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Hunting for Spring (Philadelphia Coven Chronicles #1) by Katherine McIntyre
Hunting for Spring is the first book in the Philadelphia Coven Chronicles and we have the world building that will enable us to read the rest of the series, knowing who is who and who does what. Hunter is a human Hunter - usually of the Fae - but he understands that just as not all humans are nice, not all Fae are 'bad'. Unfortunately, it's an opinion that is unpopular with his father and the man who was brought up as his brother. When he meets Brenna, he thinks she is a normal fae, which is also the opinion Brenna wants him to have as most people don't seem to think that highly of half-breeds. With Unseelie causing chaos and half-breeds disappearing Connor and Brenna work together to put things back to normal - or as normal as they possibly could be.

This was a great introduction to a new world, where casters and hunters work to the same end, without working together as much as possible. I have to say, whatever his reasons, Connor's dad was a first-class jerk, with Liam not far behind. I loved how Connor was, and am thankful he turned out that way! Brenna is a sweet and sassy character, fully capable of standing on her own two feet but also willing to stand back when necessary. There is also a bunch of characters I want to know more about, as well as this world as a whole.

This was an exciting read, with plenty of action and adventure. With smooth transitions from one scene to the next, there were also no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my reading flow. The world building was on point, and all the characters had depth, with their own quirks and foibles. An excellent start to the series that leaves me wanting more. Absolutely recommended.

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and my comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
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Sunsett Song
Sunsett Song
Lewis Grassic Gibbon | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
The landscape comes alive and you are trasported back in itme (0 more)
there are better things than your books or studies or loving or bedding, there’s the countryside your own […] in the days when you’re neither bairn nor woman.’ I
Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, published in 1932 became the ‘cream of the crop’ in a poll organised by The Scottish Book Trust last year. Not only was it voted as Scotland’s favourite novel, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon described it as ‘timeless’ in an interview with the BBC, ‘ it said something about the history of the country I grew up in and it resonated with me very strongly as a young Scottish woman.’ I have to say that I am in agreement with the First Minister. Sunset Song is a beautifully written aesthetic novel that follows the life and internal conflict of the protagonist Chris Guthrie. By presenting Chris as a kind of cultural double, Gibbon is showing the reader the problems that result in Chris’s separation from the community and her parents conflicting interests regarding her upbringing. Chris’ father, hoping to enhance his daughter’s natural intelligence, is aware of the negative impact that the community might have on her progression, ‘Stick to your lessons and let’s see you make a name for yourself, you’ve no time for friends.’ John Guthrie, a progressive man, regards Chris’s peers as ‘servant queans.’ Whilst this may read as a cultural attack on the lower classes, John Guthrie, is simply reacting to his own working class conditions as a farmer. His motivation is to raise Chris out of the environment that he himself has struggled in and to give her better opportunities. Chris refers to her intelligent self as ‘English’ and identifies a cultural otherness between herself and those of her community. Chris’ mother Jean, on the other hand, has a view of the world that is from a much older time. Before marriage she was a free spirit, ‘there are better things than your books or studies or loving or bedding, there’s the countryside your own […] in the days when you’re neither bairn nor woman.’ It was Gibbon’s intention to create a heteroglossic view of education between Chris’ parents in order to create a protagonist whose future is a conflict between progression and an older unstructured way of life. It is through Chris’s thoughts, however, that her true self can be found. Her English self forms an escape, a place that is simpler, refined and an improvement on how she perceives Scottish culture as a result of her class, ‘the furrows went criss and cross, you wanted this and you wanted that, books and the fineness of them no more than empty gabble sometimes, and then sharn and the snapping that sickened you and drove you back to books.’ It is clear that Gibbon wanted to show the reader that Scottish culture does evaporate with progression. Culture lives in all of us, in the people, the land and in the struggles that we have faced and will face in the future. Chris Guthrie is the perfect example of hope, for a future which is rich in learning while still embracing her Scottish roots, I guess a future we can all identify with.