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 Lines:
“There is an old bookshop called the Wanderer’s Wonders in the heart of Kulden- a small, often forgotten town tucked in a far northern corner of England-and as far as Claudia Jolicoeur is concerned, it’s magical, for it always has something she needs.”
Do you recognize the lines?
Here’s a hint:
It’s a new dark academia release.
Still not sure? Here’s another hint:
It’s written by Sydney J. Shields.
The First Lines Friday book is:
AN ARCANE STUDY OF STARS
Title: An Arcane Study of Stars
Author: Sydney J. Shields
Pages: 368
Publication Date: April 28, 2026
Publisher: Orbit
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Romance
Synopsis: When Claudia Jolicoeur is rejected from Cygnus University, a devilish stranger named Dorian appears in her nightmares and offers her a bargain: he will get her into Cygnus if she learns how to free him from a prison of stars. He takes a bite of her soul to seal the deal, and Claudia wakes to a letter from the High Sage of Cygnus stating she will take the place of Odette Dufort, a Rhetoric student who passed away.
Her arrival raises suspicions, rumors that she had a hand in Odette’s death spread like wildfire, and Cassius MacLeod, the High Sage’s apprentice and Claudia’s fellow Rhetoric student, seems hellbent on humiliating her. Determined to clear her name, she searches for any evidence that could prove her innocence. When someone—or something—starts slipping her pieces of Odette’s diary, Claudia uncovers a horrifying truth: over the last century, celestial witches at Cygnus have been murdered. Odette was one of them, and Claudia could be next. For her own protection, Claudia needs to free Dorian—and fast.
By night, she studies the stars, slowly unraveling the mystery of Dorian’s prison. By day, she and Cassius wage rhetorical war as debate partners in class. What begins as a fierce rivalry devolves into something deeper, darker, and dangerously sensual. As Claudia inches closer to the truth, she must decide: would trusting Cassius be the last mistake she ever makes?
LINKS: Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon
Have you read An Arcane Study of Stars? What do you think of the first line? Comment below!
That first line makes me curious about the rest of the book.