartment type houses. When there are bombings, gun fights, building destructions you feel it all.

In my opinion the characters were well built and grow over time – Tatiana certainly does. I was actually quite frustrated by her in the beginning of the book. It is sort of slow moving and she is so naïve and it is frustrating her feeling of futility – she gives in to everyone too often. I LOVED Alexander. He was just the right amount of hero, dashing, daring, handsome, and brave. He did all the right things and you always cheered for him. On the other hand I could feel my hate for Dimitri grow over time – he is such a worm!

This is certainly a historical romance. While there is great detail of the attack on Leningrad, how people lived, and the battles that ensued – the focus of the story are the relationships between Tatiana and her sister Dasha and Alexander and Dimitri. There is a lot of sexual discussion, somewhat explicit, but it wasn’t like a bodice ripper by any means. There did come a point when I was like, “OK, I get it, could we please just move on with the story”.

For a lengthy book it pulls you right along by emotionally attaching you to the characters and making you care what happens to them as they encounter each new insufferable event. There are times of deep sadness and great passion. The ending of this book I thought was awesome and leads well into Book 2 – Tatiana and Alexander, which I can’t wait to read!

Author Paullina Simons also has written the two follow up books in the series Tatiana & Alexander (Book 2) and The Summer Garden (Book 3) as well as the companion Tatiana’s Table. You can visit Simons' website or blog for additional information about the books. If you would like to preview the story before reading it, why not try out this excerpt of the book?

You can also watch the book trailer below (created by a fan).

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Maryse’s Book Blog
• My Friend Amy

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

Also by Paullina Simons:

The other books in The Bronze Horseman series include:

Children of Liberty (Prequel #1)

Bellagrand (Prequel #2)

Tatiana and Alexander (Bronze Horseman #2)
[My Review]

The Summer Garden (Bronze Horseman #3)
[My Review]

Tatiana’s Table (Cookbook)

Find Paullina Simons: Website | Facebook | Twitter

 
Copyright © 2011 by The Maiden’s Court