Hi bookish friends,
I am coming back with a new Top Ten Tuesday. TTT is a fun meme that was created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, which is now hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. Today is “Opening lines” and I decided to show you those that hooked me right away to the book. It doesn’t mean that the book was great or even good, nor that I gave it a good rating, just that while reading that/those first(s) line(s) I couldn’t put the book down and I felt excited just after reading them. Be informed that they are in no particular order and that all of them are taken from finished copies. I didn’t count anything written before the prologue or the first chapter.
Laini Taylor – Strange the Dreamer
“Names may be lost or forgotten. No one knew that better than Lazlo Strange. He’d had another name first but it had died like a song with no one left to sing it.”
Morgan Rhodes – Falling Kingdoms
She’d never killed before tonight.
“Stay back,” her sister hissed.
Jana pressed against the stone wall of the villa. She searched the shadows that surrounded them, briefly looking up at the stars, bright as diamonds against the black sky. Squeezing her eyes shut, she prayed to the ancient sorceress. Please, Eva, give me the magic I need tonight to find her. When she opened her eyes, fear shot through her. On the branch of a tree a dozen paces away sat a golden hawk.
“They’re watching us,” she whispered. “They know what we’ve done.”
Michelle Hodkin – The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
“The ornate script on the board twisted in the candlelight, making the letters and numbers dance in my head. They were jumbled and indistinct, like alphabet soup. When Claire pushed the heart-shaped piece into my hand, I startled. I wasn’t normally so twitchy, and hoped Rachel wouldn’t notice. The Ouija board was her favorite present that night, and Claire gave it to her. I got her a bracelet. She wasn’t wearing it.”
Katja Millay – The Sea of Tranquility
“Dying really isn’t so bad after you’ve done it once.
And I have.
I’m not afraid of death anymore.
I’m afraid of everything else.”
Alexandra Christo – To Kill a Kingdom
“I have a heart for every year I’ve been alive.
There are seventeen hidden in the sand of my bedroom. Every so often, I claw through the shingle, just to check they’re still there. Burried deep and bloody. I count each of them, so I can be sure none were stolen in the night. It’s such a odd feart to have. Hearts are power and if there’s one thing my kind craves more than the ocean, it’s power.”
Sarah J. Maas – A Court of Thorns and Roses
“The forest had become a labyrinth of snow and ice.
I’d been monitoring the parameters of the thicket for an hour, and my vantage point in the crook of a tree branch had turned useless. The gusting wind blew thick flurries to sweep away my tracks, but buried along with them any signs of potential quarry.
Hunger had brought me farther from home than I usually risked, but winter was the hard time. The animals had pulled in, going deeper into the woods than I could follow, leaving me to pick off stragglers one by one, praying they’d last until spring. They hadn’t.”
Susan Ee – Angelfall
“I’m going to die tomorrow morning.
That’s what the Inquisitors tell me, anyway, when they visit my cell. I’ve been in here for weeks—I know this only because I’ve been counting the number of times my meals come.
One day. Two days.
Four days. A week.
Two weeks.
Three.I stopped counting after that. The hours run together, an endless train of nothingness, filled with different slants of light and the shiver of cold, wet stone, the pieces of my sanity, the disjointed whispers of my thoughts.
But tomorrow, my time ends. They’re going to burn me at the stake in the central market square, for all to see. The Inquisitors tell me a crowd has already begun to gather outside.”
Brigid Kemmerer – A Curse so Dark and Lonely
“There is blood under my fingernails. I wonder how many of my people I’ve killed this time.
I thrust my hands into the barrel beside the stables. The ice-cold water bites at my skin, but the blood clings. I shouldn’t bother, because it will all be gone in an hour anyway, but I hate this. The blood. The not knowing.”
Jessica Khoury – The Forbidden Wish
“I sense the boy the moment he sets foot in the cave.
For the first time in centuries, I stir.
I am smoke in the lamp, and I curl and stretch, shaking off the lethargy of five hundred years. I feel I have half turned to stone. The sound of his footstep rattles me like a clap of thunder, and I bolt fully awake.
I push against the sides of the lamp, calling out to him, but of course he cannot hear. He is just a common human boy. He cannot hear the cry of a jinni, a lamp spirit, a granter of wishes.”
Adam Silvera – They Both Die at the End
“Death-Cast is calling with the warning of a lifetime – I’m going to die today. Forget that, “warning” is too strong a word since warnings suggest something can be avoided, like a car honking at someone who’s crossing the street when it sin’t their light, giving them the chance to step back; this is more of a heads-up”
What do you think about this list?
Any of your favourite here?
Great List! Falling Kingdom is on my list. I haven’t read it yet but I can wait to!
My TTT: https://thegeekishbrunette.wordpress.com/2020/05/26/top-ten-tuesday-opening-lines-for-random-books-on-my-shelf-i-havent-read-yet/
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Yes I saw yours! I even though the opening lines have little to do with the actual story, they were so catchy and the series is one of my favorite ever! Can’t wait to have your opinion on this series 🤗
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A Curse So Dark & Lonely is so good. I have a few of these on my TBR!! Great picks!
My Top Ten
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Thank you! I went to see your list I find it really great as well 😍 thank you for stopping by 😘
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You’re welcome!! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by mine too!! 🙂
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Sigh! … Strange the Dreamer! **melts** That book!
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🥰🥰🥰
I loved that book! The opening lines hooked me right away without being over dramatic. I really can’t wait to give Muse of Nightmares a second chance 🤞🏼🤞🏼
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Oh man, I see so many of my favorite book on this list! I’m so glad you included The Sea of Tranquility because I hardly see people talking about it!
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Same! This book is one of my all time favourite and I never see people talking about it! I’m glad we agree on this one ❤️
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The Sea of Tranquility has me hooked already! I added it to my tbr! and Strange the Dreamer is literally just straight poetry throughout. Such great writing! Wonderful list 🙂
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Yaaay!! Let me know when you read it! This book is not enough talked about 😍😍
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OH MY GOSH YES — THEY BOTH DIE AT THE END!! great picks, i loved this post!!
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Thank you 🙏 I’m happy you liked it 😍 they both die at the end is just an amazing and sad
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ISN’T IT JUST?? it’s so sudden as well? like,, when it happens???
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AH such amazing choices here! I loved the first lines of the Mara Dyer series as well, I was hooked right away and it is one of my favorite series. I also loved the Forbidden Wish, such an incredible, underrated read! and I still need to read Strange the Dreamer ahah. Those first lines are so lovely!! 😍
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I’m glad we agree! I enjoyed Mara Dyer first book better than the rest of the series but I have to say the first chapter of the first book was perfect 👌🏼 I hope you’ll like strange the dreamer 🙂 I still need to read the sequel though ^^
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