First Lines Friday – 27 September

September 27, 2019September 27, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads7 Comments

Yayaya, HAPPY FRIYAY, book lovers and friends 😍We’re back with another First Lines Friday! This is 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:

It turns out the Leteo procedure isn’t bullshit.
The first time I saw a poster on the subway promoting the institute that could make you forget things, I thought it was a marketing campaign for some new science fiction movie. And when I saw the headline “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow!” on the cover of a newspaper, I mistook it as something boring, like the cure for some new flu—I didn’t think they were talking about memories.

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

Okay, okay, calm yourself Loki, mate...

*drumroll please!*

The book is: More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

In the months after his father’s suicide, it’s been tough for sixteen-year-old Aaron Soto to find happiness but with the support of his girlfriend Genevieve, he’s slowly remembering what that might feel like. When Genevieve leaves for a couple of weeks, Aaron starts hanging out with a new guy, Thomas. Aaron’s friends notices, and they’re not exactly thrilled. But Aaron can’t deny the happiness Thomas brings or how Thomas makes him feel safe from himself.

Since Aaron can’t stay away from Thomas or turn off his newfound feelings for him, he considers turning to the Leteo Institute’s revolutionary memory-alteration procedure to straighten himself out, even if it means forgetting who he truly is…

Have you read More Happy Than Not or is it on your TBR?
Leave me a comment and let’s chat 🙂

First Lines Friday – 20 September

September 20, 2019September 20, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads6 Comments

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 Nazi officers are dressed in black. They look at death with the indifference of a gravedigger. In Auschwitz, human life has so little value that no one is shot anymore; a bullet is more valuable than a human being.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

Okay, okay, calm yourself Loki, mate...

*drumroll please!*

The book is: The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe

Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this is the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust.
Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezín ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious volumes the prisoners have managed to sneak past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the librarian of Auschwitz.
Out of one of the darkest chapters of human history comes this extraordinary story of courage and hope.

Have you read The Librarian of Auschwitz or is it on your TBR?
Leave me a comment and let’s chat 🙂

First Lines Friday – 13 September

September 13, 2019September 13, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads12 Comments

Yayaya, HAPPY FRIYAY, book lovers and friends 😍 I’m including a new meme to my Friday post line-up today with First Lines Friday! This is 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:

There’s something haunting about a body touched by magic. Most people first noticed the smell: not the rot of decay, but a cloying sweetness in their noses, a sharp taste on their tongues.

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

Okay, okay, calm yourself Loki, mate...

*drumroll please!*

The book is: Serpent & Dove (Serpent & Dove #1) by Shelby Mahurin!

Two years ago, Louise le Blanc fled her coven and took shelter in the city of Cesarine, forsaking all magic and living off whatever she could steal. There, witches like Lou are hunted. They are feared. And they are burned.
Sworn to the Church as a Chasseur, Reid Diggory has lived his life by one principle: thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. His path was never meant to cross with Lou’s, but a wicked stunt forces them into an impossible union—holy matrimony.
The war between witches and Church is an ancient one, and Lou’s most dangerous enemies bring a fate worse than fire. Unable to ignore her growing feelings, yet powerless to change what she is, a choice must be made.
And love makes fools of us all.

Have you read Serpent & Dove or is it on your TBR? I’m sooo excited to read this book. WBU? Leave me a comment and let’s chat 🙂

First Lines Friday – 06 September

September 6, 2019September 6, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads2 Comments

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 stranger came out of the sea like a water ghost, barefoot and wearing the scars of his journey. He walked as if drunk through the haze of mist that clung like spidersilk to Seiiki.
The stories of old said water ghosts were doomed to live in silence.”

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

Okay, okay, calm yourself Loki man... *drumroll please!*

The book is: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samatha Shannon!

A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

Have you read The Priory of the Orange Tree? What’d you think of it?
Let me know in the comments below and let’s chat 🙂

First Lines Friday – 30 August

August 30, 2019August 30, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads2 Comments

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:

People often shit themselves when they die.
Their muscles slack and their souls flutter free and everything else just … slips out. For all their audience’s love of death, the playwrights seldom mention it.

Do you recognize the book these first lines come from?

Okay, okay, calm yourself Loki man... *drumroll please!*

The book is: Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle, Book 1) by Jay Kristoff

In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.

Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?

Have you read Nevernight? I’m trying to read Nevernight & Godsgrave before Darkdawn releases so very soon! Reckon I can do it?

First Lines & First Impression Friday w/ All Your Perfects

May 3, 2019May 5, 2019 Dini @ dinipandareads1 Comment

First Lines Fridays is 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? The rules: pick a book of your shelf (it could be your current read or one from your TBR), copy the first few lines (BUT don’t give anything else about the book away yet–you need to hook the reader first), and finally… reveal the book!

The doorman didn’t smile at me.
That thought plagues me during the entire ride up the elevator to ___’s floor. Vincent has been my favorite doorman since ___ moved into this apartment building.

What book do you think this quote is from?

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If you guessed All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover then you got it right! I’m currently reading this with a group of fun people over on Instagram and ever since picking up Verity earlier this year I’ve been so excited to get back into CoHo’s books, of which there are plenty!

First Impression Friday is a weekly meme hosted by JW Martin! Here’s how to play:

First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther.Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end. Did you think you’d love and ended up hating it? Or did you think you’d hate it and wound up loving it? Or were you exactly right?

I’m about 5% into All Your Perfects and I already know that this book is going to make me feel uncomfortable with all the emotions, but in the best way. I can be a pretty anxious reader sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) and I’m quite sensitive to the emotions and moods while reading, so just knowing what this book is about and the journey I’m about to embark on with the MCs, I have a feeling I’ll be crying ugly tears throughout. Good thing I’m planning to binge read the majority of this tonight/tomorrow in the privacy of home. This is definitely not one I’ll be reading in public–I’m not about to embarrass myself like that! I predict this will be a ★★★★☆ star read.