First Lines Friday is a weekly feature for book lovers created 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’s how to join in:
- 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!
Today’s line are from the upcoming new book in a favorite series:
According to the clock on the bedside table, it was almost noon, the solid middle of the day, when all good fae should be asleep and dreaming of better worlds.
So what’s the book?
A Divided Duty (October Daye, #20) by Seanan McGuire
Release date: September 29, 2026
384 pages
Synopsis:
Seanan McGuire’s New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-nominated October Daye series finds Toby Daye torn between caring for her newborn daughter and keeping the world of Faerie—and her found family—safe.
October “Toby” Daye is settling into life with a baby, remembering the ins and outs of motherhood, and trying to find ways to balance her work with her desire to keep her baby safe at home and away from all the terrors Faerie has to offer. Her whole household is pitching in, from May all the way down to Raysel, the estranged daughter of Toby’s liege lord, who is currently serving out a term of offense in Toby’s home.
Naturally, as everything is beginning to find a balance, it’s time for Raysel’s term of offense to end, and Luna Torquill very much wants her daughter back.
But Toby has been helping Raysel get the help she desperately needs, from giving her a safe place to hide all the way to finding her a licensed therapist who works with the fae, and Raysel isn’t ready to leave. Luna isn’t taking no for an answer, and before anyone can realize what she’s planning, she steals her own child away to Blind Michael’s lands.
Not even Luna knows all the terrible secrets her father and his works hid from the world, and not even she can protect her daughter from the monsters in their lineage. All too quickly, Toby must race the clock to save Raysel—before it’s too late for her to ever come home.
It’s been years, but now the question will be asked again: can she get there and back by the light of a candle?
October Daye is one of my all-time favorite fantasy series… and it amazes me that it remains so incredibly strong after so many books! Can’t wait to get started!
Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!
Bookshelf Fantasies 
“Why did I ever start this? I must have been mad! There were dozens of other things I could have been-a model, air hostess, or a ship’s stewardess.” …
Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth. Loving it.
Sounds like a great opening! So glad you’re loving it!
I love the TV series, Call the Midwife (on BBC). It’s great to see where the story ideas originated. Another time and another place.
There are so many Seanan McGuire books I want to read (I’ve only read one of her series but she’s so dang prolific!!) Hoping to get into this one and also that’s a great first line.