#FirstLinesFriday: 17 November 2023

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 trees were full of crows and the woods were full of madmen. The pit was full of bones and her hands were full of wires.”

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Mini Book Review: Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

Thornhedge
Publisher: Tor
Pub Date: 15 August 2023
Genre: Adult Fantasy

Panda Rating:

(4 pandas)

📖 SYNOPSIS

Thornhedge is the tale of a kind-hearted, toad-shaped heroine, a gentle knight, and a mission gone completely sideways.

There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

But nothing with fairies is ever simple.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He’s heard there’s a curse here that needs breaking, but it’s a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…

⚠️ CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS

Death, murder, suicide (mentioned), blood, animal cruelty & death (mentioned)

Despite the underlying darkness of this story, Thornhedge was surprisingly sweet and wholesome. I’m so glad Kingfisher has fantasies that allow me to experience her immersive worlds, intriguing characters and wonderful writing. I otherwise would’ve missed out on a great author since I don’t read horror!

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