First Lines Friday: February 13, 2026

First Lines Friday 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 Line:

“I don’t generally, as a rule, get lost.”

Do you recognize the line?

Here’s a hint:

It’s a new fantasy.

Still not sure? Here’s another hint:

It’s written by A.G. Slatter

The First Lines Friday book is:

A Forest Darkly

Title: A Forest Darkly

Author: A.G. Slatter

Page Length: 368

Publisher: Titan Books

Synopsis: Deep in the forest lives Mehrab the witch, coping with loneliness in her own strange ways and quietly battling her demons. One evening, a young woman appears on her doorstep seeking shelter, pursued by godhounds who wish to destroy all those practising magic, and Mehrab’s solitary existence is disrupted as she teaches the girl how to control her powers. Together they forge a cure for their isolation with heartbreaking consequences…

Meanwhile, in the local village, children begin to disappear, sometimes returning forever changed – or not returning at all. Sinister offerings appear on Mehrab’s doorstep, and a dark power pursues her through the trees. As the villagers turn hostile and the godhounds close in, Mehrab finds herself at the centre of a struggle to save the soul of the forest, the life of an old love – and her own new-formed family.

A bewitching gothic tale; haunting, gripping and written with wit and heart, this is a book to both savour and devour.

LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon

That cover is sooo striking!! Have you read A Forest Darkly? What do you think of the first lines? Comment below!