Review: The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons

I just finished this book today and I must say it was with mixed feelings. I had seen it recommended on YouTube, so I had a lot of expectations for it, and I have to admit that these expectations were not met. I am not even sure I want to read the sequel, even though the story was gripping at times. But let's get to the actual review. There will be a few spoilers so beware!

The story is about Tatiana and Alexander who meet in Leningrad just as the Second World War breaks out, and it follows their troubled love life as they navigate the dangers of war and the problems of living in extremely close quarters while having to hide their romance. 

I thought the story would be quite action packed, being a World War II setting, but instead it was rather bleak and often long winded. It did have brilliant bursts of writing, often during the action sequences, but in between, when we heard about the everyday life either in war torn Leningrad or in peaceful Lazarevo, it would drag on seemingly without end. 

The relationship between Alexander and Tatiana confused me and frustrated me to no end. They would fight and rave against their unfair fate and against each other, then they would "resolve" it by getting physical in some way, but without really talking it out. Then there would be a misunderstanding, or one of them would get jealous, or play a game to make the other one jealous, and they would fight again, for pages and pages, and then instead of really resolving it, they would just have sex again. And again. And again....that's not really a relationship I enjoy reading about, even though it had its moments. 

I gave the book 3 stars on Goodreads, because it did have some beautiful writing and gripping scenes, but it was just too long for me. It could easily have been cut by about half and not have lost anything for me. Sometimes it felt like it was all about filling pages, and the endless fights and Dimitri's constant reappearance just felt like repetitions of the same scenes. 

I did like it in between the long winded stuff and it sort of ended on a cliffhanger, but as mentioned above I don't know if I feel like wading through another 800+ pages to see where the story goes from there. If I continue the series I will probably check out the books from my library as opposed to buying them.

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