Maternity leave has been very interesting for me.  Normally, I enjoy the boring days when I can take a nap, watch the tube and not have a schedule.  Of course Vivian keeps me busy most of the time, but I'm so over daytime television and with the unseasonably warm weather I just want to sit in our front room and enjoy the sunlight as it streams in the windows.

So, I've tried to grab as many free hours minutes as I can to get some reading done, and I just finished a book that I want to recommend to everyone: The Kitchen House.

In some ways this book reminds me of "The Help," expect that it takes place in the late 1700's/ early 1800's when slavery was the norm.  A young, white orphan girl arrives in the U.S. off a boat from Ireland and is taken to a plantation where she is to work and be raised by the plantation owner's illegitimate, slave daughter.  As she grows up, she creates a deep, unbreakable bond with her new family, and she is completely oblivious to the differences in their color of skin.  Once she reaches her teenage years she is welcomed into the "Big House" where overtime she learns the struggles, tragedy and manipulation the white family and each of it's individual members face.  Her loyalty to her slave family is tested and her naivety slowly fades to reveal horrific truths she could have never imagined.

If you enjoy historic fiction, this is a must read!  It's definitely a page turner.