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:
“For eighteen years, my unibrow has saved me from being sold into a painful, terrifying death.
Today is the day I’m releasing it from its gracious service.”
Do you recognise the book these first lines come from?
*drumroll please!*
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn’t matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.
📖 READ MORE…
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it’s to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.
To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.
Have you read Iron Widow or is it also on your TBR?
dinipandareads 
That is a very unique first line! Haha.
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Haha, right? It was definitely a great start!
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Haha, that first line made me laugh. That is great one!
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Haha, it made me laugh too! Definitely a great start 😂
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Comical first lines for sure!
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I know! 😂
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Hahahaha – great first lines!
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Haha, yeah, definitely great first lines 😂
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How did I forget these first lines?! 🤣 I really should have gotten this one.
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Haha, ngl, this beginning is one of the things that made me think this could be 5-star material for me 😂 Such great first lines!
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I am not familiar with the book, but that line made me laugh
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Haha, yeah, these first lines are definitely not what I expected but I loved reading it! 😂
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[…] #FirstLinesFriday: 13 January 2023 […]
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As soon as I saw the word ‘unibrow,’ I instantly remembered which book it was 😂 Such an interesting line to start a book with.
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