Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, 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? Here are the rules:
- 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:
“The bell hanging outside the curiosity shop knew the human was trouble from the way he moved through the door. Bells have excellent hearing, but this little chime didn’t need any particular skill to catch the crude jangle of the gaudy pocket-watch chain at this young man’s hips, or the rough scrape of his boots as he attempted a swagger but only succeeded in scuffing the floor of Maximilian’s Curiosities, Whimsies & Other Oddities.”

Do you recognise the book these first lines come from?







*drumroll please!*


How far would you go for happily ever after?
For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings . . . until she learns that the love of her life will marry another.
Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic but wicked Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing.
But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game—and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’d pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after or the most exquisite tragedy. . . .
I’ve had my eye on Once Upon A Broken Heart for a while now but only recently bought the ebook because I saw it going for 99p! Who could resist? Certainly, not me 😂 I enjoyed Garber’s Caraval series (though I still have yet to finish it!) so I’m excited to dive into this. It looks so magical and whimsical and FUN!

Have you read Once Upon A Broken Heart or is it on your TBR too?

OMG Dini, I’d never heard of this book, but it sounds like something RIGHT up my alley. Straight to the TBR with this one!
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Have you heard of the Caraval books? It’s sort of (I think) a spin off of those! I hope you love it if you read it, Jordyn 💜
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I have heard of them, but haven’t looked into them further. I’ll have to go do some digging around! Thank you for the rec!!!
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lovely post!! this is the first time i’m hearing about this book but that first line sounds really good.
definitely adding it to my tbr.
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It does sound really good and I’m excited to read it too. I hope you enjoy it if you pick it up, Andi! 😍
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I knew it! 😍 Such fantastic lines. I hope you love it!
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Did you read this one Joanna? I hope I love it too (though I still haven’t finished Caraval LOL)!
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Yes I did! I have read it twice lol.
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I’ve not heard of the book before but it sounds so good – I hope you enjoy it.
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I’m excited to check it out! It looks so good 😍
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Such a great book!!! ❤
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I can’t wait to dive innnn 💜
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Yes!! This is soooo good!! I think you’ll love it!
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Aah, I’m so excited 😍
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Ow, i didn’t recognize the lines but i love this book! Can’t wait for the sequel!
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Aah, I can’t wait to read it. It has such a gorgeous cover, title and premise and the sequel does as well! I hope you love the sequel just as much 😍
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That’s definitely my most anticipated book of the year! 😂
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Is this her newest book? Great little teaser!
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Yes, I’m pretty sure that it is! It came out last year and the sequel should be out this year 😃
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Jacks completely won me over in the last Caraval book, so I couldn’t wait to pick this up when it came out. Now I’m impatiently awaiting the next book. Enjoy!
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I still haven’t picked up Finale, Ali! Its been so long since I read Caraval and Legendary that I don’t remember so much of what’s happened so I wanted to re-read those before finishing it. I do remember Jacks (a little) though! I hope you enjoy the next book 😃
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You should definitely read it! The intro was one of my faves in the book. Already so intriguing and totally drew me into the world again
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Yes, I totally love these first lines and it makes me want to read more asap. I still haven’t finished the Caraval series which I wanna do before picking this one up but I abso can’t wait 😍
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Oh yes definitely pick those ones up first! Gives so much more context to the world and makes the experience better with this companion series
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[…] First Lines Friday: 22 July 2022 […]
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