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The Bronze Horseman  By  cover art

The Bronze Horseman

By: Paullina Simons
Narrated by: James Langton
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Publisher's summary

The golden skies, the translucent twilight, the white nights all hold the promise of youth, of love, of eternal renewal. The war has not yet touched this city of fallen grandeur or the lives of two sisters, Tatiana and Dasha Metanova, who share a single room in a cramped apartment with their brother and parents. Their world is turned upside down when Hitler's armies attack Russia and begin their unstoppable blitz to Leningrad.

Yet there is light in the darkness. Tatiana meets Alexander, a brave young officer in the Red Army. Strong and self-confident yet guarding a mysterious and troubled past, he is drawn to Tatiana - and she to him. Starvation, desperation, and fear soon grip their city during the terrible winter of the merciless German siege. Tatiana and Alexander's impossible love threatens to tear the Metanova family apart and expose the dangerous secret Alexander so carefully protects - a secret as devastating as the war itself - as the lovers are swept up in the brutal tides that will change the world and their lives forever.

©2009 Paullina Simons (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about The Bronze Horseman

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Please give us the other two books in the series!!

I absolutely love this story I fell in love with it from the first chapter Paulina is an amazing writer. It would be an honor for me to listen to the other two books read by this narrator also, James Langton did a marvelous job. His voice brought all the characters alive couldn't stop listening. Please once again the next two books of the trilogy would be wonderful. No one should miss listening to this love story. My Grandfathers were in WWll on the US side and I throughly enjoy these stories, they tell how everyone suffered so much and all is for freedom to live and love under God. Thank You!

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60 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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MOST BEAUTIFUL LOVE STORY EVER!!

Would you listen to The Bronze Horseman again? Why?

YES!! A THOUSAND TIMES YES!! I'll probably play it out till it breaks!!

What about James Langton’s performance did you like?

This story was released a few months ago by a different narrator and he absolutely ruined the story! I don't know why but it was re-done by James Langton and I'm so grateful!!! He did Fabulous! Awesome! Wonderful!! I'll never forget it!! I wanna kiss him!! He brought the best story I've ever read alive like no one else could!!

Any additional comments?

So... I read this book like 3 years ago and since then I've read it at least 4 more times. I was never going to review it. Not because I didn't like it but because I'm scared of the inadequacy of my words. There are just no words. Do you hear me? NO. WORDS. That can explain to you the AWESOME EPICNESS that is The Bronze Horseman.

I use the word awesome because what it means...

adjective1.causing or inducing awe; inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence of admiration...

That's just an inch of the feelings you get when you read the story of Tatiana and Alexander. For me it was this all consuming reverence that made me feel like my heart was being clutched in someone's fist.

It was heartbreak and joy.
Agony and happiness.
Desolation and reparation.
Grief and love.
It was sorrow and adoration.
Brutality and tenderness.
It was hunger and it was fulfillment.
It was regret and it was devotion.

It's my true love. Like the one person who no matter where they are, or who came before or after, it will ALWAYS be that person. Well for me The Bronze Horseman is incomparable.

I keep it on my night stand always. Whenever I miss them, I just flip it open and no matter where it falls I am sure to be sucked right back in to the beautiful tragedy of Tatiana and Alexander. It's filled with war that will leave you heartsick and a love so shattering it will leave you breathless. Don't take my inadequate words for it. Read it. I promise you. You'll never find another book thats written in such elegant poetic prose.

FYI: For the full impact of this story I'd suggest reading it first then doing to audio version :)

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55 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Relieved when it ended

The story in the first half of this book was fairly good. I can not say that any of the characters were likable-most were actually annoying. But I was able to chalk that up to their difficult life circumstances. The narration made things tougher to get through - the females sounded like cartoon characters and Alexander sounded like a Scotsman ... seriously? An American posing as a Russian that sounds like a Scotsman? THEN, a little over halfway through the book, it seemed we switched authors. Dialogue became silly and the sex scenes were so frequent and unromantic it became maddening (not in a good way). I was actually becoming angry for wasting my time listening to this foolishness and decided to abandon the book. But...as I do not like to give up on a book no matter how little enjoyment I am receiving from it, I resumed listening after a couple of days. The ending was not quite as bad, although there was a disgusting scene where Alexander, lying on what could have been his death bed , has Tatiana shove her bear breast in his face - ENOUGH ALREADY!!!
I was very disappointed in this book, actually hated the unnecessary and unpleasant sex scenes which took up probably a third of the narrative, and disliked the characters. I can't recall ever being so relieved at the conclusion of a book.
Sadly, I could not recommend this book nor will I read other books by this author.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Breathtaking

Any additional comments?

This book was amazing and the love story is epic!!!.
I never wright reviews but this one OMG deserves a outstanding review!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (not mine lol) anyway i loved it the story was heartwarming, the main characters are refreshing and strong yet love each other deeply.

Its worth two credits lol! best story i have ever listened to or read! and i have read more the 200+ romance and all!

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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WAY TO MUCH SEX!

The first half of this book was great, I really enjoyed it, and then all of a sudden it turned into a porn. I kept skipping and fast forwarding hoping to get the end of the story, but chapter after chapter it was just more very discriptive sex, I couldn't even finish the book. So annoying!

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Disappointed.

For starters, the narrarator confused me by having the character of Alexander speak with a Scottish brogue. Then his female voices were aweful. The story was about 20 chapters too long with repetitive dialogue and so much unnecessary sexual content. We get it, they had a lot of sex. I don't have to know every detail of the million times they did. And I'm sorry, but this story was not believable in anyway, I kept listening hoping it would improve and it did not. I definitely will not be listening to the other 2 of this series, I don't think I could take it!

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19 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Really??

I'm not even half way through this story and I'm just dismayed at the cliches, at the stereotypes, and the poor characterizations. All the wonderful reviews and yet I cannot go on. I just cannot see this evolving into anything close to "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles, or "Saphire Skies" by Belinda Alexandra, or even "Lilac Girls" by Martha Hall Kelly, and so many more that didn't heavily rely on the above mentioned stereotypes, all while portraying the same in much better taste - with horror and dismay. The only difference is the ex-patriots from other countries vaguely referred to. As far as I can see the romance is a bit shmalzy and over done, and I haven't even gotten to the good parts yet.

There are SO MANY other excellent WWII books - oh my gosh I didn't mention "The Firebird" either - that are about Russia, that this tawdry tale cannot hold a candle to.

The narrator apparently is a second choice, yet... Why have a man try and portray a woman's (girl's lets face it) story? He was not a good choice for this book.

It is going back ASAP. I have other books to hear!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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More please....

I do wish that that the other books in this series was on audible. This is a wonderful story.

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18 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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amazing book!

I generally prefer to listen to audio books as opposed to reading actual books, as i can multitask. i waited a long time for this book to come out on audio, and while the story was amazing and I loved it so much, i struggled with the narrator's portrayal of Tatiana, as he gave her a little girl whiny voice and she is a strong heroine. just for that reason I will probably read the other 2 books and not wait for them to come out on audio.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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15 hours too long

This starts out as historical fiction for the first half that I quite enjoyed and ends up as an annoying sappy love story. Very disappointing. I'm not a prude but the detailed sex scenes were overkill and the constant bickering between Tatiana and Alexander get on the nerves fast!! Their relationship was borderline abusive, he wouldn't allow her to do things or see people she wanted, when he looked at her she HAD to look at him, told her what to wear, ugh it went on and on like that. With 9 hours left I just couldn't listen anymore. The narrator was good but used a Scottish accent for his American character living in Russia. I wouldn't waste a credit on this and cannot understand all the rave reviews. Pass on this one!!!

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