First Lines Friday... Get Ready to Be Swept Away

 

"Astrid looked up from her grimoire to find an axe swinging directly for her head.

It's been six years since someone tried to kill her, yet her reflexes are still sharp; she throws herself sideways and spins to face her attacker, just as the blade sinks into the spruce tree--right where her neck had been a moment ago.

She staggers back, twisting her ankle when her boot snags on the uneven forest floor, and swallows the yell that creeps up her throat."

This is the "It" book of the day! So much anticipation for its' release! I was lucky enough to receive a digital ARC recently and have been devouring it! But I also snagged a beautiful hardcover copy when I recently signed up for BOTM this month and it is GORGEOUS! Beautiful end papers and stenciled pages. And the cover is reversible too! Reddish or Blueish, your choice. But the beauty of the book is second to the actual story. Today, we're just looking at that first line....

After Reading the First Lines, Would You Keep Going?

I did...

First Lines Friday...

 

"This is a tale of murder.

Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it? The saddest kind of love story— about the end of love; the death of love.

So I guess I was right the first time."

The Fury by Alex Michaelides

First Line Friday...

An old familiar dread was waiting for me this morning. I couldn't tell where it came from. It hadn't followed me out of a dream--at least not one I could remember--but when I got up, there it was in everything. The airless heat of the motel room. The halo of sunlight around the window shades. The vacant smile of the girl at the front desk when she took the key from my hand. 

I thought it might stay behind when I left the motel, but it hitched a ride through the desert with me. Just sitting there. Tightening the world. It knew me so well.

                                                                         ....... The Morningside by Téa Obreht

                                                                           

First Lines Friday...

 

"Back in 1961, when women wore shirtwaist dresses and joined garden clubs and drove legions of children around in seatbelt-less cars without giving it a second thought; back before anyone knew there'd even be a sixties movement, much less one that its participants would spend the next sixty years chronicling; back when the big wars were over and the secret wars had just begun and people were starting to think fresh and believe everything was possible, the thirty-year-old mother of Madeline Zott rose before dawn every morning and felt certain of just one thing: her life was over."

                                                                    ... Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

First Lines Friday...

 

After the funeral. I'm hiding in Mother's bathroom watching a skincare video about necks. Cheap black dress that chafes. Illicit cigarette. Sitting on the toilet amid her decorative baskets, her red jellyfish soaps, her black towel sets. Smoke comes tumbling out of my mouth in amorphous gray clouds. I blow it out the window where the palm trees still sway and the alien sun still shines and the sky is a blue that hurts my eyes.                                                          ....Rouge by Mona Awad

 I love that second sentence. I don't know why, but watching a video about necks just seems so funny to me. This has gotten a lot of great buzz and it's on my TBR list. 

First Lines Friday... A Controversial Romance

 I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked into Cafe Rev, but it sure as hell wasn’t a picture of myself behind the register under the cheery headline “Do Not Serve.” A yellow frown face magnet held the photo in place.

First of all, I’d never set foot in Knockemout, Virginia, let alone done anything to warrant a punishment as egregious as withholding caffeine. Secondly, just what dd a person have to do in their dusty little town to have a mugshot hanging in the local cafe?

Ha. Mug shot. Because I was in a cafe. Gosh, I was funny when I was too tired to blink.

                                ... Things we Never Got Over by Lucy Score

I got an email last friday from Fairyloot announcing that this book, Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score, was available to order. Now if you're not familiar with Fairyloot (and I am definitely going to have a post about them and a few other businesses like them), it's a company that has a book box subscription service for mostly fantasy books. But what makes them different from say The Book of the Month club are the covers that these books (and the sprayed edges)have. OMG, these covers are beautiful. And some of the designs that are sprayed on the paper edges are gorgeous. Okay, that's for another post, but we really need to talk about them soon (come back Sunday... hint, hint)!

What I wanted to say about this book was that after I saw that Fairyloot was going to have one of their exclusive editions made, I went to google it and read what the story was about and find out who the author was. Amazon had a 4.5 star rating, which usually says a lot, but I wanted to look at what the 1 star ratings were that I noticed was part of the rating scale. Well, those 1 star ratings really had intense feelings about this book. Basically, everyone, even the lower ratings, liked the main character Naomi, but the love interest created a big rift in how women felt about the book. And "bad boy" and "jerk" were the nicer comments. It seems that the love interest, according to the bad ratings, was domineering and controlling. A red flag for a real relationship. The high ratings loved the romance in the story. Calling the love interest a grumpy bad boy, but that Naomi stood up for herself and eventually love found a way. The beginning of the book, and this First Lines Friday post, I thought was really interesting. I liked Naomi's voice and I liked the writing, with that little bit of snarky humor. 

The question is, which reviews do you trust?

I think reviews are good to read for the most part, but really, we all have our own tastes and what someone else likes or doesn't like isn't necessarily how I'm going to feel about it. So, I read a bit of the story if I can, which tells me if I like the authors writing. And even before reading a sample, I read what the book is about. If it sounds like a story I might enjoy and if I'm able to read a sample of the authors writing and I like it, then I'll give any book a fair chance. There is one thing that is an absolutely no go for me is violence against animals. I can't watch a movie with it and I can't tolerate a book that has it. 

Do you have any absolutes in your reading?

Happy reading... Suzanne

First Lines Friday...

"Anna regularly dreamed about killing him. About creeping up on him and swiftly running the blade across his throat. That was why, on this particular morning, she didn’t sit up in bed with a jolt but calmly linked as she woke from yet another dream that left a kaleidoscope of violent images on the inside of her eyelids and filled her with excitement..."   from The Corpse Flower by Anne Mette Hancock

Any time I hear Scandinavian Noir my ears perk up. I love Scandinavian writing, and particularly Scandinavian Thriller/Noir. So, when I read a little about The Corpse Flower I wanted to find out more. From the authors agency page at the Nordin Agency, this is what I read...

"In 2017 she made her debut as an author with The Corpse Flower, where we are introduced to journalist Heloise Kaldan and police officer Erik Schäfer. This poignant suspense novel awarded her with the Danish Crime Academy’s debutant prize in 2017. The second book in the series, The Collector, was published in 2018 to great acclaim. That very year Anne Mette Hancock was named Author of the year in Denmark. Her third novel Pitbull was published in January 2020 and went straight to the top of the Danish bestseller chart."

I'm all in now after reading all that about her. I was able to read the first 4 chapters and thought the writing was really good too. The Corpse Flower was published by Crooked Lane Publishing October of last year. The Collector is scheduled to be released Nov 8, 2022. And there is no date yet for the release of Pitbull in the US, but if the first two books do well, I'm sure we'll see it released in the US as well. Anne Mette Hancock's characters, journalist Heloise Kaldan and police officer, Erik Schafer are the investigators in the ongoing series. The Corpse Flower is on my nightstand...

First Lines Friday...

 

NOW FRIDAY, MAY 3

Leah

The key is to go to a few different stores. I used to always go to Jerry’s Liquors on Bonifant Avenue. I was a regular. Too regular. Jerry’s mouth started to form a thin line when I’d come in. I could see the conflict on his face. He was glad for the business, but judgmental about the frequency of my visits.

Don’t make this hard on me, his face seemed to say. Don’t make me feel bad for you.

Jerry, like so many others, didn’t want to be bothered with sympathy.

Now, I don’t go to Jerry’s anymore. I have five other stores I frequent, all within a fifteen-mile radius of my house. They all think I’m a regular. A devoted and loyal customer.

They’re all right.

Typically, I stop by each one once a week. One store per day, Monday through Friday. I like to go in the early afternoon. Always after three, but usually before four.

My favorite store is Pine View Liquors on Main Street. My Friday store. It’s a little bit bougie, amid the boutiques selling clothing of the type I used to wear in my former life, and restaurants serving tapas and crepes, and houseware shops displaying accent chairs to be admired but not sat upon, and teakettles to be visible in the background of Instagram posts but never used, and candles to be sniffed but not lit on fire.

In addition to beer and wine and liquor, Pine View sells bags of kettle chips that shimmer with oil, colorful artisanal sodas, and specialty chocolates stuffed with PB&J, salted caramel, and cookie butter. I always load a few such items into my basket to distract the cashier from the fact that I’m a five-foot-four woman purchasing seven hundred and fifty milliliters of Grey Goose vodka, just as I do nearly every Friday.

It was in Pine View Liquors that I first saw her.

It was like looking at myself, nine months ago.

When I read a Kirkus Starred Review that compared The Favour by Nora Murphy to Strangers on a Train, the Patricia Highsmith novel, which later became a thrilling cinematic ride by Alfred Hitchcock, I had to look at it a bit closer. With voyeurism similar to Rachel's in The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (and if you haven't read that book YOU SHOULD!), Leah Dawson watches McKenna Hawkins... their two worlds will eventually collide. The Favour will be released May 31, 2022 by Minotaur Publishing... and it's on my wishlist. 

First Lines Friday...

 "She Rides out of the forest alone. Seventeen years old, in the cold March drizzle, Marie who comes from France"         

                                                                  ... Matrix by Lauren Groff

The bastard half-sister of the Queen Eleanor is basically thrown to the wolves as she is made Prioress of a starving, needy group of nuns. How does a seventeen year old, living in the lush confines of a noble house, with want for nothing, deal with her new circumstances? You'll need to read Matrix by Lauren Groff to find out, but let me tell you, Marie with be your new heroine after a few pages. Enjoying this new read by Groff even though it will be short lived at 257 pages.

First Lines Friday...

 

"For eight years I dreamed of fire. Trees ignited as I passed them; oceans burned. The sugary smoke settled in my hair as I slept, the scent like a cloud left on my pillow as I rose. Even so, the moment my mattress started to burn, I bolted awake. The sharp, chemical smell was nothing like the hazy syrup of my dreams; the two were as different as Carolina and Indian jasmine, separation and attachement. "

                                     ...... The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

First Lines Friday...

"The deadly virus stole unnoticed through the crowded cobblestone streets of Philadelphia on a  sunny September day, unseen and unheard amidst the jubilant chaos of the Liberty Loan parade and the patriotic marhes of John Philip Sousa."
                                     ....The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman


It would seem timely that this book came out now. The story brings us to the end of WWI, in 1918, as the Spanish flu, and the last modern day pandemic, broke out. Courtesy of Kensington Publishing, our book club is reading this as our August pick. Keep an eye out for my review, and what my book club thought of it. If you want to learn more about it, and read an excerpt, visit Kensington publishing. The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman will be released on August 4th!

First Lines Friday...

All the dying that summer began with the deaht of a child, a boy with golden hair and thick glasses, killed on the railroad tracks outside New Bremen, Minnesota sliced into pieces by a thousand tons of steel speeding across the prairie toward South Dakota. His name was Bobby Cole, He was a sweet-looking kid and by that I mean he had eyes that seemed full of dreaming and he wore a half smile as if he was just about to understand something you'd spent an hour trying to explain.
                                     ... Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger


I was hearing a lot of buzz about This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger and saw that this was not his first book. In fact, William Kent Krueger has an award winning mystery series with #17 having been published in 2018. But Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land were not mysteries, but were literary fiction, coming-of-age novels. As I read the sample of Ordinary Grace I was struck by the easy going readability, the really good story writing and decided he was someone I needed to read. This Tender Land is on my TBR list, but Ordinary Grace is on my nightstand now. Published by Atria Books in 2014.

First Lines Friday

"My story begins on a sweltering August night, in a place I will never set eyes upon. The room takes life only in my imaginings. It is large most days when I conjure it. The walls are white and clean, the bed linens crisp as a fallen leaf. The private suite has the very finest of everything. Outside, the breeze is weary, and the cicadas throb in the tall trees, their verdant hiding places just below the window frames. The screen sway inward as the attic fan rattles overhead, pulling at wet air that has no desire to be moved. "
                                            ... Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate



Sisters and secrets and a girl who loves reading makes me want to read this. I enjoy historical fiction and Lisa Wingate brings us together with a "tale based on the true story of Georgia Tann, a director of an adoption agency, who kidnapped and sold children to the wealthy."

First Lines Friday...

"  I am a cat. As yet, I have no name. There's a famous cat in our country who once made this very statement.

    I have no clue how great that cat was, but at least when it comes to having a name I got there first. Whether I like my name is another matter, since it glaringly doesn't fit my gender, me being male and all. I was given it about five years ago--- around the time I came of age."
                                                                 
                       ... The Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa


As I was walking through a bookstore, I came across this book on a table with many others, but I was initially attracted to it because of the cover and its size. It's one of those cute little gift size books, about the size of a 5 x 7 photograph. As I opened the book, I realized that it was indeed a tale as told through the cat's perspective and that it was an international best seller. As I opened that cover and read some of the story, I was enamored. I look forward to reading this soon!

First Lines Friday...

 

I could have taken the 7:50, or even the 8:53. It’s Monday. Mondays are dead quiet at work. It’s just that I couldn’t take it anymore. What was I thinking, staying Sunday night. I don’t know what came over me. Two days are more than enough.
                   … The 6:41 to Paris by Jean-Philippe Blondel



I've been toying with buying this book. It's gotten some great press. But do these first lines make you want to read more?! 

First Line Fridays... or Do Those Lines Grab Us Hook, Line and Sinker or is it just a Sinker?

Back near the beginning of my blog, I use to enjoy sharing the first lines of a book that I had started reading or had picked up or intrigued me. I called it First Lines... and I posted it on Fridays (First Lines Friday). I always read a bit of a book before I buy it, even if someone recommended it or I've read a review and the story seems like something I would enjoy. The writing... that's what ultimately makes the decision for me whether I read a book or not. I either flip the book open to a random page and sample the writing that way or start with those first opening lines (Some say that those first lines can make or break a book). So, I thought I'd bring back First Lines Friday, design a cute little graphic to go with it (my dear husband, Jim, helped make that happen) and start sharing those first lines again to see if they hook us or not... Stop by this Friday for the first reincarnation of First Lines Friday and share what you think!

Happy reading... Suzanne