Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Bridge to Holy Cross
    Unavailable
    The Bridge to Holy Cross
    Unavailable
    The Bridge to Holy Cross
    Ebook832 pages10 hours

    The Bridge to Holy Cross

    By Paullina Simons

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    A powerful story of grief and hope, a passionate and epic love story from the Russian-born author of the internationally bestselling novels TULLY and ROAD TO PARADISE.

    The world at war … two people in love.

    Tatiana is eighteen years old and pregnant when she miraculously escapes war-torn Leningrad to the West, believing herself to be a widow. Her husband, Major Alexander Belov, a decorated hero of the Soviet Union, has been arrested by Stalin's infamous secret police.

    Tatiana begins her new life in America. In wartime New York City she finds work, friends and a life beyond her dreams. However, her grief is inescapable and she keeps hearing Alexander calling out to her.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateApr 1, 2012
    ISBN9780007487769
    Unavailable
    The Bridge to Holy Cross
    Author

    Paullina Simons

    Paullina Simons is the author of Tully and The Bronze Horseman, as well as ten other beloved novels, a memoir, a cookbook, and two children’s books. Born in Leningrad, Russia, Paullina immigrated to the United States when she was ten, and now lives in New York with her husband and an alarming number of her once-independent children.

    Read more from Paullina Simons

    Related to The Bridge to Holy Cross

    Related ebooks

    Sagas For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      THE OUTLAWS SCARLETT & BROWNE

      Mar 24, 2021

      400 pages | Paperback/ebook ▶ Author Jonathan Stroud ▶ Publisher Walker Books What a fun little adventure this is – although that’s hardly a surprise, given that it’s penned by the author of the Bartimaeus and Lockwood & Co series (the latter current

      1 min read

    • Article

      India Holton

      Apr 24, 2022

      India Holton
      1 min read

    • Article

      Defy The Night

      Sep 8, 2021

      RELEASED 14 SEPTEMBER 496 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Brigid Kemmerer Publisher Bloomsbury YA The path of true love may not run smoothly, but sometimes it really does run stupidly. In a kingdom riven by disease, young King Harristan and his brothe

      1 min read

    • Article

      Trent Dalton On Love

      Oct 24, 2021

      It was a Wednesday when I found the meaning of my life. Bloody hard thing to find. Searched everywhere. Four decades of seeking. Tried to find it in star systems and love songs and bank balances and kissed lips. Then I found it on the corner of Adela

      4 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Apr 8, 2024

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Fiction No. 251

      Mar 15, 2022

      The Art of Fiction No. 251
      20 min read

    • Article

      Anything Goes For Me And My Chums

      Aug 25, 2021

      In my neck of the woods, it’s back to normal. How’s it with you? On the bus and the London Underground, I am still wearing a mask, but other than that, everything is much as it was before the pandemic struck – except that my office-worker friends rea

      3 min read

    • Article

      Retreading The City

      Nov 2, 2023

      It’s hard to pinpoint when and how inspiration strikes for a novel, but I know exactly when it did for The Detective. The Waiter and The Cook were the first two books in my Kamil Rahman thriller series about a disgraced policeman from Kolkata who co

      6 min read

    • Article

      Alone with Kindred

      Sep 1, 2023

      Alone with Kindred
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Last Waylon Party

      Jan 18, 2019

      The Last Waylon Party
      14 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      The Glove

      Mar 4, 2024

      The Glove
      8 min read

    • Article

      Tc Boyle Profile

      May 15, 2019

      BECAUSE WE’RE ANIMALS: Seven conversations from an afternoon with T. C. Boyle By Peter Nowogrodzki T.C. Boyle is standing at the front gate entrance to his Montecito home—an imposing Frank Lloyd Wright structure clad in long horizontal slats of redwo

      26 min read

    • Article

      Love, Family & Arabian Nights

      Jul 14, 2021

      Love, Family & Arabian Nights
      11 min read

    • Article

      Prevarication Jones

      May 1, 2019

      Prevarication Jones
      16 min read

    • Article

      Interview / Shrabani Basu

      Mar 18, 2021

      Interview / Shrabani Basu
      10 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Dec 13, 2022

      Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      The plot THICKENS

      Aug 3, 2022

      The plot THICKENS
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Bridge to Holy Cross

    4/5

    306 ratings15 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Oh, my heart. ❤️It’s been over a year since I read (and loved) The Bronze Horseman... I’m trying to pace myself with this series because I don’t want it to end. Book 2 did not disappoint.This is a love story, but it’s also excellent WWII historical fiction, beautifully written, and gorgeously detailed. This book gives way more of Alexander’s backstory, while also continuing the story where Horseman left off. So good!
    • 4/5
      Book 2 of the 'Bronze Horseman' Trilogy. This could be a stand alone read, as there was a repetition of the story, but I would recommend reading Book 1 first. This installment filled in the back story of Alexander and how his parents left the US to find the perfect socialist society and how it led to there eventual demise. Tanya and her re-uniting with Alexander on the front and the heart wrenching story of her escape. Pregnant and distraught, alone and afraid she makes her way to freedom. Ending with an exciting climax and fearsome opportunity for a happy future.  
    • 4/5
      Let me start by saying The Bronze Horseman is my all time favorite romance... There is no book that compares and because of these strong feelings, I've put off reading the rest of the series. I was afraid that the others would fall flat in comparison and well... this one was really good, but not nearly as epic as book one. I think because the book was so different with switching povs and different settings, it brought a whole new feel. It was still an excellent read, but I was hoping for more romance. We get a lot of emotion and a lot of war scenes, but Tatiana and Alexander were apart until the last 100 pages.

      I really loved Tatiana's parts and I think it's important that we got to experience what Alexander had to deal with, but in all honesty... Less war would have been more appealing for me. I liked the suspense and twists and turns, I just felt like there was a lot of filler information that took away the epic romance feel that book one had. Towards the end I started to feel more compelled by the story and when they finally reunited my heart about burst. I just wanted those feelings earlier in the book...

      Of course I must read book three now because they are together once again. I can't wait to see what the future holds for them!
    • 5/5
      I am so in love with the story of Tatiana and Alexander. This book was just as good as the first, The Bronze Horseman. The prose is outstanding. A true love story for all time. I suspect this is one I will reread again and again. It was that good.
    • 3/5
      Good but a bit boring. The book jumped too much between the present events and events that occurred during Book 1 The Bronze Horseman. If I hadn't read that I probably would have enjoyed it. The jumping, however, was irritating and broke up the flow of the current story of Tatiana in America and Alexander in the USSR.The dialogue between who loved who more and how neither would leave the other continued from the first book and was tiringly dramatic.
    • 4/5
      Tatiana and Alexander did actually turn out to be a much stronger read for me than its predecessor, The Bronze Horseman. Rarely does a sequel improve upon the first book, so yay for that. While I slogged through book one, this one I read over the course of just a couple of days. Simons' trilogy takes a turn for the historical, rather than the romantic, which is just what I was wanting from this series from the start.Of course, the reason I like this one so much better than The Bronze Horseman is that Tatiana and Alexander are kept apart for the bulk of it. Only in the last 100 pages are they together again, aside from some brief flashbacks that catch the reader up on the events of the first book (and, no, it's not in the least frustrating that an 800 page book can be summed up in a few quick flashbacks). My issues with Tatiana and Alexander's relationship were and are threefold: the idiotic love triangle (which is a non-issue now, but still taints my opinion of the two), the age difference (which isn't really all that large, but Tatiana was not mature for her age), and the way Alexander bosses Tatiana around. I'm sure his bossiness is typically Russian, and it's also what he witnessed from his parents, but I still think he's a dick, even if society taught him to behave that way.However, as I said, they're hardly together in this one and that's a blessing, unless what you loved about book one was the romance, not the part about the siege; in that case, better luck with book three. Simons totally goes for a dramatic irony thing, with the reader knowing that he's alive and Tatiana believing Alexander died. Will she move on? Will she commit suicide out of despair, leaving her son an orphan? Sadly, the latter was much closer to transpiring. Yeah, I knew her husband was alive and that they would be reunited, but I kept hoping she would move on anyway, what with not shipping them in the slightest.Aside from them, though, I pretty much loved everything else. Simons writes well, aside from her tendency to get all gooshy with the romance stuff. Where the story in The Bronze Horseman was entirely linear, Tatiana and Alexander jumps through time, from Tatiana to Alexander. We learn more about Alexander's childhood and follow him from his faked death until their reunion. Since the lovers are parted, the focus is on historical events, not melodrama.Warning: This paragraph has spoilers:With Alexander, Simons is able to cover torture sessions and the way the Soviets try to garner confessions, in which every option is a trap. From there, Alexander moves to a penal brigade, and the reader gets to witness just how poorly managed the Soviet forces were, sending men out to die senselessly. Later, Alexander fights along the front line with Germany, poorly armed and with the NKGB waiting behind to shoot him and his men should they retreat. Forced to surrender or die, his men are then sent to a concentration camp (Sachsenhausen) for having dared to let the enemy win. All of these things are true to the Soviet experience in WWII, and Simons does a good job depicting the bleakness.With only one book left in this saga, I'm hoping for more historical fiction, but suspect that The Summer Garden will be romance, romance, romance. At any rate, with this one, I'm glad I've read the series, and tentatively excited to continue.
    • 5/5
      Sequel to Bronze Horseman, carrying on as left off in first novel. Absorbing, sad, happy, excellent read!
    • 5/5
      I can't say enough about this trilogy--I love it! And the second book was fantastic. Had me on the edge of my seat the last 150 pages. On to the final book now. Sad to see it end...might read this one extra slooooowwwww just to make it last longer.
    • 3/5
      By far, my least favorite installment of the trilogy, Tatiana and Alexander are apart through the majority of this novel. And they are both upset by that fact. Very upset. Tatiana can barely function in New York, despite the fact that she has Alexander's son to care for. Alexander is trapped in Russia, still forced to lead a penal battalion in the war, which is essentially a death sentence. Long passages of them remembering their time together in Lazarevo and flashbacks of Alexander's childhood get very tiring. Simons could have used a stricter editor; this novel easily could have been shorter by at least 100 pages. After dragging through the majority of the book, the ending comes on quickly with a lot of suspense - almost redeeming the rest of the story. A necessary but lackluster installment in this trilogy.
    • 5/5
      Tatiana and Alexander is a continuation of The Bronze Horseman and I loved this sequel almost as much as the original. Paullina Simons paints a vivid and startling picture of Europe during and in the aftermath of World War II. The world inhabited by Tatiana and Alexander is cruel and beautiful at the same time. This novel starts with the two lovers separated - Tatiana having made her way to New York and Alexander facing charges in the Soviet Union - and tells the story of their lives during this separation and their attempts to reunite. The epic story of these two lover is historical fiction at its best and I look forward to reading more of their story.
    • 5/5
      Though I don't normally go for romance novels, I found Tatiana and Alexander to be completely endearing. It could have been the historical relevance that drew me to the novel, or my being able to relate to the relationship between the characters. I felt immediately drawn to this book, and I definitely consider it a page-turner.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. I read the first one a year ago and just finished this book. I loved the characters, the description of war, and felt the book had the perfect amount of closure. Can't wait to read any other novels the author has written.
    • 3/5
      This is the sequel to The Bronze Horseman and more or less starts where that one left off.Tatianna is in the United States with her newborn baby and she just can't shake the fact that her husband may be dead, or probably is anyway. Everything is big, bright and beautiful in America apart from the fact Alex is no longer here... he was last seen in Russia and the last thing she heard of him was that he'd been blown up.And so here we go again. Tatianna and Alexander again...Personally I think The Bronze Horseman stands perfectly well on its own and if you don't read this no big loss. The story is ok, it is nothing special and a little drawn out. But it continues their story and is fairly enjoyable.But here is a word of warning to you.Do not, under any circumstances read the third book in the series. The Summer Garden. It's God Awful. And Simons, still unable to let go of this story, even wrote a cookbook...Talk about flogging a dead horse. Well, I guess some people did like it as the GR rating is 4.09 but frankly - I didn't even finish it maybe the only people who did finish it liked it because it's a long book, you'd have to like it to get through the however many pages of dribble she puts you through.I've since really gone off Simmons as an author. Far too emotionally manipulative, without having the depth of characters like T&A and empty. She's lost it. Just read Tully and The Bronze Horseman by this author, maybe her earlier ones. But anything beyond this book, is absolute, sheer and utter bollocks to put it lightly.
    • 5/5
       Tatiana and Alexander is the continuence of The Bronze Horseman and is just as wonderful. In this story Tatia and Shura are separated and we relive much of the first novel through flash backs from both of the main characters. Much of the story is told through Alexander's perspective as he fights his way through the Soviet Union with only memories to keep him going. I love the way the author moves her characters seemlessly through history.
    • 4/5
      A good, but flawed follow up to The Bronze Horseman. ****If you haven't read The Bronze Horseman you might not want to read further**** Published in the UK as Bridge to Holy Cross, this book takes up Tatiana and Alexander's story where the first one left off. Alexander is presumed dead in Russia while a pregnant Tatiana was able to escape to sanctuary United States as WWII rages around them. As Tatiana builds herself a new life as a nurse and raises her son, the not-so-dead Alexander finds himself at the very front of the lines commanding a unit of convicted prisoners. The author also goes into background detail of Alexander's parents and how they came to live in Russia, their lives there as communists and their subsequent imprisonment and death. Tatiana eventually comes across a couple of clues left by Alexander and sets her on a dangerous path through enemy territory that.... More than that, I am not willing to tell as I'd be giving away the whole plot, I am not into spoilers. Both our lovers are heartbreaking as they pine for one another and their lost love, and Simons does keep you sitting on the edge of your seat until the very end wondering if you're going to get a HEA after all (story continued in book #3, The Summer Garden). The good - the scenes at the front lines and the prison camps were chilling - most especially when Alexander's troops came across one of Hitler's concentration camps and realized what had really happened there. The not so good - for some unknown reason Simons felt the need to flashback and rehash Tatiana and Alexander's entire relationship, albeit this time from Alexander's POV (Editor, wherefore art thou?). While one does gain some additional background aspect seeing their romance from Alexander's eyes, it really does not add to the story line at all and one could easily skim quickly past those 100 or so pages - especially if you picked up book two right after finishing the first. Despite its flaws, it was a very enjoyable read and as in the first I had a hard time putting it down. A shaky (almost gave it three) 4/5 stars.