Hello and welcome back to Life of Heritage!

I am so excited to review Pride and Prejudice, my first classic of 2022! I don't know why I put off Jane Austen for so long!

Recommended for 16+ 🦚|| Content Meter: 4/5 🦚|| Quality Meter: 10/10 🦚|| Personal Enjoyment: 10/10 🦚|| Overall Rating: 9/10 🦚

I always thought this book was a romance. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was not that at all. Not in the typical sense at least! No talk of anything remotely sensual! It was a breath of fresh air. 🦚

I would not call this a love story either, for only one of the couples truly loved each other. The last couple in the story might as well, but it was hard to tell. Seemed to me more like they just respected each other 🤣 But such was the times they lived in. 🦚

The best way to describe this masterpiece is as societal satire. It exposes the stupidity and flippancy with which Regency English society regarded marriage without coming right out and saying it. Anyone could see Austen’s brilliance in tackling the subject! She had me laughing for the first half of the book and nearly in tears for the second half. 🦚

One thing this book emphasized for me? Communication is key. Just come right out and say what you mean! Then all this back and forth could be avoided! 🦚

My favorite character was Elizabeth even though she frustrated me more than once 😅 Darcy grew on me 😉 I despise Lady Catherine and Mr. Collins. If you don't know why, you haven't read the book 😁Oh, Lydia and her excuse for a husband too. 🦚

Overall, I adore this book and will be reading it again! 🦚

Content || Mention of a couple living together prior to marriage but not that anything happened besides that. Basically, they stayed in the same house. Still wrong!

Have you read Pride and Prejudice?

Have a blessed day and God Bless America!
Ryana Lynn and Dixie Cross😉
Jude 22

Wow. I did NOT intend to be gone for so long! I’m not apologizing though because I have been living in the moment with my wonderful husband and baby girl! I am loving being a mom and I wouldn’t trade it for the world! But all that said, I am so happy to be getting back on the writing train!

Right off the bat, I’m gonna ask how you are doing! Please let me know in the comments below so we can catch up on all the things!

Okay, I know you don’t actually want to read more of this intro. We all know you are here for the baby 😉

April 11th, 2022 will go down in annals of my life as one of the best days of my life. Our 7 pound 15 ounce baby girl made her debut at 5:44 pm via induction after 7 hours of active labor. God was so merciful to me. I did have to have an episiotomy and she needed suctioned once but we both came through just fine!

Many have asked about her name, so here’s the story!

I have always loved the name Dixie. Y’all know that, haha! But I wasn’t sure how Jacob would feel about it. But when a friend said they almost named their child Dixie, but chose Carolina instead, I decided to mention it.

Jacob loved it. He picked Cross for her middle name. It’s his mother’s middle name and his grandmother’s maiden name! So a nice family tie in!

Now Burke on the other hand, that was a last minute decision that I am so glad we made. Pastor Travis Burke, a dear friend of my husband’s and a mentor to us both through his sermons, jokingly told Jacob Burke was a wonderful name. I was in the bed, dealing with contractions. Jacob looked at me, and asked what I thought of Dixie Cross Burke and instantly, that little piece that I felt was missing fell into place. It was perfect. I fell in love.

Then she was born and I knew we made the right choice.

Dixie is four and a half months old now and growing like a weed! She’s almost ready to start baby food and today, she rolled over for the first time on her own, while awake, lol! She’s been doing it in her sleep since she was two weeks old!

She loves bright colors, her first word was Hey! and her favorite person is Pop-Pop (Jacob’s dad!). She tries to sing with us in the car and is really working on saying I Love You, which is melting my heart. Jacob and I have been saying that to her since she was in the womb and hearing her try to match the syllables? It’s a moment I’ve lived for.

Life has been good! We’ve continued our work with our Junior church and are currently running a donut promotion for the kiddos! They are LOVING it and have been encouraging each other to be consistent in their attendance!

I’ve been working on organizing our office and I am trying to make the house cozier. After watching Little Women (2019), I knew that feel is what I want for my home. I want it to be cozy and inviting. A place we can relax and enjoy each other after a long day. If you have any suggestions, I’m open to ideas!

I will admit, I haven’t been writing much. Dixie keeps me on my toes, but since I am falling into a routine, I hope to be writing much more in the near future! To Save a Life is with my formatter, and The Battlefield is Silent is in the outlining stage! If you are one of my older readers, I would be pleased if you gave my Instagram, @lifeofheritage a follow! For my younger audience and those who chose not to use IG, I will be giving you peeks at my IG content in my subscriber emails! So you won’t be missing out! What are you writing?

I’ve been doing a lot of reading of late! My current binge is The Chronicles of Alice and Ivy by Kellyn Roth! They are so good and I am so excited to start book four! I am also beta reading Titan by Brian McBride and review reading Victory’s Voice by Erika Mathews! All indie titles! What are you reading?
 
Please comment below and tell me how you’ve been and what you’re up to! I’ve missed you all and can’t wait to get back in the writing saddle with you!

God Bless and God Bless America!
Ryana Lynn
Jude 22