Spring

Four Seasons #1

by Emily-Jane Hills Orford

In 1725, Antonio Vivaldi wrote the music for The Four Seasons. He penned a poem for each of the four seasons: summer, fall, winter, and spring. Each season has its reason, its significance, its purpose, its own symbolism. Life is like the four seasons. Spring is Melanie Harrisas story. She is a talented young violinist with a valuable Grancino violin. There is a secret inside her violin, a secret only she and her mother should know, but somehow others have found out. The story follows a journey of Melanieas growth as a musician, the people she meets, the friends she makes, the losses she suffers. Vivaldias music is the cornerstone of Melanieas musical career as well as her life, as she takes her instrument and her music around the world. Each stage of Melanieas life progresses like a season of the year, a musical/poetic symbol, as in Vivaldias music. Melanie is the music she loves best, The Four Seasons.

Genres: Fiction

255 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2005

About the author

Emily-Jane Hills Orford is an award-winning author of several books, including Gerlinda (CFA 2016) which received an Honorable Mention in the 2016 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards, To Be a Duke (CFA 2014) which was named Finalist and Silver Medallist in the 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and received an Honorable Mention in the 2015 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards. She writes about the extra-ordinary in life and her books, short stories, and articles are receiving considerable attention. For more information on the author, check out her website at: http://emilyjanebooks.ca

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up in preparation for Autumn, a First Reads win. Spring is Hills Orford's first novel, and the first in a set of four titled for the seasons.

Spring follows the story of Melanie Harris, a talented violinist from her youth into a successful career as an adult. Woven into the story is a bit of mystery wrapped in with the origins of her violin, a little romance (times three), and a little religion.

In some ways, Spring gave me a lot more than I was expecting - I read the first chapter and was mentally prepared for chick lit, a mostly emotional experience. When the mystery showed up, I was pleasantly surprised, and taken off guard by the romantic interests.

That said... to make those elements work, this novel really needs another hundred pages. In my mind it was a very abrupt transition from the creepy Mr. Lancaster to husband-worthy Tom. Also Gerry's sudden explanation at the end for the mysterious flowers seemed lackluster. Honestly I was a bit disappointed at the little we saw of Jane throughout the novel; given the way the novel started, I had really expected their relationship to be a primary plot line.

The other thing that kept this from being 3 stars for me was the dialog. And maybe it's the time period, or the Canadian difference, or the abundance of God in the second half... but it struck me as contrived. I don't believe people speak like that, and certainly not 12-year-olds on a picnic.

But I did enjoy the rhythm - the rise and fall - of this novel, and I'm curious to see how Hills Orford develops in the coming novels.

[Tressa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was fortunate to win a copy of Spring by Emily-Jane Hills Orford through the Good Reads' giveaways program.

I enjoyed this book much more than I was expecting to. It started out rather slowly and I wasn't sure where it was going, but then it started gaining momentum and I wanted to find out what happened to Melanie and her friends.

I'm glad that this story wasn't predictable and neither was the main character, Melanie Harris. There were a few things that the author could have elaborated more on (what happened to Jane? What about Charles? Gerry the German?) but all in all, I was satisfied with the ending.

[Coleen Dailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book through the Goodreads give away. I enjoyed the story of a young violinist making her way from childhood to stardom but I found too many parts of the story undeveloped. It was a fun and easy read but I was left with too many loose which I hoped would be covered in subsequent seasons but they aren't. I don't want to divulge what the loose ends are because i don't want to spoil this for anyone. I would recommend reading it. ALso, I enjoyed listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons while reading the book and didn't know about his poem so I learned several things while reading this novel. I would recommend it to others,

[Emily-Jane Orford · Rating 5 out of 5]

good review of an old book:

http://allbooksreview.wordpress.com/2...