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:
“Hunger drove most people to the edge of the forest. Bly felt it too, but hers wasn’t the grumble of an empty stomach. Dreams fueled her hunger.”
Do you recognize the lines?
Here’s a hint:
It’s a new fantasy!
Still not sure? Here’s another hint:
It’s written by Margie Fuston.
The First Lines Friday book is:
The Revenant Games
About The Revenant Games:
Title: The Revenant Games
Author: Margie Fuston
Page Length: 404
Publication Date: March 19, 2024
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Synopsis: All of Us Villains meets Kingdom of the Wicked in this action-packed fantasy following a teen determined to win the competition held by warring vampire and witch kingdoms, only to develop complicated feelings for the vampire she’s supposed to hand over.
Blood is survival for seventeen-year-old Bly, who lives in the poverty-stricken human villages caught between enemy vampire and witch kingdoms. Most of the time, vampires and witches live in uneasy truce, buying human blood for their food and spells. But for two weeks a year, the ceasefire dissolves, and they hold the Revenant Games.
Any human can play in the games for either the witches or the vampires. Alongside life-changing riches, the witches will raise one person from the dead for whoever captures the highest-ranking vampire. In turn, the vampires offer immortality to whoever captures the most powerful witch. For most humans, the games are a ticket out of poverty. For Bly, it’s a chance to get back her dead sister, Elise, and save the life of her dying best friend, Emerson.
Together, she and Emerson forge a dangerous plan to play both sides and win both resurrection for Elise and immortality for Emerson. But when the vampire they capture stirs a passion in Bly that she hasn’t felt in a long time, she’ll have to make a her sister or the boy who’s shown her there’s more to life than just survival.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Review
Have you read The Revenant Games? What do you think of the first lines? Comment below!
I didn’t get this one but I am going to start it in the next couple of days!