Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly featurefor 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:
“Oh, Mis Whitmore. Just look at this horrid place.” As she alighted from the coach, Clio took in the narrow, cobbled passage between two rows of warehouses. “It looks like an alleyway, Anna.” “It smells of blood. Lord preserve us. We’ll be murdered.”
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
Hello, friends! I’m back and diving straight in with a blog tour review for The Third Daughter by Adrienne Tooley. Special thanks to the TBR & Beyond Tours team for organising the tour and including me in it!
Thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Click here or on the banner above to check out the rest of the fantastic bloggers on tour!
The Third Daughter Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers Publication Date: 18 July 2023 Genre: Young Adult Fantasy Rep: Lesbian, Queer, Bi, Gay
Panda Rating: (3 pandas)
📖SYNOPSIS
A sweeping YA fantasy about legacy, betrayal, sisterhood, and politicizing emotion in the quest for power—all balanced by a slow-burn LGBTQ romance.
For centuries, the citizens of Velle have waited for their New Maiden to return. The prophecy states she will appear as the third daughter of a third daughter. When the fabled child is finally born to Velle’s reigning queen all rejoice except for Elodie, the queen’s eldest child, who has lost her claim to the crown. The only way for Elodie to protect Velle is to retake the throne. To do so, she must debilitate the Third Daughter—her youngest sister, Brianne.
Desperate, Elodie purchases a sleeping potion from Sabine, who sells sadness. But the apothecary mistakenly sends the princess away with a vial of tears instead of a harmless sleeping brew. Sabine’s sadness is dangerously powerful, and Brianne slips into a slumber from which she will not wake. With the fates of their families and country hanging in the balance, Sabine and Elodie hurry to revive the Third Daughter while a slow-burning attraction between the two girls erupts in full force.
A must-read for fans of the BookTok sensations Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson, and These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong.
TL;DR:The Third Daughter is an interesting start to a new duology(?) that I think holds a lot of potential. Tooley’s prose is compelling and it’s easy to become absorbed in the world she has created. Elodie and Sabine are complex, morally grey and not always the easiest to like or even empathise with at times but it makes their arcs even more engaging to follow and their characters feel more realistic. The book takes on a surprisingly darker tone that I wasn’t really expecting, especially in regard to faith and politics and how often and easily those two are mixed to the detriment of society. While I think there were elements that could’ve been written better to make the story even stronger, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing where it goes next.
We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent your time curled up reading in bed with or which book you wish you had time to read today!
I’ll be spending my Sunday in bed reading A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. I first read this in 2017(?) and haven’t re-read it since and when Becky said she was also planning to re-read it I immediately jumped on! I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy it as much as the first time but so far, so good. I love Schwab’s writing! 😍 I’m not the best buddy-reader at the moment with work and Zelda keeping me occupied—sorry, Becky!—but this book makes me want to disappear into reading!
Happy Saturday, friends! Today I’m excited to shine a spotlight on The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams by Victoria Williamson. Special thanks to The Write Reads for having me on this massive tour!
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of WWW Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words, which means I’ll be answering these questions:
This week’s topic isBooks or Covers that Feel/Look Like Summer (You can interpret this in a number of ways. Maybe the covers or titles are obviously summer themed, but maybe the feeling the book gives you is all warm and summery. Maybe the book cover colors look summery or the story itself takes place in the summertime. Or maybe the titles you select are favourites that you re-read every summer when you were on break from school.)
We’re back with another Sundays in Bed With… meme! This meme dares to ask you what book has been in your bed this morning and is hosted by Midnight Book Girl. Come share what book you’ve spent your time curled up reading in bed with or which book you wish you had time to read today!
I’ll be spending my Sunday evening in bed reading Thorn by Intisar Khanani. I’m glad I’m finally reading this as it’s been on my TBR for ages, plus it’s also one of my 12 Book Challenge recommendations (from Julie)! I’m buddy-reading this with Leslie and we’re both enjoying it so far. It’s more slice-of-life than I expected but it’s a nice change of pace from my previous grimdark fantasy read, lol.
Happy Friday book lovers! We’re back with another First Lines Friday, a weekly featurefor 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:
“It was a harrowing climb to the high school. Eight hundred and twenty-one steps. Mamoru had counted one time on his way up—no easy feat while focusing on not toppling off the side of a mountain.”
dinipandareads 