First Lines Fridays

FIRST LINES FRIDAY

First Lines Friday is a weekly book meme hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

Once again, it’s Friday!

Father’s Day is this weekend and I’ve nary a clue on what to get my father other than knowing that today’s the last day I can either order online with hopes that it’ll reach by Sunday or I find something during my lunch break walk.

At this point, I’ve forfeited to the fact that I have about 3-4 books started and reading at the same time. I guess my little reading slump has resulted in me book jumping and mood reading! Today’s lines for First Line Fridays are from an audiobook [current read] from Netgalley. It’s a book that includes the narrator half singing, half speaking the lines from Baby Shark…so you know you’re in for a good time!

Can you guess what the book is?

THIS WEEK’S LINES:

“At half past eight in the evening, the musicians played “Ahesta Bero,” prompting bride and groom to enter the wedding hall after hours of symbolic isolation. Qasim Nadar, along with the three hundred other guests, got to his feet and turned to watch the bridal procession. Round tables and high-backed chairs with white cloth covers filled the cavernous event space, leaving a wide central passage.”

ENJOYED THAT PREVIEW? THIS WEEK’S BOOK IS…

Sons of Valor (Tier One Shared-World #1) by Brian Andrew and Jeffrey Wilson

Blurb

Sons of valor …

Navy SEAL Keith ”Chunk” Redman has been one of the military’s top doorkickers since the day he pinned on his trident: loyal, single-minded, lethal. Tasked to lead a new, covert team of Tier One SEALs — the most elite special operators in the world — Chunk can no longer simply rely on the status quo. To safeguard America, he needs help to stay a step ahead of its adversaries.

Brilliant at spotting patterns in the data that others miss, ex-CIA analyst Whitney Watts sees evidence of a troubling link between illicit Chinese arms sales and an attack on a US military convoy in Afghanistan. If she’s right, it would portend not only massive casualties, but a devastating threat to global stability.

Sons of war …

From the ashes of a never-ending war, a new generation of terrorists has arisen: sophisticated, tech-savvy, and hiding in plain sight among America’s allies. Battered by the Taliban and by the West, they call themselves al Qadr — Power and Destiny — and they’re determined to wrest back control of their homeland. Armed with a powerful combat drone, they can strike with deadly precision at US forces in the region — but their ambitions reach far, far beyond that.

A new legacy …

The new Tier One’s first mission will require them to not only prove themselves, but to stop an enemy who’s using military tactics against them. Chunk and his team aren’t just the tip of the spear; they’re America’s first, last, and best counterterrorism defense. And they couldn’t have arrived at a more urgent — and perilous — time.

First Lines Fridays

FIRST LINES FRIDAY

First Lines Friday is a weekly book meme hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

Once again, it’s Friday! The week always flies by so fast! Granted, I didn’t have work on Monday, so maybe that’s why…

This week’s First Lines Friday comes from the book that got me started in my favorite genre: mystery thrillers! I picked this book up from my college’s free books book cart on my way out of the library one day. Safe to say, I devoured the book and quickly fell in love with mystery thrillers, PI, forensics, and police procedural books! I know that First Line Fridays are generally for your current reads or your TBR, but I started this series in the middle so I’m placing this book back on my TBR for a reread so that I can get back into the series (from the start this time!)
Can you guess what the book is from the first line? 

THIS WEEK’S LINES:

“Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they’re nervous. By definition, they’re all first-timers.”

ENJOYED THAT PREVIEW? THIS WEEK’S BOOK IS…

Gone Tomorrow (Jack Reacher #13) by Lee Child

Blurb (Oh look…the first few lines are also in the blurb…)

Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they’re nervous. By definition they’re all first-timers.

There are twelve things to look for: No one who has worked in law enforcement will ever forget them.

New York City. The subway, two o’clock in the morning. Jack Reacher studies his fellow passengers. Four are OK. The fifth isn’t.

The train brakes for Grand Central Station. Will Reacher intervene, and save lives? Or is he wrong? Will his intervention cost lives – including his own?

First Line Friday

First Lines Friday

First Lines Friday is a weekly book meme hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

It’s Friday! I have a lot to do this weekend and hoping to squeeze some reading in, but after finishing a big book, I feel more than motivated again. My reading slump has been lifted! Right on time too!

This week’s lines come from a paperback book I have in my mini book shelf next to my bed that I lovingly call and use as a nightstand. I have zero idea where this book came from because I have no recollection of buying it, but it’s been on my shelf forever and I keep meaning to read it…eventually.

This Week’s Lines:

” ‘You’re here, aren’t you, to tell us everything we do wrong?’
Prison Superintendent Shaukat Abbas posed his words as a question but the irritated tone of this voice made it clear they were an accusation. Abbas leaned back in a shabby office chair behind a worn, gunmetal-gray desk inside the drab, institutional walls of the warden’s office at the provincial prison and lit a Morven Gold cigarette. He did not offer one to the guest seated before him.”

Enjoyed that preview? This week’s book is…

Duplicity (Brooke Grant #1) by Newt Gingrich and Pete Earley

Blurb

The greatest nightmare for the free world today would be a master terrorist hiding somewhere, controlling and coordinating radical Islamic groups at the highest level around the globe.

In Duplicity, the newest thriller from former Speaker of the House and bestselling author Newt Gingrich, such an invisible hand overseeing havoc worldwide plays a major role. Gingrich has teamed with former Washington Post reporter and bestselling author Pete Earley to create a highly plausible mix of domestic and global action in this ripped-from-the-headlines thriller.

And of course, it’s set during an American presidential election.

When President Sally Allworth decides to reestablish America’s Mogadishu embassy in Somalia weeks before Election Day, her challenger says she is playing politics with American lives. That turns out to be true when the embassy is attacked and hostages are taken. Embassy station chief Gunter Conner and Marine captain Brooke Grant end up the unlikely survivors of this Benghazi-style attack. Suddenly, they are the only hope for saving their captured colleagues.

The firestorm of drama is compelling, set off by the intersection of Washington power and politics, a fragile third-world Islamic country, and Somali Americans here at home.

Only Newt Gingrich’s unique in-depth knowledge of the political realities of friend and foe could weave such a spellbinding tale of events and personalities, one that could actually happen . . . if America’s leaders aren’t wary of a world full of Duplicity.

First Lines Friday

First Lines Friday is a weekly book meme hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

Hoooo boy! This week has been a true, trying and tough one, but alas…the weekend is here! And before we can enjoy a nibble of this corporate world treat of ours, let’s take a look at this week’s First Lines Friday around a book in which one of the themes…is about this corporate society we humans live in.

The review for this book will be dropping tomorrow 😉

This Week’s Lines:

“You’re scare. You knew today was coming, but you thought it would be easier to do what needs to be done. You thought you’d find yourself overwhelmed with adrenaline and ready to complete the task at hand. You know nothing happens without hard work. Your mother used to say that the only guarantee any living thing has is that each moment of its life will be spent in a desperate fight to justify its existence.”

Enjoyed that preview? This week’s book is…

I Am Not a Wolf by Dan Sheehan

Blurb

Life is good! You have a job, an apartment in a nice part of town, and an online dating profile that’s recently yielded as many as three matches. From the outside, it would appear you’re a human man that has all the trappings of a stable and functional life. But you also have a secret. You’re not a human man at all. You’re a wolf.

Assume the role of one of nature’s greatest predators, just barely maintaining a fake identity as a part of the human workforce. Each choice you make in this interactive story is crucial to your survival and, more importantly, your burgeoning career in the corporate world. Will you navigate water-cooler gossip without arousing suspicion? Can you go on a date without bringing up how much you love ham? Or is it perhaps time to throw this human life to the wind and return to the woods from whence you came? These choices and many more await you in this story about trying to find your place in a world that barely makes sense to you. 

First Lines Friday

First Lines Friday is a weekly book meme hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

Happy Friday! I swear yesterday was just Sunday, but hey! That just means that the week flew by and I can look forward to the weekend again!

Alas, I’m still reading the same book from the last First Line Friday, so instead of pulling from a current read, I’m pulling off a random book from my bookshelf.

This week’s lines:

When a high-powered rifle bullet hits living flesh it makes a distinctive—pow WHOP—sound that is unmistakable even at tremendous distance. There is rarely an echo or fading reverberation or the tailing rumbling hum that is the sound of a miss. The guttural boom rolls over the terrain but stops sharply in a close-ended way, as if jerked back. A hit is blunt and solid like an airborne grunt. When the sound is heard and identified, it isn’t easily forgotten.

Enjoyed that preview?
This book is…

Open Season by C.J. Box

Blurb

Joe Pickett is the new game warden in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming, a town where nearly everyone hunts and the game warden–especially on like Joe who won’t take bribes or look the other way–is far from popular. When he finds a local hunting outfitter dead, splayed out on the woodpile behind his state-owned home, he takes it personally. There had to be a reason that the outfitter, with whom he’s had run-ins before, chose his backyard, his woodpile to die in. Even after the “outfitter murders,” as they have been dubbed by the local press after the discovery of the two more bodies, are solved, Joe continues to investigate, uneasy with the easy explanation offered by the local police.

His young daughter finds secret pets, and contributes to the dialog. As Joe digs deeper into the murders, he soon discovers that the outfitter brought more than death to his backdoor: he brought Joe an endangered species, thought to be extinct, which is now living in his woodpile. But if word of the weasel gets out, it will destroy any chance of InterWest, a multi-national natural gas company, building an oil pipeline that would bring the company billions of dollars across Wyoming, jobs to locals, including Joe, through the mountains and forests of Twelve Sleep. The closer Joe comes to the truth behind the outfitter murders, the endangered species and InterWest, the closer he comes to losing everything he holds dear. 

First Line Friday

Ooooh yeah baby 😎

It’s the last day of April!

It’s National Boba Day!

And it’s FRIYAY!

And you know what that means! It’s time for First Line Friday!

First Lines Friday is a weekly book meme hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

This week’s Lines:

A large, bronze bell rang loudly and quickly and filled the air of this small town in the late afternoon sun. Usually, the church bell tolled every hour on the hour, but this was a different bell. This was a symbolic bell that put joy in the hearts of the children of Fellowship. It was the final school bell before summer began, and each and every child anticipated hearing it. (Gosh, the teachers did, too…)

Enjoyed that preview?

The Sheriff (The Fellowship Book #2) by David Scott Meyers

Remember that book with the fun font choices and hand drawn illustrations? I was lukewarm about the first book but it had a draw in it that pulled me back. Here’s to fulfilling that promise because I refuse to let myself leave this series/trilogy at just book 1. I have to find out what happens!

This’ll be my first read of May!

Blurb

Two years have gone by in the surrounding area of Fellowship. Huey Morgan continues to feel unappreciated in his role as the deputy for the sheriff’s department of Duck County. Playing second fiddle to Sheriff Absalom Holmes, a well-respected constable who has been getting too comfortable in his job and becoming lazier and lazier, Huey feels the weight of the work falling solely on his shoulders. Late one, hot summer night, Huey is awakened by a phone call, which leads to a gruesome discovery that will shake the foundations of this small town…

Links

Review to Book 1: The Contractor

Amazon: amazon.com/Sheriff-Fellowship-Book-2-ebook/dp/B08G76J56L

Goodreads: goodreads.com/book/show/56502052-the-sheriff

Author Website: finscottpublishing.weebly.com/

First Line Friday

Happy Friday! This day has been a day I’ve been waiting for all week!
I spent the entire previous waking weekend on doing my family’s and my taxes so this weekend I get to spoil myself with relaxation and reads.

First Lines Friday is a weekly book meme hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

This Week’s Lines:

Dark, moonless night, in the dog days of early August.

A funky warm drizzle kept the world quiet and wet and close.

A. Wayne Sharf slid across Winky Butterfield’s pasture like a greased weasel headed for a chicken house. He carried two heavy nylon leashes with choke-chain collars, two nylon muzzles with Velcro straps, and a center-cup pork chop.

Like the preview? This book is…

Deadline by John Sandford; Virgil Flowers Book # 8

Blurb from Goodreads

It’s Virgil Flowers! And this is one of the thrilling novels in the #1 “New York Times” bestselling series.

In Southeast Minnesota, down on the Mississippi, a school board meeting is coming to an end. The board chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed, due to personnel issues. “Issues” is the correct word. The proposal up for a vote before them is whether to authorize the killing of a local reporter. The vote is four to one in favor.

Meanwhile, not far away, Virgil Flowers is helping out a friend by looking into a dognapping, which seems to be turning into something much bigger and uglier—a team of dognappers supplying medical labs—when he gets a call from Lucas Davenport. A murdered body has been found—and the victim is a local reporter. . . .

First Line Friday

Happy Friday!
Happy Chinese New Year!
It’s been a long long week, but I have a 4 day weekend to look forward too so I’m not complaining 😎

First Lines Friday is a weekly book meme hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

This Week’s Lines:

Dale and I must choose. Foul weather moving across the Texas plain between Forth Worth and Wichita Falls, faster, more severe than predicted, blows away a warm, sunny morning. Temperatures plummet, the sky darkens, and rain begins to freeze. One hundred miles south are the safety and warmth of our Dallas apartment. Equidistant to the north are the brunt of the storm, Lake Texoma, and a boat.

Like the preview? This book is…

River Queens: Saucy Boat, stout mates, spotted dog, America by Alexander Watson

Goodreads Summary:

Two men and a spotted dog restore a vintage Chris-Craft motor yacht and launch across the American Heartland from Texas to Ohio. The restoration, the people they met along the way, and life in an America which few know exists are the story of River Queens: Saucy boat, stout mates, spotted dog, America.

First Line Friday

Happy Friday! Rejoice! The weekend is here!

First Lines Friday is a weekly book meme hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

This week’s lines:

The ancient Humvee rattled as it hit another pothole. On the other side of the vehicle’s window clouds of grit obscured the view, kicked up as they rumbled through the dry soil of the Dust. Tumbleweeds and rabbit-brush crunched like bird bones beneath the tires.

Aidan flipped through his new personnel roster on the holographic screen projected from the tablet in his lap. The nails of his free hand scratched out erratic rhythms against the fabric of his pants.

His eyes skittered over the flickering images for the third time, trying to memorize names and faces. He’d only needed one read-through of the attached disciplinary files. Those he wasn’t going to forget in a hurry.

Like the preview? Well this book iiiss…

The Hands We’re Given by O.E. Tearmann

Goodreads Summary:

Aidan Headly never wanted to be the man giving orders. That’s fine with the Democratic State Force base he’s been assigned to command: they don’t like to take orders. Nicknamed the Wildcards, they used to be the most effective base against the seven Corporations owning the former United States in a war that has lasted over half a century. Now the Wildcards are known for creative insubordination, chaos, and commanders begging to be reassigned. Aidan is their last chance. If he can pull off his assignment as Commander and yank his ragtag crew of dreamers and fighters together, maybe they can get back to doing what they came to do: fighting for a country worth living in.
Life’s a bitch. She deals off the bottom of the deck. But you play the hands you’re given.

First Line Friday

08.21.2020 > Past, Present, and Future

About a year ago, I was wandering through some Etsy shops and had come across a little shop called FortuneJars that sold jars of origami stars with prompts in the middle. Some jars were daily positive affirmations, some were self-care stars, and there was even a jar of TBR prompts! Well, bored out of my mind, with no books lined up as my next read, and not yet introduced to the book [writers/readers] community (now I have TOO many books I want to read), I was inspired and wanted to start my own little TBR jar. Too bad I didn’t have a jar. So instead, I printed out strips of first line quotes, folded them up, and threw them into a…..ziplock bag :’)

First Line Friday is nothing new, but it’s fun, easy, and anyone can participate. All you have to do is grab a book, find the first line/sentence, and share it with others! Remember to put up the titles and authors so others can find the books too!

This week, I wanted to share three quotes: One for a book I’ve already read, one for a book I’m currently reading, and one for a book that’s in my TBR.

Past: Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

Adamat wore his coat tight, top buttons fastened against a wet night air that seemed to want to drown him.

Present: The Eye of The World by Robert Jordan

The palace still shook occasionally as the earth rumbled in memory, groaned as if it would deny what had happened.

Future: Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

The stains of rust seemed to map blood seas on the black, pocked surface of Mock’s Vane.