First Lines Friday – March 13, 2020

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers 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

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First Lines:

The sun had not set on the Amber Empire for a thousand tides. But that didn’t mean my world knew nothing of darkness.

Or violence.

The Skyclad platoon bore down on the convoy beneath a sky speckled with blood and charcoal. Bright metal armor glinted red in the twilight. Hoof beats on packed earth echoed the drum of my heart against my ribs. I reached for the amulet at my neck, letting the familiarity of its skin-warmed planes calm my twisting words.

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Do you recognize the lines?

The First Lines Friday Book is:

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Synopsis:

Sylvie has always known she deserves more. Out in the permanent twilight of the Dusklands, her guardians called her power to create illusions a curse. But Sylvie knows it gives her a place in Coeur d’Or, the palais of the Amber Empress and her highborn legacies.

So Sylvie sets off toward the Amber City, a glittering jewel under a sun that never sets, to take what is hers.

But her hope for a better life is quickly dimmed. The empress invites her in only as part of a wicked wager among her powerful courtiers. Sylvie must assume a new name, Mirage, and begin to navigate secretive social circles and deadly games of intrigue in order to claim her spot. Soon it becomes apparent that nothing is as it appears and no one, including her cruel yet captivating sponsor, Sunder, will answer her questions. As Mirage strives to assume what should be her rightful place, she’ll have to consider whether it is worth the price she must pay. (Goodreads)

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This is the first book in the Amber & Dusk series, and I recently borrowed it from the library. I love, love, love the first three sentences of the book. And the imagery in the first lines! Here are my faves:

“The sun had not set on the Amber Empire for a thousand tides.“

“…a sky speckled with blood and charcoal”

“Hoof beats on packed earth echoed the drum of my heart against my ribs.“

So fabulous! I just love Selene’s style! She drew me in just from these lines, and I loved the book!

Have you read the story? What did you think?

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