Book Review: Ten Things About "The Bronze Horseman"

Ten Things About The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons

1. This is one long story. At 800 plus pages though, it kept me happily reading through a long snowy weekend and several nights after the snow was cleared away. Simply put, I could not stop reading this book... very inconvenient when read during the midst of a busy holiday season. (This book will not count toward my Mixology 2010 challenge because I read it in December.)
2. Taking place in the Soviet Union just as it enters World War II, there is no shortage of strife, famine, misery or destitution in this novel. Take heed: it is not for the faint at heart.
3. There is no shortage of, um, er, romance either. If you're looking for a story that will heat you up on these longs winters nights, well, I'll just leave it at that and let you read for yourself.
4. No hot love story is ever as sweet as an innocent love story.
5. I never realized before, but the USSR was a cruel, unusual, machine that took away every freedom that I enjoy as an American. The masses were pacified not with any small comfort or assurance that life would be better, but with liberal distribution of vodka. If people weren't paranoid, hungry, or lacking basic needs of privacy, it is only because they were too drunk to notice.
6. People will do strange things for the people they love.
7. Hope floats... a lot and for a long way.
8. I am lucky to be a citizen of the United States of America, and I am grateful to all of the public servants and warriors who have secured my place in its history.
9. I am always amazed to learn how crude life was for people all over Europe in the 1940s and 50s... not just in the USSR.
10. No matter what the cost, I always believe that honesty is the best policy.