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:
“Devlin Raines, Duke of Dartmoor, watched the dealer turn over the last card. An ace. He bit back a curse as the dealer scooped up the coins and kept them for the club.
Luck was not on his side tonight.”
Do you recognize the lines?
Here’s a hint:
It’s written by Anna Harrington.
Still not sure? Here’s another hint:
It’s a new historical romance release.
The First Lines Friday book is:
The Duke and the Darkness
Title: The Duke and the Darkness
Author: Anna Harrington
Series: The Dukes of Darkness #1
Publisher: Dragonblade
Pub. Date: Aug. 27, 2024
Page Length:
Synopsis: When Their Deepest Secrets Come to Light…
Devlin Raines, Duke of Dartmoor, has worked hard to put his father’s sins and his life as a former mercenary into the past. He’s saved the family’s reputation, kept his mother and sisters safe, and is on the verge of a respectable—if loveless—marriage. His future seems on track—until a mysterious, beautiful woman inverts his world…a woman who can only be a ghost.
Only the Darkness Can Save Them
Peyton Chandler is dead to the world. When assassins attacked her family’s carriage ten years ago, killing her parents and attacking her, she faked her own death to stay alive. But now she’s returned to London to seek revenge against the man she believes was responsible…Devlin Raines. Only the more time she spends with him, the more everything she thought was true falls apart. And before she knows it, her only safe path to finding answers depends upon her ability to trust the one man she swore to destroy.
As events draw them closer, they’re forced to work together to uncover the truth. But can they ever truly begin to trust—perhaps, even love—each other…or will the past destroy them both?
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Review
Have you read The Duke and the Darkness? What do you think of the first lines? Comment below!
Ooh, hadn’t heard of this one before but it sounds fun! 😍
The first line doesn’t call to me, but the description does.