First Lines Friday...

Would you keep reading after the first few lines?

Lisa See is one of my favorite authors. Her characters have souls and her writing invites you to walk beside them as though you were living their lives out with them. Of course I will keep reading...

I wrote about Daughters of The Sun and Moon when it first came out June 9th of this year. Read more about it here. AND put this on your TBR list NOW!

First Lines Friday... A House Full of Ghosts and Not The Kind You Think

The Children by Melissa Albert...  The estranged adult children of a legendary author, written into their dead mother’s beloved fantasy series, must contend with the vine-like creep of legacy, memory, and magic.

Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods.

In one, she and her brother, Ennis, live in the wooded shadow of their family's isolated Vermont farmhouse; in the other, the pages of their mother’s world-famous Ninth City books, where their magical adventures have made them household names. In reality, Guinevere's childhood isn't the enchanted idyll her mother’s readers imagine: she and Ennis are growing up near-feral, unwashed and underfed, escaping each day to the wild woods they’ve made their playland. As Edith Sharpe’s books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame—until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith’s series unfinished and her children the sole survivors.

Now an adult coasting on her mother's name, Guinevere is mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir when her estranged brother, an artist who has until now spurned his family's legacy, announces an upcoming installation titled, simply, Mother. As rumors swirl around a death connected to his last show, unsettling recollections from Guinevere’s childhood begin to surface. Her public facade starts to crack, forcing her to confront the questions she's spent the last twenty years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother’s fantasy world?

The Children is wise to the mythic weight childhood memories gather over time, and the way our most beloved stories grow up with us. It's for anyone who's ever revisited an old favorite and found its pages cast in a darker light, the line separating magic from reality blurring as we discover the books that once comforted us carry shadows of their own.

Would you keep reading after the first few lines? 

My Book of The Month selection this month was The Children by Melissa Albert and I am definitely going to keep reading after the first few lines. And I really liked the style of writing so far too. What do you think? Is this on your TBR list? It's this months pick for Read With Jenna too. The cover reminds me of old time Halloween cards! I wonder if that was the point?! 

Published by William Morrow and just released this week!

First Lines Friday... It's Going to Be A Calamity

Kathryn Stockett is the author of The Help, a book that exploded the publishing world. Will her new book, The Calamity Club be the next viral hit? Here's the blurb from the publisher...

Oxford, Mississippi, 1933. Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. Now one of the unadoptable "big girls" at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed. 

Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister’s seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies. 

Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose. When their fates—and Meg’s—converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan for them to take control of their lives. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women’s freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences. 

The Calamity Club will make you laugh, cry, and cheer—an epic testament to underestimated women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings. This is Kathryn Stockett at her most confident, heartfelt, and hilarious—the triumphant return of one of the most beloved storytellers of our time.

 Would you keep reading after the first few lines? 

I think I will...

First Lines Friday... It's a Disappearing Act

I was intrigued when I read this first line, are you? Would you keep reading? Here's the blurb from the publisher about the book:

Carrie and Johan marry on a beach in Thailand only months into their whirlwind romance. Carrie, a British surgical intern, is too happy to care that she’s being impulsive. But as the wedding festivities stretch into the night, a group of armed men suddenly swarm the beach, taking Johan away. She never sees him again.

Twelve years later, Carrie is living in the English countryside with her husband, Robin, and their six-year-old twins, running a holiday cottage rental business on the side. One night, she stumbles across an online post in which she discovers that Johan escaped from Thailand years ago, and has been living in Stockholm ever since. As the memories of their passionate relationship flood her, she becomes obsessed with discovering what happened on their wedding day all those years ago.

But just when Carrie thinks she knows what she must do, a shocking twist tears apart everything Carrie thought she knew. The One Day You Were My Husband asks readers what—and whom—they would give up to return to a first love and to the people they once were.

The One Day You Were My Husband by Rosie Walsh was released this week and published by Pamela Dorman Books. On my TBR list!

First Lines Friday... You'll want to Pack Your Bags for This One!

"Wilbur Budd died around midnight, but he had trouble remembering the details" 

Would you keep reading after the first lines? I would! And I love these stories that let the characters go back in time and that's what the publisher's blurb implies...

No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there.

The chance to re-live the moments that meant most.

To see what kind of person you really were.

For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice.

Before he gave it all away.

He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything . . .

A magical, time-travelling love story, from the world of The Midnight Library. 

Let's get our bags packed and ready to board that train!

   Viking Books will release The Midnight Train by Matt Haig on May 26th!

On My Wishlist!

First Lines Friday... This One Comes With a Body Count 💋🔪

I just love those Scream movies and when I read about this book, this was the first thing I thought about and just HAD to read it! 

Would you keep reading after these First Lines?

How to Kill a guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson... When Jamie Prescott and her best friend Laurie attend a speed-dating event, Jamie expects to meet a roster of mediocre men and indulge in some street food afterwards. She doesn’t expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at their table during a blackout. After the lights come back on and there are more bodies on the floor, it becomes clear that dating can be a very dangerous pastime.

Armed with makeshift weapons and Jamie’s extensive knowledge of what NOT to do in a slasher, the remaining speed daters try to find an exit while the killer adds to their body count. As the night progresses and Jamie comes face-to-mask with the murderer, she begins to suspect they are committing the slayings to woo one of the daters and turn them into a real-life Final Girl. But Jamie has other plans, and as she fights for her life, she can’t help but find herself ensconced in a love triangle with two of the other survivors. Will she make it through the bloodshed to find her Happily Ever After? Or does this machete-wielding psychopath have another ending in mind?

Published by Gallery Books this past February, and available at your favorite book store now! I recently received a digital copy of this book to read and review! Thank you Gallery Books! I am so looking forward to reading it!! Keep your eyes out for my review coming soon...

First Lines Friday... Puck This!

Hockey Romances are all the rage these days. I was reading about this book and I loved the idea of someone getting the wrong text, answering the text and the start of a budding romance! 

Would you keep reading this after the first lines?

Here's the blurb about this book from Goodreads: One text to the wrong number…mine…and everything changed. He won’t tell me his last name, and maybe that should throw up a thousand red flags, but when I’m all alone in a new city and struggling to make ends meet, his texts are the lifeline I’ve been desperate for. But I never would have answered that text if I’d known that Lincoln Daniels, superstar hockey player extraordinaire was the one sending them. He’s trying to sweep me off my feet now. He says he’s obsessed. He wants me wearing his number…permanently. The question is…is he still the wrong number, or can this hockey god prove he’s Mr. Right?

* Lincoln Daniels is a morally grey antihero who is obsessed with his girl and will do anything to keep her.

This is a darker hockey romance. The Pucking Wrong Number is a hockey romance standalone from USA Today and International Bestselling Author C.R. Jane.

This book was published way back in 2024 by Podium Publishing. This is a stand alone story, but C.R. Jane has written quite a few books under the "Pucking" theme.😉

 

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... And This One You May Lose Your Head Over!

"Anne opened her eyes to darkness. And wood. Her face was pressed into the wood. And the left side of her body. She realize fabric as well. A thin fabric that covered her. Linen, she thought, from the smell of it--like wet grass--and the way the air moved through it. Just slightly, for the air here was very still. The linen was wet and sticky. "

Omg, the premise of this book just had me from the start! Hours after Anne Boyleyn is beheaded for not giving Henry VIII a male heir, she wakes up in a wooden box. She escapes, sews her head back on and begins a quest to kill Henry before he can marry Jane Seymour, who is carrying the child that will oust Anne Boyleyns daughter's claim to the throne. While she is plotting to do all this, she is posing as a commoner, something of a eye opener to her. Yes, this sounds like fun!

                  Would you keep reading after the first few lines?

The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann was published by Crown a division of Penguin Random House on March 24th.

First Lines Friday... Does a Dystopian Love Triangle Sound like Fun?

 A Hologram filled the center of my office with a painting. Simple, small. Just a woman, a hint of a smile on her face. 

As usual, I was alone in the Ancient Art section of the Archives, buried deep underground. My job was to destroy, piece by piece, the remnants of the world ancient humans had laid waste to in the Last War. Elsewhere in the Archives, my friend Lo sat in the Books section, and there were others who sorted ancient tools, documents, and relics from before the war. Our screens dictated what was saved, reassigned, or --like this one--destroyed. A push of a button, and the ties to the past disappear.

We meet our "heroine" in a dusty old basement, showing us how times have changed. Dystopian? Check. But there's much more to this book... Further reading the book we find romance (in a twisted dystopian way), a love triangle and maybe a bit of a rebellion under the surface? This had me at the Mona Lisa. Then at dystopian (I can never resist a good dystopian story)... and I have it on my TBR list. 

Would the first lines of this book make you want to read it?

Conform by Ariel Sullivan was published by Ballantine Books in October 2025.

First Lines Friday... and Taking a Trip to the Upstate of South Carolina

The Hammerhead Chronicles by Scott Gould... Your wife dies and you buy an expensive foreign bicycle, and yes, you know how that sounds, how cold and borderline brutal, how it possesses not even the tiniest speck of compassion, but you have been lusting after a bicycle much longer than she has been dying, and the two eents collide on a Thursday evening in late summer. Call it synchronicity. Call it whatever you want. Except don't call it unfeeling.

Because she isn't really your wife when she passes away. Okay, technically, maybe on paper Peg is. But she is a month and a day from becoming your official ex-wife, what with South Carolina's odd, year-long waiting (contemplating? second-guessing?) period after you separate...

I did a google search the other day to see how many local authors there were near me in the Upstate of South Carolina. I found two authors that stood out... Susan Boyer, who writes the Lowcountry mysteries (the Lowcountry is Charleston, SC and that area) and Scott Gould, who I had never heard of before.

Then I googled Scott Gould and learned he has 6 books under his belt and has won numerous awards for his writing. Then I looked up his books and read a little bit of a few of them. From the small bit of writing I sampled of Scott, I really liked his writing. My library actually had a copy of Strangers to Temptation, Scott Gould's short story collection, which I promptly took out. AND, I bought a copy of The Hammerhead Chronicles so I could have a leisurely story to read of Scott's. Here's the blurb from the publisher about The Hammerhead Chronicles:

On the day Claude slaps down a credit card for an expensive racing bicycle, his soon-to-be-ex-wife passes away. As Claude begins a quest to pedal away from his marriage and his grief, we encounter the Southern eccentrics that orbit his world: his overly independent, rebellious teenage daughter; his foul-mouthed sister-in-law who deftly stalks her husband's mistress; twin, gay bookstore owners who serve the profitable underground Confederacy market out of their "special" back room; the math professor possessing an attic full of rats and a penchant for revenge; a skinny bartender-named for a Marine base-who preaches a suck-it-up philosophy; and Claude's recently deceased wife, observing it all from the Great Beyond, where she is annoyed by the lack of decent weather and by the troubled, tangled lives she left behind.

I love quirky characters and the stories that bring these types of characters alive. And I am really looking forward to reading all of these stories from Scott Gould! 

Would the First Lines of this book make you want to read it?

Hammerhead Chronicles was published by:

 University of North Georgia Press in 2022.

First Lines Friday... A Musical Coming of Age Story Sprinkled with Mystery and Friendship

"Ever since she was born, Marijohn Shaw could hear the dark sing to her. 

It was an unusual truth, as darkness didn't have a voice. Yet she's always loved the inky pitch of things like nightfall and dreamless sleep--the mystery of it, the privacy, the music. Eighteen years ago, she'd slipped into the world with a swirl of dark hair and even darker thoughts. Her earliest memory wasn't sight but sound--a crooning in the dimness, low and certain, like the whisper of a beloved ghost she'd known forever."                 

                                                        ...Wait for Me by Amy Jo Burns

This was the March Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club pick and I love the writing in just these first few lines. And I love the sound of the story too...

Young folk singer Elle Harlow reaches the height of her prowess in 1973, with two wildly beloved albums to her name and a hidden history of impossible heartbreak. When she sets foot on the famed Grand Ole Opry stage, a far cry from the mountain that raised her, Elle gives the biggest performance of her life. Then, to the dismay of shocked fans, her producer, and the man who still loves her, she vanishes.

Almost two decades later, eighteen-year-old Marijohn Shaw is spending her summer pumping gas, writing songs on her broken mandolin, and longing for a mother. Her father, Abe, has always sworn he was the last person to see Elle Harlow alive, but when a meteor strikes the woods of their sleepy Pennsylvania town and a piece of Elle’s past emerges from the wreckage, the truth of her disappearance sets fire to everything Marijohn believes about herself, her music, and her ability to love with abandon.

Doesn't it sound like a delicious mystery... it is catergorized as "coming of age" and "small town fiction", but also has reviewers talking about the story of being about friendship, love and forgiveness. It certainly has piqued my interest!  Published by Celadon Books on March 3rd and on my wishlist now!

First Lines Friday... Where Some Stories Stretch Across Generations

The taxi, an old Rover smelling of old cigarette smoke, trundled along the empty, country road at an unhurried pace. It was early afternoon at the very end of February, a magic winter day of bitter cold, frost, and pale, cloudless skies. The sun shone, sending long shadows, but there was little warmth in it, and the sloughed fields lay hard as iron. 

...The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

"At the end of a long and useful life, Penelope Keeling's prized possession is The Shell Seekers, painted by her father, and symbolizing her unconventional life, from bohemian childhood to wartime romance. When her grown children learn their grandfather's work is now worth a fortune, each has an idea as to what Penelope should do. But as she recalls the passions, tragedies, and secrets of her life, she knows there is only one answer...and it lies in her heart."

Recently, someone in a FB reading group I belong to, had just finished The Shell Seekers and thanked whoever recommended it because she said it was a phenomenal read. She had waited forever before actually reading it and couldn't understand why she waited so long... what's funny is, the same evening I read her post, I had actually found my copy of The Shell Seekers that I pulled out to photograph for my post about the demise of the mass market paperback. I must have bought that book over 15 years ago AND I still haven't read it...yet. Is it fate that I read that post after finding my copy on my bookshelf? Is it a coincidence that the story opens at the "very end of February" and I'm posting this the day before "the very end of February"? I guess I should get reading. BTW, I might pick up a newer copy because when I opened up that mass market paperback copy (from 1989), as pretty as it is, the text is SO SMALL! Is it these old eyes?? I never really noticed before. lol....

P.S. My friend had insisted that I read this because HE enjoyed it so much! 

 

First Lines Friday... House Hunting Will Never be the Same

 

"Ginny calls around ten, just as I'm hanging up with a client. She sounds urgent.

"Margo, it might be perfect" 

I have heard this before.

"Four bedrooms, renovated kitchen, great yard. Right over the DC line--before you ask, yes, it's in the top-choice neighborhood. And guess what? No one else knows about it! It's not listed yet."

That part--the "It's not listed" part--stops me mid-sip of coffee. It pulls me up from my littel desk by the apartment's floor-to-ceiling window, a hunk of bait just juicy enough to make me forget that it could be wrapped around a sharp, painful hook. Ian comes to a standstill in the kitchen, his hazel eyes zeroing in on me."

                                                             ...Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino

I have heard so many rave reviews of this book. Goodreads lists it as Fiction Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Horror. Horror?! Really? Well, all of it makes me want to read it now. Buying the perfect house could be competitive after all... Published last November by Celadon Books, Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino is on my TBR list and available at your favorite bookstore.

First Lines Friday... Romantasy with an enemies to lovers twist

 

"What if I jumped?

Balance on the edge of a sheer cliff, I stood at the mercy of this realm, wiggling my bare toes in the dirt beneath my feet. A strong gust of wind could tip me forward or backward. The slightest tremor in the earth, and I'd either fall.

or fly.

What if I jumped? Would anyone care? No. Not for me. Not for the wrong princess of Quentin."

                        ...Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry

This book has received so much praise from the book industry and readers that I just had to finally check it out. Devney Perry's writing is addictive... and I just had to buy this and start reading! Romantasy with an enemies to lovers twist and a powerful female lead player, this book should also be a fun read. You can find this at your favorite bookstore. Published by Entangled Publishing in May of last year. It's sequel, Rites of the Starling will be published April 7th! Stay tuned for my review!

First Lines Friday... a Romantasy to swoon over

 

I NEVER WOULD HAVE ENTERED the tunnels if I'd known what was going to happen. But that's the thing about making stupid decisions, they never seem that way at the time.

    ...Creatures of Chaos by Julie Hall

And with those two simple yet ominous lines, starts the story of Creatures of Chaos by Julie Hall, said to be "Perfect for fans of forbidden love, high-stakes games and everything supernatural". And I picked it up because the special edition hardcover is absolutely gorgeous! This is book one of a three book series. The 2nd book is available now, and the third book will be published on May 20th, 2026. So if you do read these and get totally addicted, book 3 isn't far behind. This isn't my typical read, but I really have been doing a lot of reading about these "Romantasy" books and they sound like so much fun. This is on top of my TBR pile and will be next in the reading cue. What's even better... if you want to try the genre, or if you are a fan already and want to read Creatures of Chaos, right now the Kindle version is only $3.99! 

BTW, Julie Hall writes these books and self publishes at Julie Hall Author! (so you are directly supporting the author!)

First Lines Friday...

 "Somewhere among the nestled fissures and cradling dark-blue bluffs, between towns such as Hazard, Hell-fer-Sartain, Kingdom Come, and Troublesome, comes the Book Woman.

     Steadfast, she rides her mule through the hollers to deliver books. Where shadow-draped days set between the hills before the blue hour dissolves into coal-dust skies and a new dawn welcomes the rare delights of a children's moon, the Book Woman pushes on."  

 The Mountains We Call Home by Kim Michele Richardson

If you loved The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and particularly loved the heroine Cussy, here comes a treat for all of us! The return of Cussy to her home! I loved the first book and so did everyone in my reading group! This is actually #3 in the story, but it is a standalone, so you didn't have to read the first 2 books to enjoy this one. Kim Michele Richardson is a great storyteller. Her writing is inviting and will have you totally absorbed in reading it without realizing it. I am so excited to start this one! I have an advanced copy of the eBook waiting for me for from the publisher,  Sourcebooks Landmarks! This will be at a bookstore near you April 26th! Put this on your TBR list!

Here's a blurb from the publisher...

In this standalone and companion novel to the The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek series, our heroine for the ages, legendary book woman, Cussy Lovett, returns home. A powerful testament of strength, survival, and the magic of the printed word, The Mountains We Call Home is wrapped into a vivid portrait of Kentucky examining incarceration and criminalization, exploring the effects on the poor and powerless, and tracing the societal consequences of fractured family bonds, along with nostalgic glimpses of a bustling, multifaceted Louisville, and heartwarming portraits of reading efforts in every facet of life. 

Meticulously researched and richly detailed with a new cast of absorbing and complex characters, this beautifully rendered, authentic Kentucky tale is gritty and heartbreaking and infused with hope, spirit, and courage known only to those with no way out.

 

#TheMountainsWeCallHomeTheBookWomansLegacy  #NetGalley #FirstLinesFriday

First Lines Friday...

  "Fingers clutching the steering wheel, the mother sat in her car, staring at the house. A narrow, rickety little shotgun shack that had somehow stood there for more than a hundred years. A sagging roof to match the sagging, postage-stamp front porch. Narrow clapboard siding that hadn't seen a fresh coat of paint in a generation. The front windows were not quite square in the wall. No light shone through the dirty glass.

    How had it come to this?"

                                                                                                ....Bad Liar by Tami Hoag

First Lines Friday... The Wedding People by Alison Espach

"...now Phoebe stands before a nineteenth-century Newport hotel in an emerald silk dress, the only item in her closet she can honestly say she still loves, probably because it was the one thing she had never worn. She and her husband never did anything fancy enough for it. They were professors. They were easygoing. Relaxed. So comfortable by the fire with the little cat on their laps. They liked regular things, whatever was on tap, whatever was on TV, whatever was in the fridge, whatever shirt looked the most normal, because wasn't that the point of clothing? To prove that you were normal? To prove that every day, no matter what, you were a person who could put on a shirt?

   But that morning, before she got on the plane, Phoebe woke and knew she was no longer normal. Yet she made toast. Took a shower. Dried her hair. Gathered her lecture notes for her second day of the fall semester. Opened her closet and looked at all the clothes she once bought simply because they looked like shirts a professor should wear to work. Rows of solid-colord blouses, the female versions of things her husband wore. She pulled out a gray one, held it up in front of the mirror, but could not bring herself to put it on. Could not go to work and stand at the office printer and hold her face in a steady expression of interest while her collegue talked at length about the surprising importance of cheese in medieval theology.

   Instead, she slipped on the emerald dress..."

                                    The Wedding People by Alison Espach

This book has gotten so much great buzz and was a Jenna Book Pick in last August. It is in my TBR pile and I'm really looking forward to sinking my teeth into it. It's all about love and friendship... what do you think about the excerpt? Does it make you want to read more? It did me...

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