Christina Courtenay - Echoes of the Runes

When Mia inherits her beloved grandmother's summer cottage, Birch Thorpe, in Sweden, she faces a dilemma. Her fiance Charles urges her to sell and buy a swanky London home, but Mia cannot let it go easily. The request to carry out an archaeological dig for more Viking artefacts like the gold ring Mia's grandmother also left her, offers her a reprieve from a decision―and from Charles.
Whilst Mia becomes absorbed in the dig's discoveries, she finds herself drawn to archaeologist Haakon Berger. Like her, he can sense the past inhabitants whose lives are becoming more vivid every day. Trying to resist the growing attraction between them, Mia and Haakon begin to piece together the story of a Welsh noblewoman, Ceri, and the mysterious Viking, known as the 'White Hawk', who stole her away from her people in 869 AD.
As the present begins to echo the past, and enemies threaten Birch Thorpe's inhabitants, they will all have to fight to protect what has become most precious to each of them...

Comment: I've decided to add this book to my TBR for the blurb seemed quite appealing and I have also liked other books where the characters would do some kind of archaeological work.

In this novel we meet Mia, a young woman living and working in London but who inherits her grandmother's summer cottage in Sweden, where they both had a great time as Mia was growing up. She knows the sensible thing would be to sell and her fiancé Charles even counts on it, but Mia does have a connection with the place and when the possibility to do some archaeological dig in the propriety arises, she doesn't think twice. The possibilities of finding some Viking evidence are huge and archaeologist Haakon Berger is certainly enthusiastic but he and Mia can't seem to ignore some strange notion they have to discover what happened to those who lived in the place all those centuries ago for more than simply historical reasons. Could it be a connection between them and those who used to live there?

This is the first book I try by the author and it was engaging enough to make me want to know what happened next, which often can be a good enough reason to make it a successful experience. But I must say the writing style was a bit "off", as if the sentences and sequence of information weren't always fluid. I wonder if this is actually a translation from Swedish (the author has both nationalities if I read correctly), or if her style is naturally like this... I'll read the next one at some point to compare.

This said, I confess I feel a little disappointed with the characterization of Mia, Haakon, Ceri and Hawkur. These are the main characters in this dual timed plot: in contemporary times we have Mia and Haakon investigating the propriety for archaeological artifacts or evidence and we have Ceri and Hawkur in the 9th century, when the Nordic tribe of Vikings was living in the area. I liked the setting of everything in both times but to me - and perhaps this has to do with the writing style - the characters didn't have enough depth or layers. I also felt there was more telling than showing.

The contemporary setting was what caught my eye and made me interested in reading this book. Being primarily a romance reader and this including those "vibes", obviously I pictured a slow burn type of relationship between Mia and Haakon while they shared their love for archaeology and the preservation of Viking traditions and discoveries. Mia is in a relationship when the story begins but it's clear it isn't a happy one, so I hoped and the author did develop things so that those two could become closer emotionally. I think their romance was rather cute but it wasn't as significant as I hoped for.

Perhaps, in part, that was due to the dual times, and the focus had to be divided into two couples, plus the secondary issues in both of them. Mia and Haakon must deal with a neighbor who wants the discoveries for himself and Ceri and Hawkur have an ex wife to contend with. The author even went as far as to include distinct clues in the story so that the reader could not ignore the reason for why these characters in this specific situation. I think, perhaps, if things had been better layered and less obvious, the experience of reading could have been a bit more rewarding.

It was certainly fun and pleasant to read this story but the author could have gone way far in characterization and complexity. Mia and Haakon have many distractions and while this was thought to add difficulties as to why can't they simply be a couple from the start, the slow burn was a bit too subtle for the most part, so when they do get together it was cute but not a final release of tension, as if they had no choice. As for Ceri and Hawkur, it felt like the historical sections were even more limited, we only had glimpses or some scenes what would, conveniently, be linked to whatever was going on in the contemporary setting.

There are some scenes and situations related to archaeology and history which I liked, and I was always interested in seeing what would happen next. Nothing in this story was surprising, to be honest, but I still liked the anticipation of seeing the characters do or react to something in the next chapter. I also felt the author wanted to respect the Viking culture and used as much information about it as she could, within the necessary, so that could happen. I can only imagine the historical facts and details are well researched... but then, the fictional aspects...I would prefer this to be or longer and with more depth, or less amount of elements and more depth. 

All in all, an interesting book, focused on a period of time not as popular as others in history but which proved to be a good enough experience for me.

Grade: 7/10