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:
This is the first line of chapter one. I skipped the prologue because of profane language.
“Lady Evangeline Raine adored the country. Unlike London, Chichester was clean, the air was not heavy with fog, and it was completely free of gentlement on the prowl for an heiress with a large dowry.”
Do you recognize the lines?
Here’s a hint:
It’s written by Amalie Howard.
Still not sure? Here’s another hint:
It’s a brand new historical romance!
The First Lines Friday book is:
The Worst Duke in London
Title: The Worst Duke in London
Author: Amalie Howard
Series: Taming of the Dukes #3
Page Length: 384
Publication Date: Sept. 24, 2024
Publisher: Forever
Synopsis: Bridgerton meets 10 Things I Hate About You in this spicy enemies-to-lovers Regency romance from a “must-read author” (Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author).
Lady Evangeline Raine prefers animals to people and has no interest in marriage–much to the dismay of her flirty younger sister, Viola. Because their father has one rule: Viola may be courted, only if Effie has a suitor as well.
Saddled with debt, Gage Croft, Duke of Vale, is determined to rebuild his estates. When the owner of his vowels offers him a fortune to charm the impervious Lady Evangeline for the season so Lady Viola can be courted, the game is on, even if it means pretending to seduce an unconventional wallflower.
But Gage gets much more than he bargains for in an adversary who wants to make her own scandalous arrangement. Effie will go to London for the season, but only if Gage agrees to be her lover. Yet when their fake courtship leads to passionate feelings, will their indecent proposal end with the season or be the start of something real?
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Review
