Starting Strong: Books with Irresistible First LinesLike this list

14 items

• Heart the Lover

  King, Lily,

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  First line: "You Knew I'd write a book about you someday." In the fall of Jordan's senior year of college, she meets two stellar students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off campus in the elegant house of a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Astral Library

  Quinn, Kate,

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  First line: "Have you ever wanted to live inside a book?" Alix Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Correspondent

  Evans, Virginia, 1986-

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  First Line: "At last, on Monday around ten or half past, Sybil Van Antwerp carries the mug of Irish breakfast tea with milk to her desk." Sybil has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The New Neighbors

  Douglas, Claire (Journalist),

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  First line: "He's always known that he loves her too much." They seem like the perfect couple. But what are they hiding? When Lena overhears a conversation between her next-door-neighbors she thinks she must have misheard. The Morgans are a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Evil Genius

  Oshetsky, Claire,

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  First line: "After a certain event occurred when I was eleven, and which I will maybe tell you about some other time, my mother was constantly looking at me askance." It's 1974 and San Francisco is full of mystery and menace. Nineteen-year-old Celia…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Seven Daughters of Dupree

  Williams, Nikesha Elise,

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  First line: "They cut off her head because she ran." It’s 1995, and fourteen-year-old Tati is determined to uncover the identity of her father. But her mother, Nadia, keeps her secrets close, while her grandmother Gladys remains silent about the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates

  Thompson, Shailee,

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  First line: "I suppose I think about murder more than anyone really should." When Jamie Prescott and her best friend Laurie attend a speed-dating event, Jamie expects to meet a roster of mediocre men and indulge in some street food afterwards. She…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Good People

  Sabit, Patmeena,

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  First line: "…and our eyes fell on the children. Little flowers born in war and grown in war, who of all the world knew only the things war brought and the things it took." The Sharaf family is the picture of success. Prosperous, rich, happy. They…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Where the Wildflowers Grow

  Harris, Terah Shelton,

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  First line: "I will tell you my story and will leave nothing out." Leigh is the last of the Wildes. She knows this because she watched them all die. Grief never truly fades and even as the tragedy haunts her, Leigh carries on, because survival is in…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter

  Fawcett, Heather (Heather M.),

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  First line: "I paused on the threshold of the shop to stamp the frost from my boots." Agnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized life, and she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Alchemised

  SenLinYu,

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  First line: "Helena wondered sometimes if she still had eyes." Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner--of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Hard Line

  Greaney, Mark,

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  First line: "Faint electronica music pulsed in the air, but the music was sh*t, much like his mood." Court Gentry's current family operates out of an office park in Norfolk, Virginia. Ghost Town is an off-the-books direct action team run by Matt…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Catherine

  A Retelling of Wuthering Heights

  Fox, Essie

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  First line: "What wakes me from my dreams?" The greatest tragic love story ever told – but this time, Catherine tells it herself. In Catherine, Essie Fox breathes new life into Wuthering Heights, transforming a gothic masterpiece into a haunting…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Operation Bounce House

  Dinniman, Matt,

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  First line: "Oliver, you must remove yourself from bed. Priscilla is missing." All colonist Oliver Lewis ever wanted to do is run the family ranch with his sister, maybe play a gig or two with his band, and keep his family's aging fleet of…Read moreRead more of this annotation