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:
“I’m not sure which is to blame for waking me from my dream first: the non-stop knocking or the intense fruity scent assaulting my nostrils.”
Do you recognize the lines?
Here’s a hint:
It’s a new YA contemporary romance/speculative fiction.
Still not sure? Here’s another hint:
It’s written by Robbie Couch.
The First Lines Friday book is:
Just the Good Parts
Title: Just the Good Parts
Author: Robbie Couch
Page Length: 272
Pub. Date: Oct. 13, 2026
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Synopsis: Caspen Coolsby’s dad is missing. But even though it’s only been a few months, everyone has given up on finding him. Except for Caspen.
He finally gets a break in the case when he meets his new upstairs neighbors and discovers he can somehow transport himself into each of the college students’ memories using candle scents that remind them of important moments. No one loved candles more than his dad, so Caspen is sure there must be clues pointing toward where to find him hidden in the memories.
His thinking hits a snag, though, when a handsome boy named Lars keeps popping up in memories where he also doesn’t belong. As the lines between memory and reality begin to blur, Caspen can’t help but fall for the mysterious boy who keeps chipping away at the rose-colored lens he’s always seen life through. But will Caspen be able to find his dad and his crush outside of these stolen moments if it means reliving the hard truths of his past and not just the good parts?
