Category: First Line Friday

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #308 | Her Second Chance Billionaire Sweetheart by Bree Livingston

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’ve recently been bingeing on billionaire stories. Pure escapism, perhaps. But they’ve been so much fun! I’m currently working my way through Bree Livingstone’s romances, and enjoying them all. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One of my latest read:

Grayson Matthews groaned. He didn't want to go home to Kansas.

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

 

About Her Second Chance Billionaire Sweetheart

Young love destroyed. Secrets hidden. Can a painful truth mend a broken heart?

Grayson Matthews thought his girlfriend’s father would be thrilled when he asked for his blessing to marry her. That wasn’t the case for the starry-eyed couple who had yet to graduate high school. Instead, following his heart landed Grayson with a crushing ultimatum. To shield himself and Emma from unnecessary anguish, he left. Ten years later, circumstance has dragged him back to his hometown. One glance at Emma and he knows he’s not over her. Yet with the secret he harbors still hanging between them, keeping his distance is the only way to shield her from the painful truth.

The love of Emma’s life left without a word. They talked about a future together… then he vanished like she meant nothing to him. For a decade, she’s tried to figure out why. Now, Grayson’s returned, and she is determined to get her answers.

Emma is willing to toe the thin line between love and hate to uncover the truth. But will what she discovers provide the closure she needs? Or tempt her with a second chance at a fresh start?

Find Her Second Chance Billionaire Sweetheart 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!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #307 | Not Quite Mr Darcy by Kim Griffin

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m a long-time Pride and Prejudice fan, so I’m always up for a Christian romance with a P&P link, so I was thrilled to join the launch team for Not Quite Mr Darcy by Kim Griffin. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

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

 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Mr Darcy does not exist.

About Not Quite Mr Darcy

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that Mr. Darcy does not exist.”

Many a young woman has spent years looking for her perfect Mr. Darcy, but Kate Thomas knows better. A 29-year-old recently widowed southerner, Kate sets off to find herself on the other side of the ocean in the very country where Mr. Darcy’s life was penned. Looking only to escape reminders of her heartache, Kate journeys to places she never thought she’d go—finding faith, love, and family along the way.

Not Quite Mr. Darcy is not a P&P retelling but the story of a woman’s journey to discover what real love is.

An ocean … it’s vast and powerful. The water that fills it can bring death, or offer life. Kate Thomas moves her life across an ocean to conquer the hold of her past and find new life for her future.

Not Quite Mr. Darcy is women’s fiction with clean romance (kisses only). It tackles forgiving the seemingly unforgivable and the disillusionment many a woman has faced upon realizing that the perfect husband they’ve been raised to look for doesn’t exist. Kate, a recent widow, leaves her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. Seeking distance from her past she takes a job in Kingsdown, England, working with a dementia patient in a cottage overlooking the English Channel. What she finds there is much more than she anticipated. Kate learns to find joy even in the hardest circumstances.

Find Not Quite Mr Darcy online at:

Amazon | 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!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #306 | Julia Monroe Begins Again by Rebekah Millet

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m quoting from Julia Monroe Begins Again, the debut novel from Rebekah Millet.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

I hope that’s setting the tone for the rest of the book!

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

 

About Julia Monroe Begins Again

Samuel was back. It seemed unfair to be blindsided. And in church no less. Shouldn’t there be a commandment about that? Thou shalt not step foot inside thy ex’s place of worship.

Julia Monroe has just turned forty and has high hopes for a fresh start after the last decade of her life abruptly left her a young widow and a single mom. With both her boys off to college, she can finally focus on expanding her New Orleans-based cleaning business. Julia is ready for new beginnings–but God has other plans. Samuel Reed, the ruggedly handsome Green Beret who shattered her heart over twenty years ago, has returned to town and is the kind of distraction she never saw coming.

After their first interaction in years leaves her mind spinning and her emotions out of control, Julia knows she needs to avoid him if she wants any chance of preventing history from repeating itself, but her meddling best friend keeps throwing them together. And now it seems inevitable that the man who was hard to forget might just be impossible to resist.

Find Julia Monroe Begins Again 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!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #305 | In Spite of Ourselves by Jennifer Rodewald

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. The box set of the first three books in Jennifer Rodewald’s Murphy Brothers series was free last weekend.
I’ve already finished the first in the series (Always You), and I’m looking forward to reading the next book this weekend. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:
Of all the ways he could have imagined this weekend going, this had never entered his mind. Not once.

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

About In Spite of Ourselves

Who could build a life on such a monumental mistake?

Jackson Murphy: family prankster, class clown… and now, smack in the middle of a Vegas-sized mess. All he’d wanted was to qualify for the Boston Marathon. After failing that goal, he slipped into a deep, sulking valley, only to emerge from it with a much bigger problem. He’s married. To a complete stranger! Forget making a world-class marathon so that his family will believe that (1) he’s capable of being grown up and serious on occasion and (2) he doesn’t need the ongoing pity about his brother and a certain ex-girlfriend. Now? Now he has no idea what to do.

Mackenzie Murphy: independent woman and excellent student—but not a med student. Because those pesky MCATs were H-A-R-D. She doesn’t particularly mind that much, seeing as she’s never really wanted to be a doctor, but her mother will be…uh, displeased. Exceptionally. That’s nothing, however, compared to how Mother will respond if she finds out what else happened in Vegas.

Mackenzie wants out. Jackson wants a chance. Neither of them is prepared for what’s coming. Caught in the middle of a disaster that keeps getting bigger, they hardly dare ask: Can God take their monumental mistake and turn it into a beautiful life?

Find In Spite of Ourselves 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!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #304 | Heart in the Clouds by Jennifer Mistmorgan

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m quoting from Heart in the Clouds by debut Australian author Jennifer Mistmorgan.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

Two and a half minutes. That was how long Flight Sergeant Alec Thomas held his aircraft steady in enemy searchlights.

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

 

About Heart in the Clouds

He’s a charismatic Australian bomber pilot used to beating the odds.
She’s the radio operator he speaks to each night before he flies.
He makes a bet that he can steal a kiss….and ends up getting much more than he bargained for.

RAF Bottesford, November 1942: Maggie Morrison joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force for a free ticket into the romance she craved, away from her sleepy life as a vicar’s daughter. But the men of Bomber Command are careless with the hearts of women. She hides the pain of her broken heart and mother’s sudden death behind calm confidence on the airfield radio, as the last voice men hear before they fly into danger.

Australian pilot Alec Thomas is a gambling man on a winning streak. Every night when he flies with RAF Bomber Command, the odds of surviving are fifty-fifty. And every night so far, he’s made it back to English soil. But as the battles over Europe intensify, Alec’s luck feels less certain.

When Alec bets with his crew he can get Maggie to kiss him before the year is out, he has no idea it’s the most important wager he’ll ever make. But pursuing her leads Alec to reexamine everything he believes about his so-called luck, prompting him to question what—or who—is behind it all.

Even if Alec can win his bet, can his risk-taking ways win her heart? Or will his luck in the brutal air war over Europe run out before their first kiss?

Find Heart in the Clouds online at:

Amazon

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!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #303 | The Beacon Street Bookshop by Carla Laureano

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m reading The Beacon Street Bookshop, the second book in Carla Laureano’s Haven Ridge clean contemporary romance series:

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

For the first time in her adult life, she was unemployed.

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

About The Beacon Street Bookshop

Ever since Olivia Quinn lost her husband to a freak plane crash, she’s been focused on one thing—making a stable life for her teen stepdaughter, Taylor, of whom she’s the sole guardian. But when she loses her job as a children’s book editor because she refuses to relocate from Colorado to New York, all her hard-won stability is shattered.

Then the opportunity arises to open Liv’s dream bookshop in Haven Ridge, offering not only the solution to her financial problems, but a chance to bond with her stepdaughter and become a real family for the first time. Soon, the wild idea transforms into a thriving nonprofit, thanks to the generosity and enthusiasm of the town—and a handsome contractor who stirs feelings in Liv she’d thought might be gone forever.

But just as she begins to lean into the new life she’s made for herself, a figure from her late husband’s past puts the life she’s been building with Taylor in jeopardy. And Liv must face the possibility that following her heart might just cost her a daughter.

Find The Beacon Street Bookshop online at:

Amazon | 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!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #302 | Memory Lane by Becky Wade

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. I’m quoting from Memory Lane by Becky Wade, an amnesia story … because I’m always a sucker for a good amnesia story.

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

The day Remy Victoria Reed fished a drowning man from the Atlantic Ocean began in the most ordinary way.

 

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

 

About Memory Lane

After surviving a trauma several years back, Remy Reed relocated to a cottage on one of Maine’s most remote islands. She’s arranged her life just the way she wants it, spending her time working on her wood sculptures and soaking in the beauty of nature. It’s quiet and solitary—until the day she spots something bobbing in the ocean.

Her binoculars reveal the “something” to be a man, and he’s struggling to keep his head above water. She races out to save him and brings him into her home. He’s injured, which doesn’t detract from his handsomeness nor make him any easier to bear. He acts like a duke who’s misplaced his dukedom . . . expensive tastes, lazy charm, bossy ideas.

Remy would love nothing more than to return him to his people, but he has no recollection of his life prior to the moment she rescued him. Though she’s not interested in relationships other than the safe ones she’s already established, she begins to realize that he’s coming to depend on her.

Who is he? What happened that landed him in the Atlantic Ocean? And why is she drawn to him more and more as time goes by?

There’s no way to discover those answers except to walk beside him down memory lane.

Find Memory Lane 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!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #301 | No Matter How Far by Sara Beth Williams

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. No Matter How Far by Sara Beth Williams is the seventh book in the Trinity Lakes multi-author contemporary Christian small-town romance series.  Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

Dylan Mackay set his ski poles firmly in the soft snow to keep himself from sliding down the hill.

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

 

About No Matter How Far

He ran away to escape his fear. She faces her fear every day.

After the death of his late wife, associate professor Dylan Mackay never thought he’d fall for another woman, until the stubborn and beautiful Jocelyn rescues him from the top of a ski slope—though he needed no such rescuing. The blissful whirlwind week spent together at Trinity Lakes Ski Resort is one of the happiest in recent memory.

After a messy breakup followed by her parents’ sudden divorce, local Trinity Lakes paramedic Jocelyn Monroe had sworn off dating, until she is forced to rescue an injured Australian against his will while volunteering for the mountain ski patrol. Dylan is stubborn, handsome, intelligent and honorable, with a swoony Aussie accent to boot and she finds herself falling head over heels before the week is out.

Once down the mountain, the spontaneity and carelessness of their rushed relationship comes full circle in devastating blows. Each one grapples with life-altering decisions that would result in moving out of Trinity Lakes—her a short distance away, him across the world. Neither one wants to leave the other, nor do they want to leave the charming town itself. Can they lean on God and trust that He will hold onto them no matter how far they go?

A second chance, opposites attract, small town Contemporary Christian romance.

Find No Matter How Far online at:

Amazon | 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!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #300 | With All My Heart, Joy by Emily Dana Botrous

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 With All My Heart, Joy by Emily Dana Botrous, the third book in her Scripted Love series.

I read the first, With Love, Melody, in under a day after Narelle Atkins recommended it on the Story Chats at Inspy Romance podcast. Then I read the second, Forever Yours, Lucy, the next day. So now I’m up to the third book in the series … it’s been a long time since I binged a series, so that’s got to tell you something!

Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

The cobweb was still there. Joy slumped her head against the pillow as she stared at the white ceiling overhead.

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

 

About With All My Heart, Joy

A lonely single dad. A young influencer in need of counsel. Is their age difference a divide too big to bridge this Christmas?

Joy Halverson isn’t living up to her name. Being a kill-joy to those around her—and hiding reality from her online viewers—only makes her depression worse, and with the holidays coming, it’s time to do something about it. But there’s one thing she didn’t expect—to be attracted to her counselor. Her much older counselor.

Isaac Miller’s only priority in life is providing a stable environment for his disabled daughter. He has no time for flakey women who can’t commit to Paisley. When the young counseling client he can’t stop thinking about steps in to skillfully care for his daughter in a pinch, he is caught by surprise.

As a client, Joy is off limits to Isaac. He could never deserve her, anyway. An anonymous Christmas-card exchange is enough romance for him, right?

Besides, Joy doesn’t believe any man would want her for long in real life, no matter his age. Her counselor tries to challenge her thinking—but what will she do when he captures her heart?

Find With All My Heart, Joy 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!

First Line Friday

First Line Friday #299 | A Hopeful Heart by Cecily K Wolfe

It’s First Line Friday! That means it’s time to pick up the nearest book and quote the first line. A Hopeful Heart is a new release from Cecily K Wolfe, and appears to be her first contemporary story. Here’s the first line from the Chapter One:

Lilly couldn’t breathe. “These things happen. It’s not anyone’s fault.”

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

 

About A Hopeful Heart

In the midst of her picture-perfect marriage, Lilly’s world shatters when her husband abandons her for another woman. Now, with her baby Catherine, she retreats to the comforting embrace of her hometown, Heart Lake. There, Matthew, a childhood friend turned compassionate pediatric nurse, steps in, stirring unexpected emotions.

Matthew prays for guidance as he navigates these new feelings, while Lilly’s protective sisters watch with wary eyes. When a health scare threatens Catherine, Lilly leans on Matthew, only for her estranged husband to reappear, begging for forgiveness.

Caught in a whirlwind of faith, love, and second chances, Lilly faces a tough decision. Will she forgive her husband or open her heart to the possibility of new love with Matthew? Unravel Lilly’s poignant journey of heartbreak and healing in the heart of Heart Lake.

Find A Hopeful Heart 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!