First Lines #4: Tatiana and Alexander

Remember the hundred posts I wrote about what, up until now, was my favorite book of the year? Yes, I am talking about "The Bronze Horseman" by Paullina Simons. (If you don't remember, you can check out here my first impressions, final opinion and my favorite quotes!).

Okay, so I started reading the 2nd book this week. YAAAAAY. Mini-dance party!!!! I actually decided that I wouldn't read the 3 books in a row, even if I wanted to do so bad, because I loved the 1st book so much that I wanted to spend a little more time with this trilogy. However, after trying to read "Slammed" by Colleen Hoover and hating it, I entered a little reading slump which was what led me, on this subway ride, to start "Tatiana and Alexander" so I could warm my heart.

As of right now, I'm at page 135, chapter 15 and....blaaah. Okay, okay. Don't throw rocks at me just yet! The truth is that I adored the first book and I had read some reviews claiming that this 2nd book was even better so I was got extremely excited and with very high expectations but to be honest.... I'm not liking this one as much as I did the first but I'm not hating on it either. I feel like this beginning is very tirying because it's retelling in more detail what happened at the end of the first book!

And I really don't like when that happens. I always feel like the author is treating me as if I have a 0.02 seconds memory or that they are trying to include something that they didn't remember for the previous book so that the current book's plot makes sense. If I learnt about Alex's parents, if I already know about Dima, if I already know about the runway... why do I need more 100 pages telling me about it???

Right.
I'll explain better: there are two kinds of chapters. Some of the chapters are from Tatia's POV which is really interesting and brings a lot of new elements to the table; the other chapters are written from Alex's POV and these chapters are split in 3 moments: the present, the past related to Dasha/Dima/Tatia, the past related to Alex's parents. And everything is very interesting but it gets really confusing, because all this info is crammed into a chapter so we keep jumping the years. It gets a little all over the place.

I feel like this could have worked better if the author wrote one chapter where she told us all about Alex's parents (again, but still) and another chapter about the whole Dimitri/Dasha/Tatia story that we already know about (and thus could skip it more easily). And then write chapters only from Alex's POV in the present which is what interests the most, because it tells how is his life in prison!

As for Tatiana's part, up until now, is very interesting. There is this ??? moment where I felt like when Tatia was speaking english with Alex, her english was perfect but suddenly it's crooked??? But oh well, details, details. And also, I just wanna hold Anthony and pinch his cheeks. Ayyyye. The sight of the two of them leaves me with heart eyes.

Whenever I finish this book, I'll tell you allllll about what I thought and I'll post my favorite quotes. And I'll probably cry. And scream at Alex. But hey.... what's new about that?