First Lines Friday: May 21, 2021

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:

Simith washed the blood from his sword while dusk scoured the light from the sky.

It was quiet here on the muddy bank and the stream made no sound when he sank his blade point into its depths. He palmed chilly water over the smeared length, watching it tunnel down the crystal blade to cloud the stream a murky violet. Troll blood was oddly beautiful. If the sky was a bit darker, he could imagine iris petals coated his sword instead of death.

---

Do you recognize the lines?

Hint: It’s the first book in a new series.

Still not sure? Here’s another hint: 

It’s written by Anela Deen.

---

The First Lines Friday book is:

In the Jaded Grove

---

Title: In the Jaded Grove

Author: Anela Deen

Series: Kindred Realms #1

Publication Date: April 15, 2021

Publisher: Fine Fable Press

Synopsis: Simith of Drifthorn is tired of war. After years of conflict between the Thistle court and the troll kingdom, even a pixie knight known for his bloodlust longs for peace. Hoping to secure a ceasefire, Simith arranges a meeting with the troll king—and is ambushed instead. Escape lies in the Jaded Grove, but the trees of the ancient Fae woodland aren’t what they seem, and in place of sanctuary, Simith tumbles through a doorway to another world.

Cutting through her neighbor’s sunflower farm in Skylark, Michigan, Jessa runs into a battle between creatures straight out of a fantasy novel. Only the blood is very real. When a lone fighter falls to his attackers, Jessa intervenes. She’s known too much death to stand idly by, but an act of kindness leads to consequences even a poet like her couldn’t imagine.

With their fates bound by magic, Simith and Jessa must keep the strife of his world from spilling into hers—except the war isn’t what it appears and neither are their enemies. Countless lives depend on whether they can face the truths of their pasts and untangle the web of lies around them. But grief casts long shadows, and even their deepening bond may not be enough to save them from its reach.

LINKS:     Goodreads    |      Amazon   | My Review

---

Have you read In the Jaded Grove? What do you think of the first lines? Comment below!