
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:
The enemy lies in wait to bleed my people.
To litter the homeland with our bones.
To bury its secrets.
But first he has to go through me.
Do you recognize the lines?

Hint: It’s the second book in a fantasy duology.

Still not sure? Here’s another hint:
It’s written by J. Elle.

The First Lines Friday book is:
Ashes of Gold
About the Book:

Title: Ashes of Gold
Author: J. Elle
Series: Wings of Ebony #2
Page Length: 416
Publication Date: Jan. 11, 2022
Synopsis: In the heart-pounding conclusion to the Wings of Ebony duology, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Nicole Yoon calls “bold, inventive, big-hearted and deeply perceptive,” Rue makes her final stand to reclaim her people’s stolen magic.
Rue has no memory of how she ended up locked in a basement prison without her magic or her allies. But she’s a girl from the East Row. And girls from the East Row don’t give up. Girls from the East Row pick themselves back up when they fall. Girls from the East Row break themselves out.
But reuniting with her friends is only half the battle. When she finds them again, Rue makes a vow: she will find a way to return the magic that the Chancellor has stolen from her father’s people. Yet even on Yiyo Peak, Rue is a misfit—with half a foot back in Houston and half a heart that is human as well as god, she’s not sure she’s the right person to lead the fight to reclaim a glorious past.
When a betrayal sends her into a tailspin, Rue must decide who to trust and how to be the leader that her people deserve…because if she doesn’t, it isn’t just Yiyo that will be destroyed—it will be Rue herself.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | My Review
Did you guess correctly? What do you think of the first lines? Comment below!
Ooh, such great first lines! I still haven’t read Wings of Ebony but this sequel is already sounding great! 😃
It’s such a good duology!
I was thinking of doing this meme but… I think the original host of this one – Wandering Words – has closed down totally. When I click on http://wanderingwords.co.uk/ I get a totally different site and nothing that resembles a book blog! Strange, right?
That’s strange. I’ll have to remove the link. Thanks for letting me know!
No problem. But I’ll be joining you this coming Friday!
Yay! I’ll keep an eye out for your post!
Great… but we really should let anyone else who does this know that she’s dropped off the radar!