First Line Fridays is a feature hosted by Hoarding Books.
TGIF, everyone!
Today my first line is from a book I am currently reading:
New York City May 2013
The evening had turned blue and soft, the way New York does in May, and I decided to walk to the book club and save the bus fare. According to Mimi’s Facebook message, the group was gathering at her apartment on Park Avenue, deep inside the plummy center of the Seventies—at least thirty minutes from my place on Riverside Drive—but I didn’t mind. I was a New Yorker, I could walk all day. Anyway, a brisk hike (so I told myself, scrolling through the Mimi message chain for the millionth time that afternoon) would settle my nerves.
I adored The Forgotten Room written by these three authors. I reviewed it on Goodreads and gave it five stars. I also happen to love each of these authors individually, and how they manage to write so seamlessly together, I will never know. I was super excited to see a new effort from these three, and so far, it is off to an amazing start.
Synopsis from Goodreads:
From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Forgotten Room comes a captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that links the lives of three women across a century—two deep in the past, one in the present—to the doomed passenger liner, RMS Lusitania.
May 2013
Her finances are in dire straits and bestselling author Sarah Blake is struggling to find a big idea for her next book. Desperate, she breaks the one promise she made to her Alzheimer’s-stricken mother and opens an old chest that belonged to her great-grandfather, who died when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-Boat in 1915. What she discovers there could change history. Sarah embarks on an ambitious journey to England to enlist the help of John Langford, a recently disgraced Member of Parliament whose family archives might contain the only key to the long-ago catastrophe. . . .April 1915
Southern belle Caroline Telfair Hochstetter’s marriage is in crisis. Her formerly attentive industrialist husband, Gilbert, has become remote, pre-occupied with business . . . and something else that she can’t quite put a finger on. She’s hoping a trip to London in Lusitania’s lavish first-class accommodations will help them reconnect—but she can’t ignore the spark she feels for her old friend, Robert Langford, who turns out to be on the same voyage. Feeling restless and longing for a different existence, Caroline is determined to stop being a bystander, and take charge of her own life. . . .Tessa Fairweather is traveling second-class on the Lusitania, returning home to Devon. Or at least, that’s her story. Tessa has never left the United States and her English accent is a hasty fake. She’s really Tennessee Schaff, the daughter of a roving con man, and she can steal and forge just about anything. But she’s had enough. Her partner has promised that if they can pull off this one last heist aboard the Lusitania, they’ll finally leave the game behind. Tess desperately wants to believe that, but Tess has the uneasy feeling there’s something about this job that isn’t as it seems. . . .
As the Lusitania steams toward its fate, three women work against time to unravel a plot that will change the course of their own lives . . . and history itself.
Please share with me the first line(s) of the book you are currently reading! I would love to read it! Have you read The Glass Ocean (or The Forgotten Room), or do you plan to? Happy Friday reading! ~ Jennifer THR
Sounds intriguing! I’ll have to check it out.
I’m featuring ‘Shadow Sister’ by Katherine Scott Jones on my blog today, but right now I’ve just started reading ‘The Raveling’ by Tamara Leigh. At last! I’ve been waiting to find the time to read this one!!
“He had lost a son he had not known he had–providing the child was his.”
Have a great weekend!
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Wow, what a cliffhanger! Thanks for sharing that with me! I hope you have a wonderful weekend, too!
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Happy Friday!
I am reading The Night Olivia Fell.
The first line is: I woke abruptly, dreams tumbling from me in cottony wisp. I am enjoying reading this one.
I have read The Forgotten Room and loved it.
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Thank you, Virginia! What a book! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on that one because you know I loved it! ♥️
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About to start this one…..Her Body and Other Parties.
“In the beginning, I know I want him before he does.”
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Oh my, Marialyce, that sounds intriguing and racy! Can’t wait to see what you think!
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Sound interesting! Happy reading!
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Thank you, Joy!
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There is always a tension in a novel where the heroine is on a ship that you know meets a bad end …
I’m sharing the first line from Justice by Emily Conrad on my blog today. It was an unexpected read – the cover gave me the impression it was a historical romance, but it was most definitely a contemporary.
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So true, Iola! So much tension! I’ll come by and check out more about your read!
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Wow, those are three heavyweight authors! Thanks for sharing.
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They are, Jonetta, and their writing meshes together beautifully!
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Happy Friday!😊 I’ve never read either of those books but I will hunt them down today! You always have the best books!💖💖
My first lines come from a book I will be reading shortly, Unleashed by Donna Kauffman.
Emma Lafferty’s life had gone to the dogs. Literally. And to the cats. And the parakeets, goldfish, hamsters, even the occasional potbelly pig. What it and her fledgling pet-sitting service hadn’t gone to was her bank account. Not enough, anyway.
Have a great weekend and happy reading!😊📚💖
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Thanks, Sus! I think you’ll enjoy them for sure! I love the sounds of your book! All those animals! ♥️ Happy weekend and happy reading to you!
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I’ve seen the cover of this book numerous times Jennifer, and just realized it’s a collaboration. It sounds wonderful. I’ve wanted to read a book about a doomed ocean liner.
My two lines from Thread and Gone, a cozy by Lea Wait…
“The simple folded leather packet looked old. Old, cracked, and very out of place, as it lay innocently on the bright red Fourth of July tablecloth.” 😊
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I’m intrigued by your cozy, Laurie! Thank you for sharing it with me. ♥️ I am loving these collaborative authors. I have read some great ones! I hope you have a wonderful weekend! (Even if it will be HOT!) 💕
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You’re welcome Jennifer. 💜 Lea Wait writes amazing cozy mysteries. I love this series. I highly recommend it. Thread and Gone is the third book in the series.
I’m counting down the days to Fall. I’ve had enough of this hot weather. 🙁
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Ive only read The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams so far.. 😀 And the first line from the book I’m reading: ‘Varya is thirteen’ from The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin 🙂
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Jee, I’ll have to come over and find your review of The Summer Wives! I have it from BOTM, but I haven’t read it yet. I LOVED The Immortalists! One of my favorite books this year. I hope you enjoy it too!
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Getting into it now 😁
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Sounds good!
I’m reading The Witch Elm by Tana French. First line:
I’ve always considered myself to be, basically, a lucky person.
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I have that book, Darinda! I cannot wait to see what you think! Happy Friday!
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How intriguing – I’ve never read a book by three authors before! And I liked the first lines you quoted. Here’s mine…
“That obliquity of the earth with reference to the sun which makes twilight linger both at dawn and dusk in northern latitudes prolongs summer and winter with the same uncertainty in a dawdling autumn and a tardy spring.”
Awful, isn’t it? 😂 Fortunately, it’s not all like that! It’s from a Scottish classic, Imagined Corners by Willa Muir.
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Yeah, it’s a little too much? But it’s good to know it’s all like that, and I still need to read some Scottish classics! These authors write seamlessly together, and they don’t tell their secrets of how they do it so successfully!
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I misread “Robert Langford” as “Robert Langdon” and was like, “wait, what’s Dan Brown’s character doing on Lusitania??” 😂 And I’ve never seen a three-author collaboration before–glad to hear it worked out!
My line is from Empire of Silence (which I decided I wouldn’t finish today lol):
“The Light of that murdered sun still burns me. I see it through my eyelids, blazing out of history from that bloody day, hinting at fires indescribable. It is like something holy, as if it were the light of God’s own heaven that burned the world and billions of lives with it. I carry that light always, seared into the back of my mind. I make no excuses, no denials, no apologies for what I have done. I know what I am.”
I really like this opening but there’s 600 more pages of incredibly purple prose and I just couldn’t handle it. Happy Friday, Jennifer! ❤
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That’s too funny, Kathy! That is quite the purple prose, and it’s lovely in isolation, but I can’t do too much of it either. So you decided to put it down for now? I am a tough sell on a 600 page book anyway. I hope you love the next one you pick up, and I hope you have an amazing weekend! 💗
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Reblogged this on LIVING THE DREAM.
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Thank you, China!
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