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margreads's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 out of 5..rounding up to a pretty generous 3 out of 5
I have been a fan of Paullina Simons for many years now. For a long time I was a moderator on the now defunct message boards and met a few people who are now my offline as well as online friends, I have lined up to get my books signed, I have pushed her books onto other readers and other fangirlish behaviour. I loved books like Red Leaves and Girl in Times Square and especially the Bronze Horseman trilogy, particularly The Bronze Horseman and Bridge to the Holy Cross. I devoured those two books in the space of two very long nights, and so when I heard that Paullina Simon's next book was going to be the story of Alexander Barrington's parents (Alexander being the main male character in The Bronze Horseman trilogy), I was super, super excited.
Some times it doesn't pay to get super, super excited.
The book opens on the eve of the 20th century. Gina Attaviano and her brother Salvatore along with their mother have just made the journey from Italy to their new life in America. It was to have been a journey that the whole family made but their father and older brother unfortunately didn't survive long enough to see their dream come true. The family land in Boston and there they are met by two young men who offer them lodgings before they journey on to the immigrant town of Lawrence, 20 miles away, where they will be living and working.
To hear more of my thoughts about this book head to
http://www.theintrepidreader.com/2013/02/children-of-liberty-by-paullina-simons.html
I have been a fan of Paullina Simons for many years now. For a long time I was a moderator on the now defunct message boards and met a few people who are now my offline as well as online friends, I have lined up to get my books signed, I have pushed her books onto other readers and other fangirlish behaviour. I loved books like Red Leaves and Girl in Times Square and especially the Bronze Horseman trilogy, particularly The Bronze Horseman and Bridge to the Holy Cross. I devoured those two books in the space of two very long nights, and so when I heard that Paullina Simon's next book was going to be the story of Alexander Barrington's parents (Alexander being the main male character in The Bronze Horseman trilogy), I was super, super excited.
Some times it doesn't pay to get super, super excited.
The book opens on the eve of the 20th century. Gina Attaviano and her brother Salvatore along with their mother have just made the journey from Italy to their new life in America. It was to have been a journey that the whole family made but their father and older brother unfortunately didn't survive long enough to see their dream come true. The family land in Boston and there they are met by two young men who offer them lodgings before they journey on to the immigrant town of Lawrence, 20 miles away, where they will be living and working.
To hear more of my thoughts about this book head to
http://www.theintrepidreader.com/2013/02/children-of-liberty-by-paullina-simons.html
ksiazkawpodrozy's review against another edition
3.0
Much worse than the Bronze Horseman trilogy, characters, especially Harry not very likable. Also after reading the Bronze Horesman trilogy I know what people will Gina and Harry become so I will not continue the series.
nday's review against another edition
1.0
I think the best thing this book had going for it was that it was extremely easy to read.
Now, it’s been years since I read the first two books in the Bronze Horseman trilogy, so I’ll be really honest in that I could remember absolutely nothing about the parents from those books, and I probably missed some of the “snippets” that tied back to the original trilogy that might have made this book better.
I felt that the book was lacking a plot – it felt like the author had had the material to write a short story, and then had to make a novel out of it and used filler to reach the page requirement. And the filler seemed to be the authors “interesting” bits of research, which she at times awkwardly tried to work in around her characters. It was like “oh, here’s some stuff I found out about, let me loosely tie this into my characters somehow so I can fill a few pages.” I don’t mind that sort of thing so much when it’s more relevant to the characters, their story or development. But it just didn’t seem to be in this case.
The other part of the filler was taking so much time with the story when Gina was so young. It really felt that beyond the initial meeting and establishment of the character's feelings, not a lot happened in the first half of the book. The settling of the Attaviano's in the country actually had good potential to be interesting, but then really fell flat.
The second half of the book felt more like it had somewhere to go, with Gina being older, and Harry's life coming to a crossroads, but the momentum that I felt could have been built once again just fell a little flat. Harry was a weak "hero" and his lack of character and depth hindered the book. Gina was a great heroine, she was strong, feisty and interesting. But as soon as she got around Harry she just lost so much of herself in what she thought she should be for him.
There were some great opportunities for the author to development some side relationships and a greater depth of emotional conflict, with Harry's lady and Gina's brother meeting, Ben and Harry's sister. It felt like there were stories to be told there, but it all just got left and nothing happened. What frustrates me is this book had honest to goodness potential, and it was all left hanging unrealised.
One of the biggest things that bugged me about this book was the change in writing perspective. A majority of the book was written in third person from a character’s perspective, primarily Gina or Harry. But for some reason when the author got to a particularly emotional scene she switched to a more omniscient third person perspective, where it was told from neither of the characters point of view and suddenly you were completely distanced from the characters and their emotions, and what could have been a good, impactful emotional scene suddenly lost it’s emotionality. It was quite annoying.
The ending just did not hit the spot for me, but I did feel that it ran true to Harry's character - weak and ineffectual. I know because you get to hear their story in the Bronze Horseman trilogy, that there was still a lot of their story left untold, which was fine. But it also felt like things were still left in the middle of a mess and there wasn't actually any kind of resolution, and the author could have tied things up a little more conclusively to make the story more complete by itself.
So, overall, I felt the book was easy reading, but poorly written and with little in the way of plot. For anyone that wants something that won’t require any thinking that is interesting enough, then this is the book for you.
colleenlovestoread's review against another edition
3.0
I reviewed this book for www.luxuryreading.com.
Gina and her mother and brother travel from Italy to Boston in search of a better life. As soon as they arrive in Boston they are met by two young men, Harry Barrington and Ben Shaw, who assist new immigrants in finding work and shelter in apartments that Harry’s father owns. While the Attavianos do not ultimately stay in the Barrington apartments Gina is instantly dawn to Harry and is convinced, despite their differences in class, religion and background that they are meant to be together. From that day forward, the Barringtons and the Attavianos are forever linked, in ways unexpected and often unwanted by members of both families. But in a country at the cusp of societal and political changes, can two people searching for their freedom from two different worlds ever find a place together in either?
Gina Attaviano is a delightful character! She is witty, earnest, kind and sassy. It is seeing her genuine mix of intelligence and naiveté at what this new world can offer that makes her so enjoyable to read about. The various other characters all have their own purposes surrounding the evolution of Gina and Harry’s relationship but it was their central journey that I enjoyed most. I also found the fact that all of the characters seemed to love someone who loves someone else (for example, Harry’s sister Esther loves Ben, Ben loves Gina, Gina loves Harry, etc.) a tender way to look at each character in turn and made it easier to feel for each of them, even those that were less than sympathetic (such as Esther). The dialogue is clever and funny and it was the various human interactions that drove the book and made it enjoyable for me.
What made Children of Liberty feel daunting at times, however, were the distracting subplots, such as Ben’s obsession with getting the Panama Canal built and importing bananas to America. The discussion of the various societal and political changes and affiliations (capitalism, anarchism, etc) was also overdone to me and, since I do not have a big interest in these sorts of topics, hard to distinguish and follow. It felt repetitive and unnecessary and had me struggling through to get back to the personal interactions of the characters. There were also no author’s notes explaining what aspects of the story are true to history and which are embellishments, something that I rely on when reading historical fiction. This could be because I read an Uncorrected Proof of the book but I hope the final copy will include this for the reader.
Readers who enjoy historical fiction set in turn of the century America and those dealing with class struggles and finding love beyond those boundaries would most likely enjoy Children of Liberty. Those who also know and understand the difference between the various political affiliations would enjoy it even more. Those who don’t enjoy this sort of thing might want to keep it in mind, however, so they are not bogged down in the reading.
Gina and her mother and brother travel from Italy to Boston in search of a better life. As soon as they arrive in Boston they are met by two young men, Harry Barrington and Ben Shaw, who assist new immigrants in finding work and shelter in apartments that Harry’s father owns. While the Attavianos do not ultimately stay in the Barrington apartments Gina is instantly dawn to Harry and is convinced, despite their differences in class, religion and background that they are meant to be together. From that day forward, the Barringtons and the Attavianos are forever linked, in ways unexpected and often unwanted by members of both families. But in a country at the cusp of societal and political changes, can two people searching for their freedom from two different worlds ever find a place together in either?
Gina Attaviano is a delightful character! She is witty, earnest, kind and sassy. It is seeing her genuine mix of intelligence and naiveté at what this new world can offer that makes her so enjoyable to read about. The various other characters all have their own purposes surrounding the evolution of Gina and Harry’s relationship but it was their central journey that I enjoyed most. I also found the fact that all of the characters seemed to love someone who loves someone else (for example, Harry’s sister Esther loves Ben, Ben loves Gina, Gina loves Harry, etc.) a tender way to look at each character in turn and made it easier to feel for each of them, even those that were less than sympathetic (such as Esther). The dialogue is clever and funny and it was the various human interactions that drove the book and made it enjoyable for me.
What made Children of Liberty feel daunting at times, however, were the distracting subplots, such as Ben’s obsession with getting the Panama Canal built and importing bananas to America. The discussion of the various societal and political changes and affiliations (capitalism, anarchism, etc) was also overdone to me and, since I do not have a big interest in these sorts of topics, hard to distinguish and follow. It felt repetitive and unnecessary and had me struggling through to get back to the personal interactions of the characters. There were also no author’s notes explaining what aspects of the story are true to history and which are embellishments, something that I rely on when reading historical fiction. This could be because I read an Uncorrected Proof of the book but I hope the final copy will include this for the reader.
Readers who enjoy historical fiction set in turn of the century America and those dealing with class struggles and finding love beyond those boundaries would most likely enjoy Children of Liberty. Those who also know and understand the difference between the various political affiliations would enjoy it even more. Those who don’t enjoy this sort of thing might want to keep it in mind, however, so they are not bogged down in the reading.
tien's review against another edition
1.0
[b:The Bronze Horseman|83144|The Bronze Horseman|Paullina Simons|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327921996s/83144.jpg|12615171] has been on my to-read list for a while now so I am familiar with the name Paullina Simons but I’ve not read any of her works just yet. When offered an advanced copy of this book, I jumped at the chance, and was especially happy to find out that it was a prequel to The Bronze Horseman. It’d be great to have the background story and it may lit the fire to get me going to read The Broze Horseman. Was it successful? Not at all! In fact, it’s a miserable failure.
Spare me from stupendously idiotic selfish inconsiderate characters! Oh, this book made me so angry! If I wasn’t reading it for a challenge, I reckon it’d be a DNF. Finishing it probably made me angrier because the ending was totally not worth it.
I disliked Gina right from the very beginning. She knows what she wants and she’s a go-getter no matter the consequences. It’s admirable that she would work very hard to get it but her deceitful insidious ways completely turned me off. She had the potential to grow to a character I could admire but that’s not what happened.
To begin with, I actually really liked Ben and Harry. Harry also had the potential but instead both Gina and Harry were so selfish that in the end, they have destroyed all that is beautiful around them. That’s what really got me angry –utter inconsiderate fools! I am truly sorry that I could not for the life of me like these characters which in turn means that I did not enjoy the plot and I absolutely abhorred the ending.
It was an easy to read book (in terms of language used), some minor characters were likeable, the descriptions of setting were lovely and of course, loved the beautiful cover. I’ve kept [b:The Bronze Horseman|83144|The Bronze Horseman|Paullina Simons|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327921996s/83144.jpg|12615171] on my TBR as it appears to have different characters plus I’ve read reviews which stated that they hated this book but loved The Bronze Horseman. I’m just not in any hurry to read it… maybe when I’ve forgotten how angry I am at this book…
Thank you HarperCollins Australia & The Reading Room for the opportunity to read & review this book. Unfortunately, this one is not for me.
Spare me from stupendously idiotic selfish inconsiderate characters! Oh, this book made me so angry! If I wasn’t reading it for a challenge, I reckon it’d be a DNF. Finishing it probably made me angrier because the ending was totally not worth it.
I disliked Gina right from the very beginning. She knows what she wants and she’s a go-getter no matter the consequences. It’s admirable that she would work very hard to get it but her deceitful insidious ways completely turned me off. She had the potential to grow to a character I could admire but that’s not what happened.
To begin with, I actually really liked Ben and Harry. Harry also had the potential but instead both Gina and Harry were so selfish that in the end, they have destroyed all that is beautiful around them. That’s what really got me angry –utter inconsiderate fools! I am truly sorry that I could not for the life of me like these characters which in turn means that I did not enjoy the plot and I absolutely abhorred the ending.
It was an easy to read book (in terms of language used), some minor characters were likeable, the descriptions of setting were lovely and of course, loved the beautiful cover. I’ve kept [b:The Bronze Horseman|83144|The Bronze Horseman|Paullina Simons|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327921996s/83144.jpg|12615171] on my TBR as it appears to have different characters plus I’ve read reviews which stated that they hated this book but loved The Bronze Horseman. I’m just not in any hurry to read it… maybe when I’ve forgotten how angry I am at this book…
Thank you HarperCollins Australia & The Reading Room for the opportunity to read & review this book. Unfortunately, this one is not for me.
tanyaborck's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. I would recommend it for an easy holiday read - a good pick up and put down book.
allison_iup04's review against another edition
3.0
I was expecting a bit more from the book since it precedes my favorite trilogy of all time. However, it was a bit disappointing. But I did enjoy finding out how Alexander's parents met and fell in love and where their political/economic beliefs stemmed from.
lilprecious's review against another edition
5.0
This is the first book in her series that I LOVE and I've read it last... now the rest of the books make MUCH more sense! LOVE her style of writing and LOVE this series!!
annielove2read's review against another edition
3.0
Not nearly as good as The Bronze Horseman. Felt a little slow, yet picked up enough that I'm curious to know what happens next and how they end up in Russia. I bought the next book already (although, it didn't hurt that it was selling for $1.00 on Amazon!).