First Lines Friday... "Clara Kip had prayed..."

"Clara Kip had prayed repeatedly to die in Sao Paulo. It truly seemed the smallest of requests. People died in Brazil every day. What was one more? Especially one who had dreamed of the country most of her life.

The Lord, however, gave her Kansas..."

The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara Burnsvold

Someone recommended this book if I wanted to "Ugly Cry". Do I want to ugly cry? The last book that I ugly cried was The Fault in Your Stars by John Green (OMG!). But usually ugly cries translate into "great" reads. Reads that grab you and break your heart. I read a little bit of the beginning of the book and the Goodreads blurb and think this might really be a good read, we'll have to see about the ugly cry part. 

Here's the Goodreads blurb: Aidyn Kelley is talented, ambitious, and ready for a more serious assignment than the fluff pieces she’s been getting as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star. In her eagerness, she pushes too hard, earning herself the menial task of writing an obituary for an unremarkable woman who’s just entered hospice care. But there’s more to Clara Kip than meets the eye. The spirited septuagenarian may be dying, but she’s not quite ready to cash it in yet. Never one to shy away from an assignment herself, she can see that God brought the young reporter into her life for a reason. And if it’s a story Aidyn Kelley wants, that’s just what Mrs. Kip will give her—but she’s going to have to work for it.

Would reading the first lines make you want to read more?

This was the debut novel of Sara Brunsvold, a contemporary Christian fiction writer who has written 3 more books since The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip, published in 2022 by Revell.