I fell asleep amid the flowers

(falling in love in Mr.Robot)

Me Thinks #7: The Summer Garden

Title: The Summer Garden
Author: Paullina Simons
Pages / Year: 746 / 2006
Description here

AHHHHH *insert a river made of tears* holy molly guacamole, what an amazing book!

To start this review off, let's all gather together in a minute of silence because I finished this trilogy. I did say I'd read all these books this year but I didn't expect to read them all so quickly especially when I wanted them to last forever (and since I read them all in english, I have already started my quest and going to the stores to search for the books in portuguese...tho this 3rd one isn't translated yet :( :( )

What to say about this book?? Simply fascinating. I am now suchhhh a huge fan of Paullina Simons and of her writing. And more than that, of Tatia and Shura *hearts* *hearts*

At the beginning, we read about the daily routines of Tatiana, Alexander and Anthony, the 3 of them in their own lives, living, growing, loving and travelling through the United States and at the start I even thought this would be 700 pages of sweetness and cuteness and lots of love and that we would get to the middle of the book with 40 kids and 300 discussions about banal stuff (all hail banal stuff, in the other books they'd go to the war and almost die!) and that kind of stuff. I thought this would be a book written simply because Paullina loved these two so much that she didn't want to let go of them and wanted to give us a book filled with piece and love.

HA HA HA HA, to me..

THIS BOOK!!!!! THIS BOOK!!!!! Oh my God.

So when in the middle of the book, Alexander starts having his existential crisis because Tatia is not like the wives of his buddies and works and is basically ahead of her own time, a person (as in, me) kinda gets upset with Alex and wants to hurt him because he is so unreasonable and unfair, and a lot of emotions arise in those moments. I mean, let's not forget that Shura is only alive because Tatia is Tatia and does everything in her Tatia way!

But then... THEN!!!! Then we forgive Alex for everything because...BECAUSE!!!! I'll tell you about it in the spoilers, yes? Because if you haven't read this baby yet, then you have to go and read it. And if you have read it, then let's debate the most stupid, idiotic and heart-wrenching decision ever taken, below the cut, yes?

I'll also tell you that I have a bunch of favorite quotes because the writing is so good but this one is my fav (it's possible that I'll make a top 10 fav quotes by Paullina Simons post sometime):

"I’m getting off the boat at Coconut Grove. It’s six and you’re not on the dock. I finish up, and start walking home, thinking you’re tied up making dinner, and then I see you and Ant hurrying down the promenade. He is running and you’re running after him. You’re wearing a yellow dress. He jumps on me, and you stop shyly, and I say to you, come on, tadpole, show me what you got, and you laugh and run and jump into my arms. Such a good memory.
I love you, babe."

Read everything I think about this trilogy: 
First thoughts on "The Bronze Horseman" [book 1]
Opinion on "The Bronze Horseman"
Favorite quotes from "The Bronze Horseman"
First thoughts on "Tatiana and Alexander" [book 2]
First thoughts on "The Summer Garden" [book 3]

****************** SPOILERS BELLOOOOOW****************** 

First Lines #5: The Summer Garden

The day for which many of us (well, me) were waiting for has arrived: I have started to read the last book of "The Bronze orseman" series by Paullina Simons.

Yes, let's reflect on that and have a minute of silence for me.


Well, this baby is called  "The Summer Garden" and is a 'little' book with about 700 pages and to be honest with you all, I'm not even in the first lines anymore, I'm kind of in the middle of the book right now at page... 350?!


 And what I have to say so far is: I LOVE IT SO MUCH I WANNA MARRY IT.


"But Cat, what's new? You love all of these books!" That's true, my darlings, that's very much true. This book doesn't really bring anything new to the table (so far) but after the other two, filled with action and where my heart was ripped countless times, it's kinda good to read this one. You know when you're a writer and you just want to write sweet cheesy scenes because you love your characters so much? There. This is that book.

Lots of Alexander. Lots of Tatiana. Lots of Anthony.

Buttttt, I wouldn't be myself if I hadn't freaked out a thousand times with the possessive-agressive-sexist-uneeded-i-rule behaviour from Alexander (excuse you, Mr.Barrington-I-rule-the-world but would you even have gotten this far without Tatia? NO. No, you wouldn't have, you'd be dead in a ditch somewhere! AND NOBODY WOULD CARE) and this bothers me because Tatia has saved him so many times but he keeps thinking she is naïve and he wants to take all the decisions when, honestly, she is the smartest? For Christ's sakes... and then that boss of his!!!!

Sexist men, follow the way and get out of here, c'mon.

In the end, I' simply sorry for Tania who is such a strong woman, ahead of her time and with these monumental balls and she is sometimes misunderstood along the book. The exception being Anthony who worships her like she deserves!

Oh and there are these flashbacks with Pasha (knife in my heart) and with Dasha (knife in my heart) and with some other doutbful characters that you can totally skip but that I am meticulously reading because I am a masochist.

Alright, let's see how many more hairs I'm gonna pull off before this book is over!

Read everything I think about this series:
First thoughts on "The Bronze Horseman" [book 1]
Opinion on "The Bronze Horsemen"
Favorite quotes
First thoughts on "Tatiana and Alexander" [book 2]

Summer Passion