This past weekend I was able to fit in a lot of reading time. I’m making a conscious decision to focus more on reading for reviews in the evening times before bed. I’ve gotten busy with so many other things that my reading pile for reviewing was somewhat neglected. It surely is time to get back on track!

I’ve chosen the evening times for focusing on my review pile because in the mornings I do my Bible studies, history studies and research. That is a good schedule for me and I’m wanting to stick to it! Sometimes life gets in the way but it’s important to regroup or make changes if it isn’t working out.

I would really like to get to the place where I’m posting book reviews every four to eight days. I probably could make that work if I don’t stress about it. We will see what happens. On top of reading and studying, I’m also working on my art. Now that is a juggle to stay consistent with everything. So many things to do, so little time…

Yesterday I started reading “The Lawyer and the Laundress” by Christine Hill Suntz and I’m enjoying it so far. Here is the book description: Canada, 1837. Widower James Kinney knows his precocious daughter, Evie, needs more than his lessons on law and logic, but Toronto offers few options. Classes with the neighbor children seem ideal until James discovers Evie is secretly spending her time with Sara O’Connor, a kind and mysteriously educated servant. For propriety’s sake, James forbids their friendship. But then Evie falls victim to the illness ravaging the city, and James must call upon Sara’s medical knowledge and her special bond with Evie to save his daughter’s life.

When Sara’s presence in his household threatens scandal, however, James offers an unexpected become his wife, in name only, and help him raise Evie to be a proper young lady.

If Sara can ignore the sparks she feels when they’re together, his logical proposal could keep her secret secure forever. But soon, the forces of rebellion unravel their tidy arrangement. When James is accused of treason, Sara must find the courage to face a past that could save her husband’s life.

I’m also trying to finish up “Letters from the Dead” by Isabella Valeri and I must confess I’m struggling to get though it which has caused me to get behind on posting my review. Here is the description of the book: For the first eleven years of her life, the precocious daughter of a great European family tracing its roots back more than fifteen generations, never set foot on land that her family didn’t own. Cloistered on a sprawling estate in the Alpine foothills, as the youngest sibling of her generation she has little knowledge of the dark forces gathering in the shadows to strike at her family. But, when her insatiable curiosity leads her to uncover a priceless text hidden hundreds of years before, she shines light into corners meant to be left in the dark and threatens to uncover secrets that could trigger an internecine battle for succession.

Then, with no warning or explanation, she is whisked away on a private jet and exiled to an elite but isolated all-girls boarding school in the United States. More than a decade later, now in her twenties, she finds her bank accounts abruptly frozen by her family. She is recalled from her affluent but empty existence abroad. Little does she know that her family has plans for her, including an arranged marriage. Worse, as she draws closer to discovering the horrific act that sent her into exile a decade before, and shadowy enemies close in on her family, she must face her most dangerous and powerful foe: her own father.

I’ve also started reading, The Lies They Told by Ellen Marie Wiseman (I have an advance reader’s copy) and a book about Cyrus the Great.

Stephanie