Not as good as the first book.

Not as great as the first one and a bit less realistic, but still a solid epic historical love story. Do not read this series out of order!

I loved this tragic romance. Gritty and real, there aren't many romance novels with the quality of this trilogy.

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.

This review was previously posted at The Maiden's Court blog.

Where is the Grammy for this book?

Non ho la più pallida idea da dove iniziare e probabilmente questa recensione sarà totalmente a caso MA CAPITEMI.
Come nel primo romanzo, la Simons mi ha fatto provare qualsiasi tipo di emozione possibile ed immaginabile e sopratutto questa santa donna ha la capicita di farti entrare dentro i suoi personaggi: ciò che provavano Tatania e Alexander lo provavo anche io, come se stessi vivendo quella determinata situazione in prima persona. Durante le scene più strazianti avrei voluto che la Simons fosse stata un po' meno brava a scrivere perché, vi giuro, mi distruggevano dentro in una maniera assurda.
Rivedere il primo romanzo dal punto di vista di Alexander e i flashback sulla sua infanzia è stato molto interessante, anche se due/tre scene le ho trovate un po' superflue. Tantiana sola a New York che non riesce a riprendere in mano la sua vita perché si sente divisa a metà, mi ha fatto piangere in continuazione... e Alexander che va avanti soltanto granzie al pensiero di lei... entrambi così lontani e che non riescono a fare a meno di pensare all'amore che li lega...INSOMMA AIUTO. L'ultima parte del romanzo si racchiude in una sola parola: ANSIA. Mi sentivo una corda di violino mentre la leggevo, tanto ero tesa. avevo il costante terrore che qualcosa potessa andare storto, ma quando ho letto la fine ho pianto dalla gioia al pensiero di loro finalmente felici, liberi di vivere la loro vita insieme , dopo tutto la sofferenza e che gli ostacoli che hanno incontrato. Inutile dire che ho aspettative altissime per l'ultimo libro e che, se saranno deluse, penso che sarò io quella che non riuscirà ad andare avanti con la propria vita.

(Scusate se ci sono errori, ma ho scritto un papiro e mamma mi ha fatta pigra, quindi non ho voglia di rileggere)

I'm torn on this. On one hand, my god, the repetition. I think a couple hundred pages could have been removed from this book without compromising much. There are so many flashbacks. Granted, some of them add to the story. There was material that wasn't covered in the [b:The Bronze Horseman|83144|The Bronze Horseman (Tatiana and Alexander, #1)|Paullina Simons|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327921996s/83144.jpg|12615171]. But there was also a whole lot of flashbacks that were just rehashing the first book.

The Lazarevo summer sex session was long enough in book one. My god, I didn't need anymore in this book. But there it was.

On the other hand, I think this author has a real knack for pulling you deeply into the story. I was devouring this book during lunch the last couple of days, and was pretty startled to find myself back at work at the end of my half hour. It was actually disorienting to be pulled back into reality from the world of this story. You know you're reading something good when that's the case.

For that alone, I'll error to the side of 4 stars for this one. But the rehashing for book one irritated me, so it's really more a 3.5 star read for me.

Buku ini merupakan buku kedua dari trilogi Tatiana dan Alexander karya Paullina Simons.

Tatiana kini berusia delapan belas tahun, hamil, dan berhasil lolos dari cengkeraman Uni Soviet. Namun Tatiana harus melanjutkan perjalanannya ke New York tanpa Alexander, yang menurut berita telah meninggal tenggelam di Danau Ladoga ketika akan pergi ke Volkhov untuk menerima kenaikan pangkat. Tatiana harus berjuang melanjutkan hidupnya, mengasuh anaknya, semuanya di bawah bayang-bayang Alexander yang sangat dicintainya.

Haruskah saya menulis ini di balik tirai spoiler jika saya berkata "Alexander belum mati"? Well, Alexander belum mati . Dia bertahan melewati siksaan-siksaan dari NKVD (polisi rahasia Rusia), kelanjutan perang sebagai kapten penal battalion (tidak yakin saya harus menerjemahkannya sebagai apa dalam bahasa Indonesia), juga di bawah bayang-bayang Tatiana. Mereka terpisah beribu mil jauhnya, hanya dengan keyakinan buta bahwa belahan jiwa mereka masih hidup...dan mungkin saja, berbahagia. Sanggupkah Tatiana dan Alexander melanjutkan hidup mereka, dan hidup semacam apa yang menanti mereka selanjutnya?

Trilogi ini masih memaksa saya duduk lebih lama daripada yang saya inginkan. Pada awal buku, cerita dituturkan dengan alur campuran, antara kehidupan Tatiana, Alexander, dan masa lalu Alexander. Pada buku ini kita dapat mengenal lebih jauh karakter gelap Alexander, juga Tatiana. Alexander terasa sangat Chuck-Norris-y pada separuh bagian akhir novel ini. Tatiana terasa lebih keras kepala daripada biasanya, terkadang terasa naif dan agak mengesalkan, untunglah saya sudah jatuh cinta duluan pada dua sejoli ini di buku pertama. Dengan segala kekurangannya, kedalaman cinta mereka masih membuat saya bertepuk tangan. Tidak sekeras saat saya membaca The Bronze Horseman, tapi tetap saja saya bertepuk tangan.

Now eagerly searching for the third book...semoga kehidupan mereka yang penuh konflik ini pada akhirnya akan menemukan kedamaian.