Tag Archives: TBR books

First Lines Friday 8/21/2026

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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 FLF selection is from a book I recently added to my Kindle library (but haven’t started yet):

As the crowd screams, all Henri thinks is that he’s going to be in so much trouble when his parents find out. He closes his eyes, trying his best to undo what happened. Unwind his day. End up anywhere but here.

So what’s the book?

The Fox and the Devil by Kiersten White
Published 2026
350 pages

Synopsis:

Anneke has a complicated relationship with her father, Abraham Van Helsing—doctor, scientist, and madman devoted to the study of vampires—until the night she comes home to find him murdered, with a surreally beautiful woman looming over his body. A woman who leaves no trace behind, other than the dreams and nightmares that now plague Anneke every night.

Spurred by her desire for vengeance and armed with the latest forensic and investigatory techniques, Anneke puts together a team of detectives to catch this mysterious serial killer. Because her father isn’t the only inexplicable dead body. There’s a trail of victims across Europe, and Anneke is certain they’re all connected.

But during the years spent relentlessly hunting the killer, Anneke keeps crucial evidence to herself: infuriatingly coy letters, addressed only to her, occasionally soaked in blood, and always signed Diavola.

The closer Anneke gets to her devil, though, the less sense the world makes. Maybe her father wasn’t a madman after all. Diavola might be something much worse than a serial killer . . . and much harder to destroy. Yet as Anneke unearths more of Diavola’s tragic past, she suspects there’s still a heart somewhere in that undead body.

A heart that beats for Anneke alone.


Does this sounds like something you’d enjoy?

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

First Lines Friday 8/14/2026

Posted in Fun and Whimsy by

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!

Here are the opening lines from a book that’s been on my shelf… unread… for far too long:

I don’t like to start with an apology — there’s probably even a rule against it, like never ending a sentence with a preposition — but after reading over the thirty pages I’ve written so far, I feel like I have to. It’s about a certain word I keep using. I learned a lot of four-letter words from my mother and used them from an early age (as you will find out), but this is one with five letters.

So what’s the book?

Later by Stephen King
Published 2021
248 pages

Synopsis:

The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn. But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine – as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into the pursuit of a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.

Later is Stephen King at his finest, a terrifying and touching story of innocence lost and the trials that test our sense of right and wrong. With echoes of King’s classic novel It, Later is a powerful, haunting, unforgettable exploration of what it takes to stand up to evil in all the faces it wears.



I bought a paperback copy of Later when it first came out, and it’s been on the shelf right above my desk ever since. Have you read it? And if not, does it sound like something you’d enjoy?

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

First Lines Friday 8/7/2026

Posted in Fun and Whimsy by

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!

Here’s a long-ish opening that I found really amusing… so I didn’t want to cut anything!

LYSSA HEFTED THE bloodstained burlap sack and shoved her way through the door of the Kingmaker, tracking sooty slush on the expensive carpet. She bypassed the line of patrons waiting to be seated, ignoring the ripple of protests that followed in her wake, and made her way to where a pinch-faced headwaiter stood by the entrance to the main dining room. He glanced her way with an automatic, “I’m sorry, miss, you’ll have to…” then faltered, his expression landing somewhere between disgust and horror as the sight of her sank in. The trio of ladies he had been speaking to turned—as well as they could in forty pounds of petticoats, layered skirts, steel-boned corsets, and starched collars, anyway—and glared at her. Their eyes skated right over the bloody bag in Lyssa’s arms, seeming to find her mud-spattered pants and unkempt braids far more objectionable.

It was too bad no one had ever figured out how to feed off the disdain of the rich; the downtrodden would never go hungry again.

So what’s the book?

Kill the Beast by Serra Swift
Published 2025
309 pages

Synopsis:

The night Lyssa Cadogan’s brother was murdered by a faerie-made monster known as the Beast, she made him a promise: she would find a way to destroy the immortal creature and avenge his death. For thirteen years, she has been hunting faeries and the abominations they created. But in all that time, the one Beast she is most desperate to find has never resurfaced.

Until she meets Alderic Casimir de Laurent, a melodramatic dandy with a coin purse bigger than his brain. Somehow, he has found the monster’s lair, and—even more surprising—retrieved one of its claws. A claw Lyssa needs in order to forge a sword that can kill the Beast.

Alderic is ill-equipped for a hunt and almost guaranteed to get himself killed. But as the two of them search for the rest of the materials that will be the Beast’s undoing, Alderic reveals hidden depths: dark secrets that he guards as carefully as Lyssa guards hers. Before long, and against Lyssa’s better judgment, an unlikely friendship begins to bloom—one that will either lead to the culmination of Lyssa’s quest for vengeance, or spell doom for them both.



I picked up a copy of this book earlier this year, but haven’t had a chance to start it yet. Have you read it? And if not, does it sound like something you’d enjoy?

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

First Lines Friday 7/31/2026

Posted in Fun and Whimsy by

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!

I’m going with a short opening line that says a lot with just a few words. This is from a book that’s been on my shelf (unread) for far too long:

The real story isn’t half as pretty as the one you’ve heard.

So what’s the book?

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Published 2018
480 pages

Synopsis:

With the Nebula Award–winning Uprooted, Naomi Novik opened a brilliant new chapter in an already acclaimed career, delving into the magic of fairy tales to craft a love story that was both timeless and utterly of the now. Spinning Silver draws readers deeper into this glittering realm of fantasy, where the boundary between wonder and terror is thinner than a breath, and safety can be stolen as quickly as a kiss.

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty—until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk—grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh—Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. She will face an impossible challenge and, along with two unlikely allies, uncover a secret that threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike.



I keep promising myself that this will be the year when I finally read this book! Have you read it? If not, does this sound like something you think you’d enjoy?

Happy Friday! Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Top Ten Tuesday: Getting fancy: Books with titles in a cursive font

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Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books with Handwriting on the Cover.

The topic got me thinking: Do kids still learn to write in cursive these days? I’m guessing not. I used to have a fairly nice cursive handwriting… and now when I attempt it, it’s mainly a big, messy scrawl. Sigh. I love how quick and easy it is to use a keyboard, but it’s a bit sad to think about handwriting as a lost art.

By the way, did you know that the National Archives is looking for people who can read cursive to volunteer to transcribe historical documents? Sounds like a really fun project… that I’ll bookmark for when I have more free time in my life! Learn more here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/01/12/national-archives-needs-citizen-archivists-cursive/77493951007/

Back to the books! Rather than focusing on actual handwriting, I just started looking through my physical and digital shelves for book titles in cursive fonts… and found more than I expected! Here’s a round-up of 13 that I really like… because I couldn’t decide which to drop to get to ten.

  1. Cinnamon & Gunpowder by Eli Brown
  2. Ready or Not by Cara Bastone
  3. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
  4. Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey
  5. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
  6. All’s Fair in Love and War by Virginia Heath
  7. The Bronte Plot by Katherine Reay
  8. Off the Map by Trish Doller
  9. Pat of Silver Bush by L. M. Montgomery
  10. Pride by Ibi Zoboi
  11. Reputation by Lex Croucher
  12. The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub
  13. The One That Got Away by Mike Gayle
  14. Love Lettering by Kate Claybourn

If you wrote a TTT post this week, please share your link!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read

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Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read.

My picks this week include a classic I should have read by now and a bunch of books that have been sitting on my shelves for way too long.

In no particular order, my top 10 are:

1. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
2. Venetia by Georgette Heyer
3. Vicious by V. E. Schwab

4. Moloka’i by Alan Brennert
5. Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
6. Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler

7. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
8. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
9. Pat of Silver Bush by L. M. Montgomery
10. Sorcery & Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede

Do you see any here that you’d particularly recommend?

If you wrote a TTT post this week, please share your link!

Top Ten Tuesday:  Unread Books on My Shelves I Want to Read Soon

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Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is  Unread Books on My Shelves I Want to Read Soon. I’ve done plenty of posts about my unread books, so at first I thought I’d skip this week’s TTT rather than repeat myself… but the thinking about the key word soon, I realized I could work with it!

Some of these have been on my shelves for a long time now, and some are more recent additions, but all are books I want to read sooner rather than later. I’m not making any commitments (those never seem to work), but here are ten I hope to get to this year (or maybe next?):

  1. The Thorns Remain by JJA Harwood: Bought on a whim about a year ago.
  2. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith: It’s been years and years. This one is on my Classics Club spin list, and I’ve been waiting for its number to come up! (I suppose I could finally just read it anyway, but it’s nice to have the spin as motivation.)
  3. Pat of Silver Bush by L. M. Montgomery: I only came to LMM’s books as an adult, and have been on a mission to read as many as possible ever since! I picked up the two Pat books a couple of years ago.
  4. A Turn of the Tide by Kelley Armstrong: This is a more recent addition. I added it to my shelves last year, but now that I’m finally reading the series (this is #3), I expect to read it quite soon.
  5. The Return by Rachel Harrison: I added the Kindle edition to my library a couple of years ago.
  6. The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler: Maybe this is cheating a bit — I bought this last year, and I know I’ll be reading it soon since it’s my book group’s pick for June.
  7. Needful Things by Stephen King: I bought this a few years ago to take on vacation; didn’t end up reading it that time, but maybe this summer?
  8. Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant: Bought a copy on my daughter’s recommendation a year or two ago.
  9. Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala: Another one I bought to take on a trip and then didn’t read, but I keep packing it in my travel bag just in case.
  10. Theft of an Idol by Dana Stabenow: I also finally started this series this year after stockpiling the books as they came out, and intend to read this one in the next few months.

Have you read any of these? Are there any you particularly recommend?

If you wrote a TTT post this week, please share your link!

Top Ten Tuesday: Water, water, everywhere…

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Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Water — as a topic, title, book cover element, or whatever we want.

I decided to keep it simple and feature ten books I’ve read that have Water in the title:

  1. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
  2. Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell
  3. Circles on the Water by Marge Piercy
  4. Rainwater by Sandra Brown
  5. Dead in the Water by Dana Stabenow
  6. A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris
  7. By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain by Joe Hill
  8. Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley & Peter Dickinson
  9. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
  10. The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy

What “watery” books have you read?

If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!

Top Ten Tuesday: Genre Freebie — 10 celebrity memoirs I’ve read… and a few from my TBR too

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Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is a Genre Freebie — which means we all pick a genre to focus on and build a top 10 list from there.

I bounced back and forth a bit, but decided to go with celebrity memoirs for my freebie theme. Not that I’m a huge celebrity follower! I rarely care about movie stars or other fancy folks… but I do find myself drawn to interesting life stories or memoirs that give insights into something I’m interested in. When I started this list, I was actually surprised by how many I’ve read!

Here are 10 memoirs I’ve enjoyed in recent years (with links to my reviews, if any):

  1. Waypoints by Sam Heughan
  2. Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton
  3. Spare by Prince Harry
  4. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
  5. Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies by Michael Ausiello
  6. I Want To Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom
  7. Becoming by Michelle Obama
  8. The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
  9. Life by Keith Richards
  10. Broken Music by Sting

Plus, here are a few on my TBR list that I hope to get to eventually:

Do you have any favorite memoirs to recommend? What genre did you feature for this week’s TTT?

If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters from Different Books Who Should Team Up

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Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Characters from Different Books Who Should Team Up. I couldn’t actually come up with a list of ten, but here are a few characters who I think should hang out, make a connection, maybe share advice…

1. Mercy Thompson & October Daye: My two favorite heroines from favorite ongoing fantasy series! They’re quite different, but both are fiercely loyal, protective of loved ones, brave to the core, and amazing when they need to do battle. They’d be unstoppable together!

    2. Adam Hauptman (Mercy Thompson series) and Tybalt (October Daye series): These two are leaders who are also absolutely besotted with their mates/lovers. They’re probably both too alpha to tolerate each other for long, but perhaps they could form a support group for supernatural men who love semi-mortal women with a tendency to run toward, not away from, danger.

    3. Charlie Spring (Hearstopper) and Ox Matheson (Wolfsong): Charlie is such a lovely snowflake who’s endured horrible bullying as a teen, and Ox is the ultimate protector. I wish Charlie had had Ox to walk through the school halls by his side!

    4. Elizabeth Zott (Lessons in Chemistry) and Olive Smith (The Love Hypothesis): I wish there was a way for Elizabeth to see into the future and see that while not without challenges, there are many more opportunities for women in STEM than in her own time.

    5. London Kelley (The Hookup Plan) and Harriet Kilpatrick (Happy Place): I loved Happy Place, but did not like (spoiler alert!) that Harriet ends up leaving medicine altogether as a way to find happiness in her life. Why not look for a career using her medical degree in some other way? I feel like if Harriet had a friend like London, a passionately dedicated physician as well as a devoted support to her friends, she might have an outlet for talking about her frustrations and thinking more clearly about her options.

    6. Edward Cullen (Twilight) and Matthew Clairmont (A Discovery of Witches): I’d like Edward to have a good role model, to show him that an immortal vampire has career options beyond going to high school for eternity.

    7. Claire Fraser (Outlander) and Emmy Lake (Dear Mrs. Bird): At the time of the Emmy Lake books, Claire would not yet have traveled through the stones and discovered her true love, Jamie Fraser — she spent WWII as a battlefield nurse. It would be amazing if the two women could meet somehow and Emmy could write a profile of Claire for her magazine — how inspiring for the readers of Woman’s Friend!

    What book characters would you want to introduce to one another?

    If you did a TTT post this week, please share your link!