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:
“When throwing knives across a crowded tavern in the Thief Kingdom, you were one of two things: an excellent marksman with everything to gain, or a poor marksman with nothing to lose.
Whether you were the former or the latter, you were most certainly a fool.
Niya Bassette happened to admire foolishness.”

Do you recognise the book these first lines come from?







*drumroll please!*



Dance of a Burning Sea by E.J. Mellow
From award-winning author E. J. Mellow comes the thrilling second instalment in the Mousai series, featuring a powerful sorceress who finds her loyalties tested by a ruthless pirate lord.
Within the world of Aadilor, there is a hidden place called the Thief Kingdom, where both magic and pleasure abound.
📖 KEEP READING…
There, the Mousai, a trio of deadly sorceresses bound by oath and blood, use their powers to protect the kingdom’s treasures.
Niya Bassette brings the potent gift of dance to the Mousai, but behind her tempting twirls, she carries a heavy secret—that the infamous pirate lord, Alōs Ezra, has been threatening to exploit for years. Now banished from the Thief Kingdom for smuggling, Alōs resurfaces in Niya’s life with a plot to hold her hostage, leveraging what he knows to extort a pardon from the Thief King.
But Niya makes her own deal with Alōs to guard her secret and guarantee her freedom—yet in doing so binds herself aboard his pirate ship, where she must navigate deadly waters, a bloodthirsty crew, and her own traitorous heart. Soon, a simmering attraction between her and Alōs threatens their delicate truce and makes for a tumultuous ride on the open seas. Far from her kingdom, Niya is entangled in a dangerous dance indeed.
Welcome to the world of Aadilor, where dark deeds can mask noble hearts and the most alluring of sways often ends with a burn. Care for a spin?

Have you read Dance of a Burning Sea or is it on your TBR?

Haven’t read it but I love the cover!
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Haven’t read this, but this first lines made me very curious. Also that cover is so pretty!
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I haven’t heard of this one, but that cover is excellent! The first line has made me curious too.
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Those first lines are definitely intriguing, Dini.
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[…] #FirstLinesFriday: 10 November 2023 […]
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I have this on my TBR. Loving those first lines!
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