Paullina Simons

For all that I loved The Bronze Horseman by the same author, I struggled with this novel. Chloe, the central character, and her high school friends want nothing more than to go to Barcelona, Spain, the summer after they graduate. However, due to a grandma's wishes and money, they have to go to Latvia and Treblinka first. As one might expect, plenty of obstacles emerge and a friend acquired on their travels (Johnny) cause a change of plans. Overall, I wanted to scream at these four teenagers who somehow couldn't managed to read a map, understand a train schedule, or get out of bed in time to accomplish anything (and honestly, the organizers of my high school trip to Germany would have be appalled, too). That being said, I appreciated the last portion of this novel and seeing how the characters wound up, although I think a better edit could have made this book much more compelling.… (more)

This book has got fantastic reviews on goodreads and I feel I have read a completly different book than all the other readers as I found it a boring Mills and Booms Love story that seemed to go on and on, I read a lot of Novels set in Russia and have loved [b:Nicholas and Alexandra|133486|Nicholas and Alexandra|Robert K. Massie|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1333577599s/133486.jpg|2453716][b: and
The House by the Dvina: A Russian Childhood|1230537|The House by the Dvina A Russian Childhood|Eugenie Fraser|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1182088908s/1230537.jpg|1219117]loved both of these books whichgive a very interesting and moving view of life in Russia during the wars but this book is a dreadful long love story, the only reason I gave this book 2 stars is because while not my sort of read is obviously a big hit with a lot of people and I did finish it.… (more)