The Bronze Horseman

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.

Tatiana and her family suffer as Hitler’s army advances on Leningrad, and the Russian winter closes in. With bombs falling and the city under siege, Tatiana and Alexander are drawn to each other in an impossible love. It is a love that could tear Tatiana’s family apart, a love that carries a secret that could mean death for anyone who hears it.

Confronted on the one hand by Hitler’s unstoppable war machine, and on the other by a Soviet system determined to crush the human spirit, Tatiana and Alexander are pitted against the very tide of history, at a turning point in the century that made the modern world.

I absolutely love books that suck you right in and consume you until you are finished. This is one of those books. A sweeping saga with so many conflicting emotions, the horrors of war, the heartbreak, the delight of finding joy in the midst of it and the fear that the goodness just can't last in these tragic conditions. This is one book I would have missed if not for a fellow book blogger.  Thankfully, Tatiana and Alexander will continue the story of their lives.

Author: Paulinna Simons
Published:  September 2009
Pages: 832
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Source:  Library
Finished: 11/28/11
4 Bears

Down The Darkest Road

Four years after the unsolved disappearance of her sixteen-year-old daughter, Lauren Lawton is the only one still chasing the ghosts of her perfect Santa Barbara life. The world has given her daughter up for dead. Her husband ended his own life in the aftermath. Even Lauren’s younger daughter is desperate to find what’s left of the childhood she hasn’t been allowed to have.
Lauren knows exactly who took her oldest child, but there is not a shred of evidence against the man. Even as he stalks her family, Lauren is powerless to stop him. The Santa Barbara police are handcuffed by the very laws they are sworn to uphold. Looking for a fresh start in a town with no memories, Lauren and her younger daughter Leah move to idyllic Oak Knoll. But when Lauren’s suspect turns up in the same city, it feels to all the world that history is about to repeat itself. Leah Lawton will soon turn sixteen, and Oak Knoll has a cunning predator on the hunt.
Sheriff’s detective Tony Mendez and his team begin to close in on the suspected killer, desperate to keep the young women of their picturesque town safe. But as the investigators sift through the murky circumstances of an increasingly disturbing case, a stunning question changes everything they thought they knew.

This book is part of the Oak Knoll series, but stands alone well. Vince and Anne make appearances, but Detective Tony Mendez figures more prominently, but not enough to my satisfaction.  I am hoping he will be back in future books. At times Lauren's anger, hatred, and bitterness made her an unlikeable but understandable character, all the while knowing she was heading for disaster.  The limits of the investigative tools of the time are a character in themselves and you feel the frustration of those investigating.  Even though I saw the twist coming, it was an enjoyable read.  I look forward to the next book in this series.

Author: Tami Hoag
Published: December 27, 2011
Genre:  Suspense/Thriller
Source:  NetGalley/Penguin Group
Finished: 12-8-11
3 Bears



This complimentary review copy was received thankfully from NetGalley and Penguin Group and in no way influenced my review of this book. These are my personal thoughts and reactions to the reading of the book.