wow - never knew I could disagree with someone as intensely as i disagree with this review. I admit - I became emotionally attached to the book and, as is my nature, held it dear to my heart as it were my own story to tell. Therefore, a bad review and I'm getting dark. But - one main point i would like to wing in here is - the scene's in Lazerevo might seem like "pages of explicit sex" to someone who had not engaged themselves fully in the story before that point, or to a giggling 13 year old that just learned the meaning of the words. However, to those of us that sat next to these character in the cold, in the starving and within the thin walls; that saw the characters for their truth and their transparency; for their compassion and vulnerability, and whom cried for them as their own strengths as human beings became their weaknesses - Lazarevo was everything the book needed, everything to give the story Hope and their love credibility. It was over far too soon, though as is echoed throughout the stories that follow, lives on as their one moment of utter truth.

Alexanders aggression was an expression of desperate, hopeless, consuming love for someone he feared was doomed- who, really, was doomed - something a lot of us living in protected western lives can't ever completely relate to. I know i would be punching walls if I knew the ones I loved most were going to step into war and die before my eyes.

Thanks for hearing me out - I can't change people's reaction to this book and i completely respect any of them - I just also can't ignore my own.