The Bronze Horseman

I try to pride myself on my ability to finish any book no matter how bad it is and for the second time in my life I have failed. Ironically both books were set in Russia. The first was Tolstoy's  War and Peace. I just couldn't get myself to finish a 1000 pages on Russian imperialism and what amounted to really bad characters. I will give tolstoy this, the writing has some literary merit, unfortunately the same cannot be said of the Bronze Horseman.

I started off reading the book and thinking wow this has potential. I actually couldn't put it down for the first 160 pages then I just started to get mad. Tania, who I felt for at first, started to severely grate on my nerves. The mysterious Alexander turned out to be nothing, but a douchebag. He wouldn't know chivalry if it smacked him in the face. There is so much abuse going on in this novel that I just couldn't bring myself to continue.

I didn't even finish the book. I got to page 275 and quit. I no longer care what happens to Alexandra, Tania, her sister Dasha and those poor excuse for parents. If this is romance than no one should ever fall in love. Tania takes self-sacrifice to another level. Alexander is emotionally manipulative. He doesn't have to string either Dasha or Tania along. He could be honest and merely takes Tania's rejection as an excuse to punish her by forcing her to endure the knowledge that he has sex with her sister. The very sister with whom she shares a bed.
The writing style does suck you in, but the characters are so awful that it takes away from whatever else the book has to offer which isn't very much.