Alyssa's Reviews > The Summer Garden

How can I explain my feelings for this book?

Do you know how every television show in the history of television has that one will they/won't they couple? At some point, they eventually come together... and it is totally underwhelming for viewers. The relationship just seems weird.

That is what happened here.

When Tatiana and Alexander first marry in The Bronze Horseman, it is damn near perfect. The second half of that novel focuses on their relationship and it is so well done. Perfect measures of pure love and pure angst.

Of course, they're no longer the same 18 year old girl and 23 year old soldier. I was looking forward to that. I wanted to see them grow up and grow together. Life has always been tough on them (maybe unrealistically so at times). There have always been sacrifices, struggles and obstacles from the very start. What makes their romance so great is how loyal, faithful and steadfast they remained.

Eh... not some much in The Summer Garden.

Did I really need to force myself to struggle through 3 decades of pain, anguish, sex to cover up said pain and anguish, more separation, infidelity, argument after argument after argument, domestic violence, jealousy, more pain, more anguish, more sex as a band aid, etc.? The bright spots in this novel could not make up for all the dreariness. This was just a dreary Tatiana and a dreary Alexander, struggling through one hell of a dreary marriage until they finally get a Happily Ever After in their 80s at the end of the novel. To me... they needed a therapist or a divorce lawyer.

And what the hell happened to Shura? (view spoiler)[Goodness. He is domineering and controlling in all three novels. But, he was most definitely redeemed by his compassion and love for Tatiana in the first two. He is a broken man when they came to America, I accepted that healing and adjustment is required. I was looking forward to the process as a fan! However, after that's resolved... he's just a loudmouth jerk, hardly resembling the same character from the first two books. 22 year old Alexander stood between Tatiana and her entire household declaring that no one in her family would be hitting her anymore... to see him turn into a man who does hit his wife. Sad moment for this reader.

Of course, he does it once in their 60 or so years together and if written well I could have accepted that as his rock bottom. The moment where he comes around to how nasty he's been. But, it was not handled well. He did not have any of the charm, that solid feeling of a strong sense of duty towards honoring and caring for Tatiana anymore. And that was his one redeeming quality through everything he puts Tatiana through... that sense of being solid. A pillar she can rely on for strength and hope. He hardly seems to respect her anymore. I can take unhealthy, I can take co-dependence, and all manner of craziness in my books, but I cannot take a relationship where it seems like there's no respect between both characters. (hide spoiler)]

My suggestion? Read the first two and skip this one. Just end with the sense of hope and contentment that Tatiana and Alexander leaves the reader with instead of 60 years of a bad, desperate, dysfunctional marriage.