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:
Books don’t work their magic on me anymore. It used to be that if I was in a funk or in the barren hinterland between sad and mad, I could just pluck any random one from my favorites shelf and settle into my fuzzy pink chair for a good read. By chapter three – chapter four at the very latest – I’d be feeling better.
These days, though, the books are nothing but letters arranged into correctly spelled words…
Do you recognize the lines?
Hint: It’s a new YA romance.
Still not sure? Here’s another hint:
It’s written by Nicola Yoon
The First Lines Friday book is:
Instructions for Dancing
Publisher: Penguin
Length: 304 Pages
Pub. Date: 3rd June 2021
ISBN: 9780241516911
Synopsis: Evie Thomas doesn’t believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began . . . and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually.
As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X. X is everything that Evie is not: adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything–including entering a ballroom dance competition with a girl he’s only just met.
Falling for X is definitely not what Evie had in mind. If her visions of heartbreak have taught her anything, it’s that no one escapes love unscathed. But as she and X dance around and toward each other, Evie is forced to question all she thought she knew about life and love. In the end, is love worth the risk?
Praise for Nicola Yoon:
‘Gorgeous and lyrical’ New York Times
‘Powerful, lovely, heart-wrenching’ Jennifer Niven
‘This extraordinary first novel about love so strong it might kill us is too good to feel like a debut’ Jodi Picoult
Have you read Instructions for Dancing? What do you think of the first lines? Comment below!!
I thought it was Instructions for Dancing but I second-guessed myself as I’ve never guessed a First Lines Friday correctly! I loved this book, it was a five star read for me!
I never guess correctly either. lol Glad you knew and enjoyed this one! 🙂
I’m really looking forward to reading this one! Sad first lines!!
Right! I didn’t expect this book to break my heart as much as it did. I definitely needed tissues more than once. lol
I keep hearing it’s sad. That’s had me holding off on wanting to read it. I have to be in the right mood for that.
Ow, these lines are so sad, looks like she’s in a reading slump(
Right! lol
I haven’t read this one yet but it is on my tbr! 😍
Oh, I hope you enjoy it when you get to it. 🙂 I’m curious to hear what you think.