This book is a marvelous conclusion to a beautiful, heartwrenching and heartwarming series. Some readers feel the sex is gratuitous, I think it is exactly right for these two characters who had only had a brief honeymoon, before years of separation - and part of their undeniable connection that was instant and permanent. We have all read and seen 50 year marriages, and heard from both the husband and wife how they saw each other and knew - and that knowledge and connection remained 50, 60 years.... we all wish for that. Alexander and Tatiana are massively in love and need each other to live - and their love life is evidence of that. I love every part of this book and thank Paullina from the bottom of my heart for such a stunning portrayal of a marriage and life through the cold war. It will be a permanent fixture on my bookshelf.
I had a different opinion than that of other readers of this last sequel to THE BRONZE HORSEMAN. I thought it didn't need to be written; that the story of Tatiana and Alexander ended very well with "Tatiana and Alexander". Frankly, I found this slow moving; the story is weak, with a segway into the Vietnam War that feels tacked-on and weird, and, the same things that bothered me about The Bronze Horseman and Tatiana & Alexander bothered me in THE SUMMER GARDEN, namely, that the only two characters who are really developed as characters are Tatiana and Alexander.
My advice is, stop reading about these characters after "Tatiana & Alexander". That book brings this love story to a great closure.
My advice is, stop reading about these characters after "Tatiana & Alexander". That book brings this love story to a great closure.
Terrific culmination to the trilogy of Nicholas and Tatiana. I loved every minute of it!
Amazing read! I think the best of the trilogy, intense and emotional, but so worthwhile.
