Natalie Standiford

It is 1982 and 19-year-old Laura Reid is spending a semester in Leningrad studying Russian, but when she meets Alyosha she discovers the dissident Russia--a world of wild parties, underground books and music, love and constant danger.

The Boy on the Bridge

Melissa Palmer

Book #80 Read in 2013
The Boy on the Bridge by Natalie Standiford (YA)

Laura is on an exchange program, spending a year of college in Russia. She meets a boy named Aloysha and the two have an instant connection. As their relationship grows, Laura begins to make Aloysha her top priority, skipping classes and missing curfews. Her roommate is afraid that Laura is just being used to get a ticket to America and that Aloysha will ask Laura to marry him so she can bring him home with her. She does not believe he would do such a thing....but is she right?

This book was a good, quick read. I must have watched the movie Taken too many times because I kept waiting for Laura to get kidnapped and made into a Russian sex slave, but that did not happen. However, there were twists and turns about Aloysha and whether or not he was truly a good man. 

I borrowed this book from the public library.

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Jeannette Ordas

I liked this book set in Leningrad in 1982. It's an interesting time piece to a YA novel about love and trust when there is so much paranoia and second guessing. And while it's not mentioned in the book, it's the author's biographical story about her own experience in cold war Russia (NYT), which adds a bit more interesting twist on the story. 3.5 stars.

The Boy on the Bridge

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