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:
“After having lived on the streets for years and watched the government do nothing to improve the rookeries, I had come to a conclusion full of wisdom: the only reason why politicians condemned stealing was that they didn’t want competition.”
Do you recognize the lines?
Here’s a hint:
It’s a historical romantasy.
Still not sure? Here’s another hint:
It’s written by Barbara Russell.
The First Lines Friday book is:
The Duke Wore Fangs
A gothic paranormal romance where a cursed empath and a man becoming a monster find they’re the only ones who understand each other.
She saved his life. Now she must save him from what he’s becoming.
Street criminal Alexander Hart is sure he’s done for when he’s caught stealing a lord’s wallet. But Irene, the lord’s daughter, convinces her father to give Alex a second chance—employment as a servant in their household.
Irene is cursed. Her ability to feel other people’s emotions overwhelms her, triggering violent seizures that have left her isolated and misunderstood. Alex is the first person she’s ever met who doesn’t think she’s insane. Or worse—possessed.
When Alex falls ill with a disease no doctor can explain, Irene risks her father’s fury to help him. But what begins as compassion becomes something far more dangerous. Sharp canines. An obsession with blood. An unquenchable thirst growing stronger by the day.
He’s becoming something inhuman. And she may be the only one who can reach him before he’s lost entirely.
Atmospheric, romantic, and darkly compelling—The Duke Wore Fangs is a Victorian paranormal romance for readers who love monsters made, not born, and the women brave enough to love them anyway.
What a great first line!
Great first line!
THat’s a great opening!
Yes! It definitely made me want to read more!