First Line Friday (25): Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week is Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo.

Alex approached Black Elm as if she were sidling up to a wild animal, cautious in her walk up the long, curving driveway, careful not to show her fear. How many times had she made this walk? But today was different.

Goodreads synopsis

Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory―even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.

Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.

Thick with history and packed with Bardugo’s signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, violence, and all too real monsters.

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After reading Ninth House earlier this year and having a rather lukewarm opinion on it, I wasn't sure if I was going to bother picking up this sequel, but now that I'm a little under 100 pages into Hell Bent I think I'm glad that I'm continuing. I'm glad so far, anyway. You can add Hell Bent to your Goodreads TBR here!  

First Line Friday (24): Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week is Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.

Conscription Day is always the deadliest. Maybe that's why the sunrise is especially beautiful this morning--because I know it might be my last.

Goodreads synopsis

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

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I know, I know. Everybody has already read this book. But I'm just getting to it know and I'm excited to share the first line. I'm flying through the pages, too. So I'm excited that soon I'll be able to understand what all the hype is truly about. You can add Fourth Wing to your Goodreads TBR here!

First Line Friday (23): The Dinner by Herman Koch

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week is The Dinner by Herman Koch.

We were going out to dinner. I won't say which restaurant, because next time it might be full of people who've come to see whether we're there.

Goodreads synopsis

It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse - the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.

Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner promises to be the topic of countless dinner party debates. Skewering everything from parenting values to pretentious menus to political convictions, this novel reveals the dark side of genteel society and asks what each of us would do in the face of unimaginable tragedy.

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I'm coming up to the last hundred or so pages of this novel, so my review should be out soon! You can add The Dinner to your TBR here!

First Line Friday (22): Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling.

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

Goodreads synopsis 

When a letter arrives for unhappy but ordinary Harry Potter, a decade-old secret is revealed to him that apparently he's the last to know. His parents were wizards, killed by a Dark Lord's curse when Harry was just a baby, and which he somehow survived. Leaving his unsympathetic aunt and uncle for Hogwarts, a wizarding school brimming with ghosts and enchantments, Harry stumbles upon a sinister mystery when he finds a three-headed dog guarding a room on the third floor. Then he hears of a missing stone with astonishing powers which could be valuable, dangerous - or both. An incredible adventure is about to begin!

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I'm sure everybody and their mother already knows the first line of the Harry Potter series, but it's my first time reading it, so I wanted to share anyway. You can add it to your Goodreads TBR here!

First Line Friday (21): What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week is What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher.

The mushroom's gills were the deep-red color of severed muscle, the almost-violet shade that contrasts so dreadfully with the pale pink of viscera. I had seen in an number of times in dead dear and dying soldiers, but it startled me to see it here.

Goodreads synopsis

When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruravia.


What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.

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As a reimagining of The Fall of The House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, it's only right to kick off the story mentioning the mushrooms that surround the house. This was my final spooky read of October and I absolutely loved it. If you're looking for a quick horror story, I would highly suggest this one. It released just last year on July 12, 2022, and you can add it to your Goodreads shelf here!

First Line Friday (20): Confessions of a Christmasholic by Joss Wood

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week is Confessions of a Christmasholic by Joss Wood.

'I love you, you love meeeeee...'

Sutton Alsop couldn't remember the next line to the song she'd sing to her younger half-siblings and wrinkled her nose. Given she'd belted it out about a million times, it should be burned on her mental hard drive. Maybe if she tried again. 'I love you, you love me...'

Goodreads synopsis

Sutton Alsop hates Christmas. So much so, when confronted with a house that looks like Santa himself vomited Christmas all over it, she accidentally (drunkenly) destroys every fairy light, fake reindeer and candy cane in sight. Unfortunately for Sutton, this house belongs to none other than Gus Langston, single dad and owner of the village’s year-round Christmas shop – aka Mr Christmas himself. But Mr Christmas has a secret only Sutton knows… With the two of them forced together for the holidays, the sparks between them are hot enough to melt even the coldest of hearts!

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Confessions of a Christmasholic was published on October 19, 2023, and my review of this little Christmas romance will be published tomorrow! You can add Confessions of a Christmasholic to your Goodreads TBR here!

First Line Friday (19): All These Sunken Souls: A Black Horror Anthology

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week is All These Sunken Souls by Kalynn Bayron; Ashia Monet; Liselle Sambury; Sami Ellis; Joel Rochester; Joelle Wellington; Brent C. Lambert; Donyae Coles; Ryan Douglass.

What is the punishment for murder? I guess it depends on who you are and how much money you have.

Goodreads synopsis

The stories in All These Sunken Souls explore horror through a blend of genres—from the thoughtful to the terrifying—as the reader wanders farther and farther from reality. By delivering a multitude of profound nightmares, this YA horror anthology by established and debut authors contains something for every horror fan—and for anyone who dares to open these pages.

From haunted Victorian mansions, temporal monster-infested asylums, ravaging zombie apocalypses, to southern gothic hoodoo practitioners, the anthology features stories from Kalynn Bayron, Donyae Coles, Ryan Douglass, Sami Ellis, Brent Lambert, Ashia Monet, Circe Moskowitz, Joel Rochester, Liselle Sambury, and Joelle Wellington.

All These Sunken Souls tackles a genre that historically has tokenized and exploited Black characters and opens discussion on how horror translates into the current time we live in.

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All These Sunken Souls: A Black Horror Anthology will be available on October 17, 2023. You can add it to your Goodreads TBR here!

First Line Friday (18): The Fortune Seller by Rachel Kapelke Dale

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week is The Fortune Seller by Rachel Kapelke-Dale.

The thing about the Fool? He’s excited. But he’s also scared. It’s like . . . he knows there’s an adventure in front of him. But he doesn’t know what it will bring. And he doesn’t know if he’s ready.

Goodreads synopsis

Middle-class Rosie Macalister has worked for years to fit in with her wealthy friends on the Yale equestrian team. But when she comes back from her junior year abroad with newfound confidence, she finds that the group has been infiltrated by a mysterious Annelise Tattinger.

A talented tarot reader and a brilliant rider, the enigmatic Annelise is unlike anyone Rosie has ever met. But when one of their friends notices money disappearing from her bank account, Annelise's place in the circle is thrown into question. As the girls turn against each other, the group’s unspoken tensions and assumptions lead to devastating consequences.

It's only after graduation, when Rosie begins a job at a Manhattan hedge fund, that she begins to uncover Annelise's true identity––and how her place in their elite Yale set was no accident. Is it too late for Rosie to put right what went wrong, or does everyone's luck run out at some point? Set in the heady days of the early aughts, The Fortune Seller is a haunting examination of class, ambition, and the desires that shape our lives.

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The Fortune Seller will be available on February 13, 2024, and you can add it to your TBR here

First Line Friday (17): Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week is Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin, and here is the first line: 

I did stand up comedy for eighteen years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four were spent in wild success.

Goodreads Synopsis

In the midseventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of "why I did stand-up and why I walked away."

Emmy and Grammy Award winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been a writer. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written.

At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott's Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes.

Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times, the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies.

Throughout the text, Martin has placed photographs, many never seen before. Born Standing Up is a superb testament to the sheer tenacity, focus, and daring of one of the greatest and most iconoclastic comedians of all time.

If you're a fan of Steve Martin, I would suggest adding Born Standing Up to your TBR here

First Line Friday (16): Night of the Living Queers: 13 Tales of Terror Delight by Ryan Douglass, Kalynn Bayron, Sara Farizan, Kosoko Jackson, Tara Sim, Rebecca Kim Wells, Trang Thanh Tran, Vanessa Montalban, Em X. Liu, Maya Gittelman ,Ayida Shonibar

 First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

This week for First Line Friday I'm bringing you the first line of  Night of the Living Queers: 13 Tales of Terror Delight by Ryan Douglass, Kalynn Bayron, Sara Farizan, Kosoko Jackson, Tara Sim, Rebecca Kim Wells, Trang Thanh Tran, Vanessa Montalban, Em X. Liu,  Maya Gittelman, and Ayida Shonibar. 

Her grandmother told her once that the sea gets what it wants. If you go against it, it’ll show you who rules.

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Goodreads synopsis

Night of the Living Queers is a YA horror anthology that explores a night when anything is possible exclusively featuring queer authors of color putting fresh spins on classic horror tropes and tales.

No matter its name or occasion, Halloween is more than a Hallmark holiday, it’s a symbol of transformation. NIGHT OF THE LIVING QUEERS is a YA horror anthology that explores how Halloween can be more than just candies and frights, but a night where anything is possible. Each short story will be told through the lens of a different BIPOC teen and the Halloween night that changes their lives forever. Creative, creepy, and queer, this collection will bring fresh terror, heart, and humor to young adult literature.

Contributors include editors Alex Brown and Shelly Page, Kalynn Bayron, Ryan Douglass, Sara Farizan, Maya Gittelman, Kosoko Jackson, Em Liu, Vanessa Montalban, Ayida Shonibar, Tara Sim, Trang Thanh Tran, and Rebecca Kim Wells.

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Add Night of the Living Queers to your Goodreads TBR and look out for its release on August 29, 2023!

First Line Friday (15): Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

This week for First Line Friday I'm bringing you the first line of Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah.

The land had always been parched but its thirst for blood was learned.

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Goodreads Synopsis

Andrea Hannah's Where Darkness Blooms is a supernatural thriller about an eerie town where the sunflowers whisper secrets and the land hungers for blood.

The town of Bishop is known for exactly two things: recurring windstorms and an endless field of sunflowers that stretches farther than the eye can see. And women—missing women. So when three more women disappear one stormy night, no one in Bishop is surprised. The case is closed and their daughters are left in their dusty shared house with the shattered pieces of their lives. Until the wind kicks up a terrible secret at their mothers’ much-delayed memorial.

With secrets come the lies each of the girls is forced to confront. After caring for the other girls, Delilah would like to move on with her boyfriend, Bennett, but she can’t bear his touch. Whitney has already lost both her mother and her girlfriend, Eleanor, and now her only solace is an old weathervane that seems to whisper to her. Jude, Whitney's twin sister, would rather ignore it all, but the wind kicks up her secret too: the summer fling she had with Delilah's boyfriend. And more than anything, Bo wants answers and she wants them now. Something happened to their mothers and the townsfolk know what it was. She’s sure of it.

Bishop has always been a strange town. But what the girls don’t know is that Bishop was founded on blood—and now it craves theirs.

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Add Where Darkness Blooms to your Goodreads TBR and look out for it's release on February 21, 2023

First Line Friday (14): The Rumor Game by Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

This week for First Line Friday I'm bringing you the first line of The Rumor Game by Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra

Goodreads synopsis

All it takes is one spark to start a blaze.

At Foxham Prep, a posh private school for the children of DC’s elite, a single rumor has the power to ruin a life.

Nobody knows that better than Bryn. She used to have it all—the perfect boyfriend, a bright future in politics, and even popularity, thanks to her best friend, cheer captain Cora. Then one mistake sparked a scandal that burned it all to the ground.

Now it’s the start of a new school year and the spotlight has shifted: It’s geeky Georgie, newly hot after a summer makeover, whose name is on everyone’s lips. When a rumor ignites, Georgie rockets up the school’s social hierarchy, pitting her and Cora against each other. It grants her Foxham stardom . . . but it also makes her a target.

As the rumors grow and morph, blazing like wildfire through the school’s social media, all three girls’ lives begin to unravel. But one person close to the drama has the power to stop the gossip in its tracks. The question is—do they even want to?

From Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra, authors of the Tiny Pretty Things duology (now a Netflix series), comes the edge-of-your-seat social thriller everyone will be talking about.

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"The thing about this year is that I might do anything to get my old life back."

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I just recently finished this book and I really liked it! My review will be written, and of course, published, soon, so look out for that post!

You can add The Rumor Game to your Goodreads TBR here and look our for the book's official release, expected March 1, 2022!

First Line Friday (13): The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

This week for First Line Friday I'm bringing you the first line of The Grimrose Girls:

Goodreads synopsis

The Descendants meets Pretty little liars.

Four troubled friends, One murdered girl... and a dark fate that may leave them all doomed.

After the mysterious death of their best friend, Ella, Yuki, and Rory are the talk of their elite school, Grimrose Académie. The police ruled it a suicide, but the trio are determined to find out what really happened.

When Nani Eszes arrives as their newest roommate, it sets into motion a series of events they couldn't have imagined. As the girls retrace their friend's last steps, they uncover dark secrets about themselves and their destinies, discovering they're all cursed to repeat the brutal and gruesome endings to their stories until they can break the cycle.

This contemporary take on classic fairytales reimagines heroines as friends attending the same school. While investigating the murder of their best friend, they uncover connections to their ancient fairytale curses and attempt to forge their own fate before it's too late.

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"The first day of school started with a funeral.

This was not, of course, the usual for the Grimrose Académie for Elite Students, whose student body mostly lived to their eighties, and went on to command corporate conglomerates or win Academy Awards, Nobel Prizes, and other such trifles."

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If this first line has captured your attention, you can add The Grimrose Girls to your Goodreads TBR here and watch for its release, expected on November 2, 2021!

First Line Friday (12): Friday the Sixteenth by Peter Coombs

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

This week my current read, and spotlight for First Line Friday is Friday the Sixteenth by Peter Coombs. I think this is a perfect time to post this book as my First Line Friday, because it's currently Friday the 13th. Posting about Friday the Sixteenth on Friday the Thirteenth just feels fitting to me.

Goodreads Synopsis

He stumbled across a web of lies. His conscience wouldn't let him walk away.

Andrew Packford, newly established as an antiques dealer, is enjoying life very much. He has a career that suits his laid back nature, a passion for antiques and business is booming.

Then, as is often the case, fate comes calling. While restoring an item of furniture he finds an old newspaper article together with a photograph of four people. Two men two women. He has no idea just how much these four strangers will change his life.

One of them kills people.

One of them turns a blind eye.

The other two might just be Andrew’s salvation.

The discovery opens a Pandora’s box and while a lesser man might have walked away, that is not his way. If he didn’t stand up for what he thought was right who would? Friday the Sixteenth is a gripping read with a memorable character at its heart.

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"Friday the sixteenth. Two days before Sunday the eighteenth. He didn’t know it yet, but it would all start on Sunday and his life would never be the same again."

I love this as a first line. I think it's very effective at building suspense. Although at the time of writing this I'm only about 20% of the way through, this first line was successful at grabbing my attention.

First Line Friday (11): Bleed More, Bodymore by Ian Kirkpatrick

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

For this week's First Line Friday I have the first line from Bleed More, Bodymore by Ian Kirkpatrick.

""You sure pick the best places to break down, don't you, Way?" I'm saying to myself in the cab of a Bodymore tow truck as I pull to the west entrance of the park."

I've only just started this book but so far I'm enjoying it! It's release date is set for Halloween this year so I'm really hoping it delivers on some spooky vibes!

First Line Friday (10): The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

For this week's First Line Friday I have the first line from The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale

"You start out as potential energy and then you fall.
       

Before Nathalie emailed and offered to take me back, before I killed anyone, I saw variations of the same quotation everywhere: Paris is always a good idea. On mugs, on throw pillows, on Instagram. Always attributed to Audrey Hepburn, always in pink. I couldn’t escape it; everywhere I went, there were those fucking words."

I love this first line, it's a bold attention grabber. 

At the time of writing this I'm only about 13% through this book but so far I am in love with the writing and I can't wait to see how the story develops.

First Line Friday (9): Red Magnolia by Lucy Holden

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

For this week's First Line Friday I have the first line from Red Magnolia by Lucy Holden.

Goodreads 

"Dear Tessa, it's a year today since I watched you die. If one more person tells me not to feel guilty, I might actually lose it."

I'm a little bit more than halfway through this book, and I really like this as a first line. it really helps set the tone for the story.

Anyway, thank you for joining me on my 9th First Line Friday, and look out for the release of Red Magnolia on September 15, 2021!

First Line Friday (8): Smoke and Mirrors: The Trueheart by Helene Opocensky

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

This week's First Line Friday is coming from Smoke and Mirrors: The Trueheart by Helene Opocensky. It was released on October 10, 2020, and I'm currently reading an ARC from Netgalley.

"They had him cornered. There were three of them, two guys and a pretty, dark-haired girl. Corbin figured they were about his age--sixteen, maybe a little older. He looked at the girl again--well, maybe a little younger. It didn't really matter. What mattered was that they had him cornered, and he had to do something about it."

I like this as a first line because it jumps right into the the kind of character Corbin is, quick thinking and resourceful. 

First Line Friday (7): The Life and Deaths of Frankie D. by Colleen Nelson

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

Today's First Line Friday is coming from The Life and Deaths of Frankie D by Colleen Nelson. I just started this book two days ago, and I'm almost finished with it, so I'll be posting the review for it soon!

The first line is as follows:

"The dreams started the night of the break-in. Two weeks ago, my foster mom, Kris, and I had come home from a movie to find the front door open. Every room had been sifted through. My drawers had been dumped and the bed tossed. Kris's too. Nothing was missing, but Kris was rattled. Break-ins were unusual in our quiet neighborhood."

First Line Friday (6): Down World by Rebecca Phelps

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

       There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

This week, I'm reading Down World by Rebecca Phelps, and I am enjoying it so far. It's been recommended to fans of Stranger Things, and I can definitely see some similar vibes between the two.

The first line of this strange and interesting story is as follows:

"If Robbie were alive, he'd be a senior in high school. That was the thought that struck me when I entered East Township High on that August morning."

I think I've mentioned  this in past First Line Fridays, but I love when the first line of a book throws you right into something dramatic. So just like all the other times in the past, this first line had me hooked right from the start.