The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice. The rules are simple – turn to page 56 in your current read (or 56% in your e-reader) and post a few non-spoilery sentences.

As you’ve probably noted by the lack of posts the past week, I’ve been too busy to read! We moved into our brand new house on Sunday, and I’ve been busily unpacking boxes, putting furniture together, and setting up the house. I did sneak in a little bit of time to read S. A. Chakraborty’s The Kingdom of Copper, the sequel to City of Brass. My full review will be up – oh, sometime next week, probably, when I have time to write it! But I’ll give you a quick glimpse from page 56.

Two women were waiting for him outside his tent.

“Sisters!” he greeted them, forcing a smile to his face even as he inwardly swore. “Peace be upon you.”

“And upon you peace.” It was Umm Qays who spoke first, one of the village’s stone mages. She gave Ali a wide, oddly sly grin. “How does this day find you?”

Exhausted. “Well, thanks be to God,” Ali replied. “And yourselves?”

“Fine. We’re fine,” Bushra, Umm Qays’s daughter spoke up quickly. She was avoiding Ali’s eyes, embarrassment visible in her flushed cheeks. “Just passing through!”

“Nonsense.” Umm Qays yanked her daughter close, and the young woman gave a small, startled yelp. “My Bushra has just made the loveliest kabsa . . . she is an extraordinarily gifted cook, you know, can conjure up a feast from the barest of bones and a whisper of spice . . . Anyway, her first thought was to set aside a portion for our prince.” She beamed at Ali. “A good girl, she is.”

Mothers will always try to push their daughters at eligible, well-off bachelors, no?

Thinks are starting to calm down here, and I still have library books to read, so hopefully I will have the blog hopping again in no time!