
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!
First Lines:
Zora had always wanted to be a hero. Honorable, selfless, brave. She used to think that with enough hope and belief, everything was possible. Tonight, she’d had enough of it.
Contrary to what stories told, being petty, revengeful, and deceitful felt amazing.
Do you recognize the lines?

Hint: It’s the first book in an upcoming fantasy series.

Still not sure? Here’s another hint:
It’s written by Day Leitao

The First Lines Friday book is:

Title: The Cup and the Prince
Author: Day Leitao
Series: Kingdom of Curses and Shadows (Book 1)
Page Length: 256
Publication Date: Oct. 15, 2020
Synopsis: One prince wants her out.
Another wants her as a pawn.
Someone wants her dead.
Zora wants to win the cup and tell them all to screw themselves.
Yes, 17-year-old Zora cheated her way into the Royal Games, but it was for a very good reason. Her ex-boyfriend thought she couldn’t attain glory on her own. Just because she was a girl. And he was the real cheater. So she took his place.
Now she’s competing for the legendary Blood Cup, representing the Dark Valley. It’s her chance to prove her worth and bring glory for her people. If she wins, of course.
But winning is far from easy. The younger prince thinks she’s a fragile damsel who doesn’t belong in the competition. Determined to eliminate her at all costs, he’s stacking the challenges against her. Zora hates him, hates him, hates him, and will do anything to prove him wrong.
The older prince is helping her, but the cost is getting Zora entangled in dangerous flirting games. Flirting, the last thing she wanted.
And then there’s someone trying to kill her.
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LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
Doesn’t this sound great? I’m just loving those first lines! What do you think? Comment below!
This was a nice post, allowing us to guess, keep on doing these 😄
Thanks! They’re a lot of fun! 🙂
This reminds me of Shielded!
Yes – I totally see that! I loved Shielded, and this one sounds so good!
Haha, that is a great first lines! Nice pick~
Thanks!! 🙂
Ahaha, I can’t believe I actually guessed this but I’d just checked out your wrap up post before this and I remembered the author’s name 😂 I love those first lines and the book sounds even better to me now! Will definitely be going on the TBR.
Nice! I enjoyed it. It had an interesting plot, and the characters are intriguing. Hopefully, the characters and plot will be more developed in the next book – I wanted a bit more in this one. Totally worth the read though!
I’m definitely curious about this one! Going to add it to my Amazon Wishlist. 😊