We are just passengers. What if the ship goes down? We go down, too. When I am dead and opened, his mother had said, the bitter tears still wet in her eyes, you will find your father lying on my heart I could discuss Bellagrand for hours and I have. But like In every novel by Paullina Simons, we also got heartbreak, grief and frustration. I don't need saving. Who is going to save your son?
When I thought he couldn't make more idiotic decisions, his stupidity reached new levels. He was briefly redeemed but fool me once Maybe Gina was even stupider to stand by him through every dumb thing. At one point I actually felt they deserved what was coming to them.
I had no remorse for either one. How many chances did they get to make things right? And every single time they chose the stupidest decision possible. Including taking Alexander to Russia. Esther we meet her in The Summer Garden were so right when she said view spoiler [that Gina should be in prison! But at the final hour, I couldn't help myself, I wanted to spare both of them their fate.
It was heartbreaking to live through.
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Don't let the ratings fool you, this is a magnificent book! View all 9 comments. Nov 06, Keighley marked it as to-read. But I'm also terrified in case it somehow detracts from TBH! View all 10 comments. Such a tragedy, but a story that needed to be told. Review to come My favorite author and the prequel to my fave series The Bronze Horseman!!!! March is going to be an amazing month!!
View all 23 comments. Mar 31, Nicole Karlson rated it it was amazing. July , 2nd read: June July 4, First read notes: Well, I didn't think it was possible for me to love Alexander any more than I already did, but it has happened. I loved this book. No, it isn't the grand epic love story we get from Tatiana and Alexander, but it wasn't supposed to be. BUT I did love 1st read: BUT I did love their story and there were times I really enjoyed them.
I cried several times in this book and I laughed and I even swooned over Harry and Gia. I loved their families and friends so much. Paullina Simons always writes such wonderful secondary characters. I wanted to be right there with them all in Bellagrand. And there was nothing sweeter than reading about Alexander's birth and the early years of his life.
I loved how much Esther and Salvo loved their nephew. All of those books need MORE than 5 stars for me. But I feel like this book and CoL was beautifully written and gave me wonderful insight into the kind of people Harry and Gina really were and for me, they were still 5 star books. I truly loved reading their story. Even though I wanted to reach into my book and shake them silly or slap some sense into them. View all 5 comments.
Anyone who has read The Bronze Horseman. I love Paullina Simons. I love her writing and her stories. She is my favourite author. I really loved the writing and the way she told this story, and I love that I have closure now after Children of Liberty. However, the story did my head in.
I wanted to continually reach into the book and strangle Harry for not putting his family first, and strangle Gina for staying with him. I fully support fighting for what you believe is I love Paullina Simons. I fully support fighting for what you believe is right, but if you love your family they should always come first. Everyone time he needed help from someone I wanted to scream at his family to just leave him to deal with the consequences of his actions.
It was also hard because I disagree with the ideas Harry was fighting for, and I was frustrated and nearly gave up. However, a good read! So I've given it 3 stars, but thats because of the story, not because of the writing. Will I ever recover from this? Will my tears stop and heart stop breaking? Let me just start by saying that, Bellagrand has become my favourite book of all Paullina Simons' books so far, even more so than The Bronze Horseman from an emotional level. Don't get me wrong, TBH is still my favourite of all time, but Bellagrand has got to me mentally and emotionally like no other.
We start Harry and Gina's story from this duology, book 1 Children of Liberty and book 2 Bellagrand, KNOWING how their story is going to end, how tragic is their love story, how their actions leads to their ultimate fate. So it messes with your head when you are reading it.
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All the tender moments, all the trouble-less days, all the heart felt declarations, blue skies, ocean breeze, all the passionate and consuming love makings, the promises, the whispers, all of these are the moments we treasure and treasure them even more because we KNOW it will not last, because we know how the story is going to end. It will be replaced by lies, betrayal, broken promises and every single character broken hearted.
She makes me HATE Harry and Gina for their foolishness, selfishness, clueless, stupidness, but at the same time I cannot help but still LOVE them with all my heart, for their passions, for their mad love, for their disastrous love for each other, for their tragic ending. Gina, I keep thinking has she chosen the wrong man? If she has chosen someone else, will she be happier, will she have the life she thought she wanted? As a woman, I feel for her.
She has loved a man madly and deeply, whatever happens to him to their marriage, she holds on and holds on. That's what love does to you, it makes you blind and bound. She makes her bed and that's what she gets. Every single thing in this world is marble and mud, my darling child. The only thing you can do is make the best of it. Harry is a fool, a coward, a spoiled only son of one of the wealthiest man in Boston, he is selfish and has no sense of responsibility; however I cannot help but fall madly in love with him, for his bookish charm, for his unique personality, for his dreams, for his crazy and mad love for Gina.
This man is lost, so lost in his dreams he forgets about the reality. He is the reason the three of them have to leave the US and go to Russia, which has doomed them all with unthinkable future. I didn't understand Harry but I think I do now. He has lived under the great name of Barrington, the great name of his ancestors, under the expectations of what a Barrington man should live and achieve.
For Harry this is slavery, all the money, all the freedom from being THE one in the highest society has suffocated him. He wants to live a different life, a radical life from believing in a radical revolution and society. I thought I would hate him but I truly do not hate him. I feel so disappointed and sorry for him. I love him for his dreams, for what he is trying to achieve but hate him and am disappointed in him the way he has tried to achieve it.
Harry is a dreamer, his belief and Gina and Alexander are all he has. What a lost soul, a lost lost soul. In one of his letters to Gina, he said "You know how you keep saying You're such a dreamer, Harry. When you murmur it, it's like a caress from your lips, it's your love letter to me. This I freely admit. For when I dream, my beloved Sicilian princess, I dream of you. Bellagrand has also given us Alexander Barrington. The love of my life. The parts where he is growing up is one of the best parts of this series. Knowing how he becomes the man he is in TBH really is the highlight of it all.
This is an unforgivable book. It touches your heart and soul. It wounded me deeply. Love stories have been written and told every single day, but this love story will for sure stay with me forever and ever. It is dramatic, it is angsty, it IS an epic tale for us to see. Every time I think about it, the wound will bleed, it reminds me of a tragic and disastrous, but a great love. I will end my review with a quote from the book "If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I. Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; And the more it is bound, the less it is blind.
Sep 12, Teresa rated it really liked it. At first I was really excited to read this book as I wanted to read more about a young Alexander as The Bronze Horseman is my favourite book. However this book is not Alexander's story but Gina and Harry's story. I really felt for Gina, as an Italian immigrant she had her whole life of opportunities in front of her in America. But she was so blind for her love for Harry and the decision to marry him changed her life forever.
After years of struggle, of living poor and with Harry in and out of ja At first I was really excited to read this book as I wanted to read more about a young Alexander as The Bronze Horseman is my favourite book. After years of struggle, of living poor and with Harry in and out of jail they finally catch a break and get to live in beautiful Bellagrand with their beautiful child Alexander.
Gina finally has the life she dreamed of with the love of her life Harry and with her much loved son Alexander. But unfortunately this dream does not last. Once again Harry has turned their lives upside down. Gina's heartache, sacrifice and decision to stick by her husband even though she knows he is wrong costs her everything and eventually she pays the ultimate price - her life. The book ends with them going to Russia and I would have loved an extra chapter from Harry after years in Russia admitting that he was wrong and acknowledging what he gave up for his beliefs. A few conflicting feelings, as I can't be angry at Harry as his decision leads his family to Russia and ultimately leads us to the story of The Bronze Horseman.
However if it wasn't for Alexander and Tatiana I would feel differently. View all 11 comments. Jul 04, Renee Werthwein rated it really liked it. I'm still processing everything. Dec 08, Mollie rated it it was amazing. Why did the quote that was meant to strengthen them only weaken her? I knew reading this would be hard. It broke my heart. I questioned why I ever loved their story to begin with. I thought, why continue if you know it does not end in happiness? But it made my heart full too.
I love the cathartic process I go through when reading a Paullina Simons book. I can always expect to channel a magnitude of emotions through her writing. I felt the love, frustration, hope, anguish, and heartache. The skill that allows this author to evoke so much from tragedy is beyond me. It was ugly, but it was supposed to be. It served its purpose. Everything is terrible and everyone is about to die. And then they do die.
What's wrong with those Russians and their entire line of literature? And yet look how deep they are. We all have to choose. Either Boston or Bellagrand. One or the other. You can't have both. View all 6 comments. Dec 26, Kristy Mcwilliams rated it really liked it. I was disappointed in Children of Liberty because I was expecting more from the story. Bellagrand gives me the rest of the story that I was looking for. The only thing missing for me was a little more about their life in Russia but I think i need to re read the trilogy because I am sure it is all in there somewhere.
Bellagrand is compelling and devastating all at the same time. I want to reach into the book and shake sense into Harry and I was willing Gina to leave him many times but I knew if sh I was disappointed in Children of Liberty because I was expecting more from the story. I want to reach into the book and shake sense into Harry and I was willing Gina to leave him many times but I knew if she did the story we all love would not exist.
For me the mark of a good book is when you are emotionally attached to the characters and story and miss the characters after you are finished reading.
Well I finished this last night and I am still thinking about the characters and wondering about their choices ect. May 26, Zena rated it it was ok. Never have I read a book with more abysmal characters. Harry and Gina were horrible. Harry is selfish, ignorant, lazy and thick as shit. Gina is self absorbed, vain and also selfish. They are both insensitive assholes and thus perfect for eachother. What saved this book was Simon's historical and political accuracy and her ability to write well rounded stories spanning decades.
Jan 07, Melissa Ward rated it did not like it.
Talk about a downer, just wanted slap Harry and tell him to wake up to himself! It was a roller coaster of being irate, sad, conflicted, on edge, rooting for them and wishing their fate could have been different because some of the time you felt and believed in their love. I'm not sure I've read a book that has made me silently wipe tears quite as much as this one did on so many different occasions. So many beautiful moments, and beautiful side character moments, but mostly I was clutching my chest with anxiety and feeling so much sorrow and sadness for our beloved Alexander.
The boy whom everyone loved with all their hearts. Apr 05, Jennifer Jones rated it liked it. What ultimately is sad is the lost Gina. I found myself hoping that she somehow sees Harry for what he really is, not just for what she wants him to be. She never gives up on the dream that she first had when she met him all those years ago.
Harry, I found, was not only the pitiful excuse of a husband she didn't deserve and couldn't quite let herself leave, but he turned out to be selfish, irresponsible and arrogant in his beliefs to the point where his family is sacrificed. He never really understands what he has done, even when they are exiled into Russia.
The sad conclusion to this story is necessary in order to understand how a bright, beautiful girl who only dreamed of a better life in America ended up in Soviet Russia as a drunkard. This story is sad, sad, sad. I wanted to kick Harry to the curb, tell Gina to run, run far away! He was a sinking cesspool of driveling nonsense most of the time. Simons' writing can sometimes be slow, tedious and sometimes boring in places.
The only thing good Gina saw in him was back when she first met him. She struggles throughout her whole life, trying to find that again, never realizing the old Harry is gone and replaced by a self-preserving, lying Communist. I felt sorry for her.
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Then I came to a startling realization: Gina is not strong, nor courageous. She's weak willed and easily manipulated. Harry's sister, Esther tells Gina that she's selfish and she's taken everything away from Esther and her family. On this I agree somewhat, even if Gina did it unknowingly. However, she can never stand up for what she believes, to anyone! She never tells her husband what she really feels, and in the end it costs her dearly.
So while I hated Harry, sympathized with the two families that fell victim to these two hapless souls who create havoc on everyone around them, I really detested Gina for failing to stand up to her husband. Simons does have a way of dragging things on for endless pages here, and it makes this story feel as if it goes on forever. She's a brilliant writer, so I find fault with the editors for leaving everything in this book. It could easily be shortened with the same amount of drama.
Sometimes more isn't better, sometimes it's just more. In the end, I was glad it was over with because it drained me. I was sad, frustrated and depressed for two people who couldn't manage their way out of a paper sack. How can you love characters when you know the fate that they have served their son my dear and beloved Shura. How can you become attached to characters when you know their fate is a dreadful one?
Two words Paullina Simons!!!!!!! This author is beyond when it comes to writing and conveying emotions into words that etch into your heart. After reading Children of Liberty you must read Bellagrand. Alexander's parents story, especially Gina, Alexander's mother is nothing short of a tragedy. Gina represents an immigrant trying to find the American dream her father wanted for her.
Yet, Harry is trying everything he can to escape the dreams his father has for him. Although at times I wanted to throw my kindle across the room and yell Gina you fool I just couldn't help loving her and Bellagrand. I am from Massachusetts so all the history and talk of Lawrence and Concord were very close to home for me. I was traveling in Florida at the time I was reading that too was special.
I was feeling everything Paullina was describing and Florida was by far Gina's happiest time! If you are a BH lover then you may also notice how Gina and Tatiana are very much alike in many ways. Tatiana has what I wish Gina could have, courage! I was never sure what I felt for Harry but, in the end I couldn't even hate him. I think pity would be the word, his life was such a disappointment to himself and those who loved him. In the end he knew it and you could feel his self flagellation loud and clear. Of course this is not the love affair that Tatiana and Alexander have but the way Paullina writes you can't help but to fall into Bellagrand.
Jan 21, Carla Coulston rated it liked it. I found this disappointing in the main. I am one of Simons biggest fans, especially of her dearly loved Bronze Horseman Trilogy - and so imagine my delight to discover a prequel! Unfortunately this wasn't the book I hoped it would be.
Bellagrand
One of Simons greatest strengths is as a historian, but instead of the historical elements providing a gentle undercurrent to carry the love story as it did in Horseman , in this book it overwhelms and drowns it. It's a book full of politics and turmoil, of big, wid I found this disappointing in the main. It's a book full of politics and turmoil, of big, wide issues Sunday, March 30, Bellagrand Book Review.
William Morrow, hardcover, March They eloped prior to Bellagrand and, disowned by his wealthy Brahmin family and unable to hold a job, Harry continues and escalates his involvement in radical politics while Gina takes on the most menial jobs to support him and her infirm mother. Ultimately, she and Harry share a bond that survives through passion, betrayal and heartbreak but it isn't a very fun experience for the reader! My favorite parts were those set in Lawrence I was there just a few weeks ago , where Harry and Gina live as newlyweds with her mother, and in Boston where her brother Salvo works.
I am partial to historical fiction with Russian settings or characters, such as my all time favorites, Masha and The Youngest Lady in Waiting by Mara Kay. If you also enjoy this setting, here is a list of historical fiction set in Russia. Harry was a very unsympathetic character, and Gina enables his behavior by staying with him, which made their story somewhat dark and depressing.
However, most contemporary characters would have expected nothing less of her because marriage was supposed to be forever. Admittedly, because Gina and Harry were not married in the Catholic church, she was no longer a practicing Catholic and not bound by Catholic doctrine that forbade divorce.