Dear friends, I stink at this! I never feel like I have anything interesting to say, and if I say anything it's on facebook. Seems like more people like FB than blogs anymore. I can't blame them. It's easier to keep up a conversation with all your friends than rattle on a blog and carry on a one way conversation. Of course if you're a journaler then this is a great format. In any case I seem to be using it to review books I've read, the latest being All Things New by Lynn Austin. It was a freebie from Bethany house publishers to review online so here goes:

This is a stand alone story (as far as I know it's going to be) about the end of the civil war and how it affected a family and their slaves in the south. The characters were very real and I appreciated that although there was a love interest, it wasn't a sappy love story. It stayed interesting till 3/4 of the way through when it became intense. Maybe it was because I had invested in the characters but it was so good I stayed up till 12:15am to finish it last night.

What I found very interesting was something I hadn't thought of. Though the slaves were set free, the weren't really free from their masters and families. Legally yes, but realistically their day to say routines were so entwined that there was no difference. The real change took years I'm sure to seperate themselves from the plantations families. I had never thought of that.

So, I gave the book a 5 star rating, another thumbs up to Lynn Austin, whom I love all her work.

Have a great week blog, till I have another book to review. :)