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Book Review of The Bronze Horseman (Tatiana, Bk 1)

The Bronze Horseman (Tatiana, Bk 1)
ophelia99 avatar reviewed on + 2527 more book reviews


This is the first book in the Bronze Horseman trilogy. This is a historical fiction novel set in the 1940's in Russia during Hitler's invasion of Russia. This book was long and drawn out and plagued by characters that I found frustrating to read about.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was well done. I would definitely recommend reading on audiobook if you like audiobooks. The narrator did an amazing job.

If I had one to use one word to describe this book it would be...long. This is a long book and it feels long. Although the wartime setting is intriguing, I struggled to stay interested in our two main characters who constantly sabotage their own lives to make things much much more difficult than they need to be.

Tatiana thinks she is self-sacrificing by begging Alexander to continue to pretend to be in love with her sister, Pasha, when Alexander actually loves Tatiana. She thinks she will help her sister by protecting her sister's feelings. All she does is make everyone's life miserable. Both Tatiana and Alexander make one poor decision after another; some they are driven to by their situation but others they make because...well...I am not sure why.

In the end I found both lead characters frustrating to read about. I was especially frustrated by the middle of the book which contained (I listened to this on audiobook) over three hours of a whole summer of Tatania and Alexander having sex. Seriously...I get it...they really really like each other...a lot. This whole book was an exercise in excess and frustration and really should have been edited better.

In the end I am just happy to be done with it. I will not be reading more of the series. I can take no more of Tatania's passive aggressive behavior and can't stand anymore of Alexander's controlling and over-protective attitude. After 31 hours of listening to this I am soooo happy to be moving on to something else. The history was interesting but the rest was just so boring.