First Lines Friday

First Lines Fridays 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!

Caidyn will be in blue.
Chantel will be in purple.

They were thirteen the first time they broke into the toy factory.

It was almost midnight, it was freezing outside, and August was fucking terrified. He pushed his dark hair out of his face, plastering himself to Jack’s back while Jack tried to jimmy the handle open.

“Come on, come on. You’re so slow. We’re going to get caught, you asshole,” he whispered.

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I didn’t exactly plan on reading this book, funny enough. I kind of just decided to get it from the library, picked it up (fully anticipating that I would be turned off in the first few pages), and found myself grudgingly liking it. Then it started resonating with me in a way that I didn’t expect.

It is…

 

 

 

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Caidyn: I'm #currentlyreading this book and wow am I conflictes. It's good but also hard because it reminds me of a relationship I had. Then I also find it beautiful and ugly and everything else. I'm excited to see where it goes. . . #amreading #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #thewickerking #bookblogger

A post shared by Caidyn (@whatcaidynreads) on Aug 6, 2018 at 5:54am PDT

At the time of writing this, I’m still not that far into it, but I’m really enjoying it. It’s an interesting read because at times I don’t like it, then at others, I really do like it and feel myself remembering things that I’ve tried to block out. It’s just one of those books, you know? I already got the novella from Amazon — it’s free, too! — so I know I’m going to read that soon enough and probably review both at the same time.

Later edit: I finished it the day before this posts and it was good. I wound up really enjoying the story that was presented, although I constantly had my clinical hat on and didn’t get as lost in the story as I wanted.

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“Your brother has just the right amount of chest hair,” Umar observed. “Nice spread on top, thick line down the middle.” 

My brother, Shoaib, was half-naked and lunging across the living room, heavy weights in each hand. A mere year ago, Shoaib had been an annoying, scrawny, pimply fifteen-year-old. Now he was sixteen and even more annoying, but also chiseled, broad-shouldered, smooth-complexioned, and, apparently, perfectly hirsute. 

“When he’s watching TV and thinks no one’s looking he digs at his nose with his middle finger and flicks it behind the couch,” I said. 

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I’m not even exaggerating when I say these are some of the best first lines I’ve ever read. Umar has excellent taste by the way as I too have a thing for hirsute men. It’s just one of those things. 

Anyway, I’ve heard about this book a few times on Booktube but haven’t seen a lot of buzz about it. For me, it combines diverse characters and a road trip and that sounds hella fun to me! 

Mariam Sharma Hits the Road by Sheba Karim

This book was part of my latest library haul and it came out in June. It’s a recent book and personally sounds like it will be a lot of fun. I have a feeling Umar and I will be good friends and bond over our shared love of hairy men. 

If I ever get out of this reading slump, I hope to start this soon. 

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If you’ve read The Wicker King, what did you think of it?
If not, is it on your TBR? Why or why not?

August 10, 2018August 9, 2018 by bwreviews Categories: jointTags: book blog, book blogger, book tag, first lines friday, flf, lgbtq, lgbtq books, ya fantasy 6 Comments