Skip to main content

First Lines + Giveaway

Jackie over at Literary Escapism had this First Lines meme up the other day and, because I absolutely love a really killer first line, I figured I'd put one together as well. Jackie included the first lines from a stack of books sitting next to her. I'm going to cheat and give you a few of my all-time favorites. Some are technically the first couple of lines. See if you can guess which books they're from. The first person to get them all right (or the person with the most correct answers) wins! I'll announce the answers and the winner can pick one book from the list of seven.
1. "Three children lay on the rocks at the water's edge. A dark-haired little girl. Two boys, slightly older. This image is caught forever in my memory, like some fragile creature preserved in amber."
2. "To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor."
3. "My name is Elizabeth but no one's ever called me that. My father took one look at me when I was born and must have thought I had the face of someone dignified and sad like an old-fashioned queen or a dead person, but what I turned out like is plain, not much there to notice. More Daisy than Elizabeth from the word go."
4. "Theo, by occupation, was a devil."
5. "On Christmas morning, Rebecca lost her moral virginity, her sense of humor--and her two best friends. But, other than that, it was a hell of a holiday."
6. "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home."
7. "I am going to pack my two shirts with my other socks and my best suit in the little blue cloth my mother used to tie round her hair when she did the house, and I am going from the Valley."
There you go. Let me know your guesses and, if you put together your own list, I want to see it.

Comments

  1. I didn't know if you wanted these in the comment section or not so I e-mailed them to you!

    teensatthelibrary[@]yahoo[.]com

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1. Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier (Seven Waters Trilogy)
    2. Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
    3. How I live Now by Meg Rosoff
    4. Westmark by Lloyd Alexander
    5. no clue!
    6. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton - love this book!
    7. How Green Was my valley by Richard Llewellyn

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh cool contest idea!

    Hmm i have no clue for most of them, but here are my guesses:

    1. Wildwood Dancing, Juliet Marillier
    2. Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn (one of the best opening lines EVER)
    3. no idea
    4. no idea
    5. no idea!
    6. The Outsiders, SE Hinton (same as the last line, best ever)
    7. no idea, though it sounds vaguely familiar...

    Hmm, that's not very impressive, is it :p

    ReplyDelete
  4. Man, I didn't know any of these! I must study up, obviously. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Way too hard for me, how I wish the beginning of p&P was here :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. BrittLit, thanks for emailing! I should have specified.

    Thea, it really is one of the best EVER. And THE OUTSIDERS is just plain made of awesome start to finish.

    Elana, lol. They're not necessarily very famous books, but they're all first lines that for one reason or another knocked my socks off and have stuck in my mind for a long time.

    Blodeuedd, sorry! And you're absolutely right. I didn't include classics as I thought they might be too easy, but if I had you would most definitely have gotten P&P in there. As well as A CHRISTMAS CAROL, THE ILIAD, FAHRENHEIT 451, THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, ANNA KARENINA, and MOBY DICK. To name the first 7 that come to mind. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. The first one is for sure Daughter of the forest, the 2nd is Silent in the Grave, the 3rd is How I Life Now, and 6 is the Outsiders. (Glad I've read that now...) But I don't know the others!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This was fun, I think I may copy you...again!

    1. Daughter of the Forest
    2. Silent in the Grave
    3. How I Live Now
    4. Westmark
    5. No clue...sounds familiar though
    6. The Outsiders
    7. How Green Was My Valley

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh, fun post! :)
    Unfortunately I have no idea about the majority of them, but they're definitely some good ones!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Liza, not bad. Not bad at all. Though you have read #5. ;)

    Kath, lol. Copy away!

    Samantha, yeah, they're good 'uns all right.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 1. Daughter of the Forest - Juliet Marillier
    2. Silent in the Grave - Deanna Raybourn
    3. How I live Now - Meg Rosoff
    4. Westmark by Lloyd Alexander
    5. The Road Home - Ellen Emerson White
    6. The Outsiders- S.E. Hinton
    7. How Green Was my valley - Richard Llewellyn

    prodhi@live.com

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

You Might Also Like

Angie's 2025 Must Be Mine

  As ever, begin as you mean to go on. And so here are my most anticipated titles of 2025: And we're still waiting for covers on these, but I'm just as excited for each of them: The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 9 by Beth Brower Wish You Were Here by Jess K. Hardy Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher Pitcher Perfect by Tessa Bailey Father Material by Alexis Hall Alchemised by SenLinYu Breakout Year by K.D. Casey What titles are on your list?

Bibliocrack Review | You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

If I'm being perfectly honest with myself, I've done a shamefully poor job of addressing my love for Cat Sebastian 's books around these parts. I've certainly noted each time her beautiful stories have appeared on my end-of-the-year best of lists, see:  The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes ,  basically every book in  The Cabots series , and of course  We Could Be So Good .  And the pull is, quite simply, this: nobody is as kind and gentle with their characters and with their hearts than Cat Sebastian. Nobody. I haven't always been one for the gentler stories, but I cannot overstate the absolute gift it is sinking into one of Sebastian's exquisitely crafted historicals knowing that I get to spend the next however many pages watching two idiots pine and deny that feelings exist and just  take care of each other  as they fall in love. I wouldn't trade that experience for the world. Not this one or any other.  Only two things in the world people count b...

Angie's Best Books of 2024

Looking back at it now, it was a really solid reading year. I mean, it did its usual (for me) thing and meandered its merry way, here and there, up and down, and in fits and starts across the span of all twelve months. But it really did shape up nicely. Which is a good thing, because it was—shockingly, I know—another year in which we so desperately needed the authors and books and words of the world to come through for us. And they did, didn't they?  I am, as ever, so grateful for them and their willingness to push through every barrier and battle that I know must try to keep them from putting their visions on paper. And so, as has long been my custom, I record here my list of published books that saw me through the year. Gifts, every one.   (listed in the order in which I read them) The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake Bride by Ali Hazelwood You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian Once Persuaded, Twice Shy by Melodie Edwards Lucky Bounce by Cait Nary Lips Like Sugar by Jes...