Category: First Line Friday

10 June 2022

First Line Friday | Week #240 | Rescuing Finley by Dan Walsh

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m sharing from Rescuing Finley by Dan Walsh, which I apparently bought in 2016 and have never read … but Tuesday’s Bookish Question has inspired me.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About Rescuing Finley

Amy Wallace has made plenty of mistakes in her young life, but she didn’t see this one coming. Chris Seger is a marine serving in Afghanistan. His life is forever altered by a single, fateful step. A mother of another Afghan war vet suffers a devastating loss, which changes the course of Finley’s life for good.

Finley is a mostly golden retriever, who suddenly finds himself alone and confused in a dog shelter. Could this prison actually become the place where Finley finally finds freedom?

Rescuing Finley tells the story of how one rescue dog powerfully impacts three tragic lives and puts all of them on a road toward redemption and healing.

You can find Rescuing Finley online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

7 June 2022

Bookish Question #232 | Do you know any Christian fiction featuring a dog?

Do you know of any Christian fiction featuring a dog as a major character?

Tough question!

The first novels I though to featuring a dog as a major character were The Famous Five novels by Enid Blyton. I can still hear the TV theme tune in my mind … Julian, Dick, and Anne, George and Timmy the do-o-o-og.

I can think of some Christian fiction where the main character had a dog, but not where the dog was actually a major character.

What’s the difference, you might ask.

Well, a lot of fiction will mention that a character has a pet dog or cat, but the animal doesn’t really play any major part in the story. The animal spends most of its time at home, often locked in the house or in a cage when the owner (the main character) leaves to go to work or have a life. Too often, it seems like the animals are introduced at the beginning as a plot point, then forgotten about. They’re barely fed and only walked if that suits the plot (e.g. if the heroine has to leave the house so she can be kidnapped).

They are side characters or accessories, not major characters.

I have come across a few novels where the dogs get more attention. Woman in Shadow by Carrie Stuart Parks is one—Darby adopts Holly and Maverick, and they were my favourite characters.

Dan Walsh has the Forever Home four-book series featuring dogs as major characters, starting with Rescuing Finley. I don’t know why I haven’t read them yet, but that’s obviously a fault I need to rectify.

But that’s all I can think of. What about you?

Can you recommend any Christian fiction featuring a dog as a major character?

3 June 2022

First Line Friday | Week #239 | The Buy-In by Emma St Clair

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m sharing from The Buy-In by Emma St Clair, the first book in her new sweet Graham Brothers rom-com series. Here’s the first line from Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About The Buy-In

When a family of former pro football players buy a small Texas town, they didn’t intend to start a war with its residents … or to fall in love.

Ever since his career-ending injury, Pat has bounced from job to job, idea to idea, short-lived relationship to short-lived relationship. But when his father purchases the town of Sheet Cake, Pat suddenly sees his life with clear purpose: get his brothers on board with his dad’s wild idea and win back the one woman who got away.

Lindy was supposed to be traveling the world, not stuck in a small town, caring for her niece. But she would do anything to keep custody of Jo–even if that looks like a marriage of convenience with the man who already broke her heart once.

Now if she can only keep herself from falling back in love with her husband…

You can find Told You So online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

27 May 2022

First Line Friday | Week #238 | The Truth Between Us by Tammy L Gray

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m sharing from The Truth Between Us by Tammy L Gray, the second book in her Brentwood series. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About The Truth Between Us

Nine years to win her. Three years to love her. And one decision that destroyed it all.

April Duncan was raised with three clear truths: the family name is absolute, ambition and success rule over every emotion, and love always comes with strings attached. Image was everything in her carefully crafted world… until the mirror cracked. Sean Taylor was April’s best friend, the one man who taught her it was okay to let her guard down and to rely on someone. She trusted him. She loved him. Which made his deception the darkest kind of cruelty. Now, nearly a year later, she’s ready to leave her failed engagement in the past and get back her life and her estranged family, even if it means dating a man solely for his connections. She’ll never again choose love over loyalty.

Sean has spent his entire life breaking barriers, facing challenges, and never giving up. Until one impossible choice destroyed his future and left him no option but to flee from the woman who annihilated his heart. Now he’s back in Bentwood and determined to make her hear the truth and rebuild the trust he shattered. But April has become a mere shell of the woman who claimed his heart long ago. Winning her back is more than just seizing a victory, because if he fails… the girl he’s loved for a lifetime will disappear forever.

You can find The Truth Between Us online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

20 May 2022

First Line Friday | Week #237 | Cake That! by Heather Greer

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m sharing from Cake That! by Heather Greer, a Christian rom-com from a new-to-author. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About Cake That!

You can find Cake That! online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

13 May 2022

First Line Friday | Week #236 | Under the Magnolias by T I Lowe

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m sharing from Under the Magnolias by T I Lowe, a new-to-me author.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About Under the Magnolias

Austin Foster is barely a teenager when her mama dies giving birth to twins, leaving her to pick up the pieces while holding her six siblings together and doing her best to stop her daddy from retreating into his personal darkness.

Scratching out a living on the family’s tobacco farm is as tough as it gets. When a few random acts of kindness help to ease the Fosters’ hardships, Austin finds herself relying upon some of Magnolia’s most colorful citizens for friendship and more. But it’s next to impossible to hide the truth about the goings-on at Nolia Farms, and Austin’s desperate attempts to save face all but break her.

Just when it seems she might have something more waiting for her—with the son of a wealthy local family who she’s crushed on for years—her father makes a choice that will crack wide-open the family’s secrets and lead to a public reckoning. There are consequences for loving a boy like Vance Cumberland, but there is also freedom in the truth.

T. I. Lowe’s gritty yet tender and uplifting tale reminds us that a great story can break your heart . . . then heal it in the best possible way.

You can find Under the Magnolias online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

6 May 2022

First Line Friday | Week #235 | When the Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m sharing from When the Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer, a new split time novel with a unique quirk. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About When the Day Comes

How will she choose, knowing all she must sacrifice?

Libby has been given a powerful gift: to live one life in 1774 Colonial Williamsburg and the other in 1914 Gilded Age New York City. When she falls asleep in one life, she wakes up in the other. While she’s the same person at her core in both times, she’s leading two vastly different lives.

In Colonial Williamsburg, Libby is a public printer for the House of Burgesses and the Royal Governor, trying to provide for her family and support the Patriot cause. The man she loves, Henry Montgomery, has his own secrets. As the revolution draws near, both their lives–and any hope of love–are put in jeopardy.

Libby’s life in 1914 New York is filled with wealth, drawing room conversations, and bachelors. But the only work she cares about–women’s suffrage–is discouraged, and her mother is intent on marrying her off to an English marquess. The growing talk of war in Europe only complicates matters.

But Libby knows she’s not destined to live two lives forever. On her twenty-first birthday, she must choose one path and forfeit the other–but how can she choose when she has so much to lose in each life?

Find When the Day Comes online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

29 April 2022

First Line Friday | Week #234 | Big Apple Atonement by Carolyn Miller

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line.

Today I’m sharing from Big Apple Atonement by Carolyn Miller, the fifth book in her Original Six contemporary romance series. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to read a romance novel where the heroine isn’t attracted to the hero!

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About Big Apple Atonement

She’s the saint with a secret. He’s the sinner with a heart of gold.

For Emma Moritello, giving abandoned and rejected children a safe home is her life’s purpose, but pressures at work means her dream may be coming to a close. And just when she thought life couldn’t get more challenging, along comes hockey’s bad boy, keen to make amends. God might want her to love her enemies, but it doesn’t mean she has to like them. Especially this hockey enforcer, who has the nerve to try to stir her heart.

TJ Woletsky has never tried to hide his sins—his exploits are tabloid fodder, and hockey teams love to hate him. Including his own. When a trade takes him to New York he’s confronted with the repercussions of his past, and time spent with the unfortunate helps ignite his desire to turn his life around. Until an incident in a nightclub makes everyone question whether this sinner can ever really change.

This story of second chances is the fifth book in the Original Six Christian hockey romance series, a sweet and swoony, slightly sporty, Christian contemporary romance series from bestselling author Carolyn Miller.

You can find Big Apple Atonement online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads | Koorong

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

22 April 2022

First Line Friday | Week #233 | To Bring You Back by Emily Conrad

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m sharing from To Bring You Back by Emily Conrad. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About To Bring You Back

He’s determined to confront the past she’s desperate to forget.

When Adeline Green’s now-famous high school crush descends on her quiet life, a public spotlight threatens to expose her deepest regret.

To bury her mistakes, Adeline follows all the rules, working meaningful jobs that don’t quite make ends meet, and avoids close friendships that would only end in rejection if the truth about her came out. The closer she gets to Gannon, who took center stage in her past, and the reporters that hound him, the more she risks the carefully curated life that’s finally brought her a measure of peace.

Gannon Vaughn and his rock band, Awestruck, have conquered the music industry, but he can’t overcome his feelings for Adeline.

She may have been right to cut off contact between them years ago, but thanks to the grace of God, he’s a changed man. When he hears Adeline’s struggling, he sets out to turn her life around and win back the love he lost to poor choices eight years ago.1

But when Gannon’s fame and their mutual regrets jeopardize their relationship anew, will grace be enough to bring them back to God and each other?

You can find To Bring You Back online at:

Amazon | BookBub | Goodreads

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.

Share your first line in the comments, and happy reading!

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

15 April 2022

First Line Friday | Week 232 | Feathers of Hope by Sharon Garlough Brown

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. Today I’m sharing from Feathers of Hope by Sharon Garlough Brown, the third book in the Shades of Light series. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

What’s the book nearest you, and what’s the first line?

About Feathers of Hope

In a season of loss and change, Wren Crawford and her great-aunt, Katherine Rhodes, share the journey as companions in sorrow and hope. As Katherine prepares to retire as the director of the New Hope Retreat Center, she faces both personal and professional challenges―especially after the arrival of the board’s candidate to replace her. Not only must she confront more unresolved grief from her past, but she’s invited to embrace painful and unsettling insights about her own blind spots. How might disruption become a gift that opens the way to new growth?

Wren’s world is shifting and expanding as she presses forward in recovery from a period of deep depression. Still processing open questions around the death of her best friend, Casey, Wren stewards her grief by offering compassionate care to the residents of the nursing home where she now works. But the shedding of her old life is exhausting―especially as she doesn’t yet see what new life will emerge. How might art continue to provide a pathway for deepening her awareness of God’s presence with her?

In this sequel to Shades of Light and Remember Me, fans of the Sensible Shoes series will not only be able to attend Katherine’s final retreat sessions at New Hope but also encounter old and new friends along the way.

You can find Feathers of Hope online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong

Click here to check out what my fabulous fellow FirstLineFriday bloggers are sharing today.

And you can click here to check out my previous FirstLineFriday posts.