First Lines Friday (24th Feb ’23)

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted 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?

How it works:

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 we go…

Her name was Dumai, from an ancient word for a dream that ends too soon. She was born in the last glow of the Sunset Years, when every day poured soft as honey in the city of Antuma.

[ID: Yellow text reading ‘Curious? Scroll down for the book!’ above a white arrow pointing down. The background is dark blue and purple with yellow cartoon stars.]

‘A Day of Fallen Night’ by Samantha Shannon (publishing 28 Feb!)

Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms – but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory’s purpose.

To the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hróth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow – exactly where she wants to be.

The dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother’s past is coming to upend her fate.

When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat.

Text divider with a purple, orange, red and teal floral design

I’m about ~25% of the way through my NetGalley ARC (thanks, Bloomsbury!!) and enjoying it so far! I’ve been catching chapters here and there when I’m on my lunch break. There’s been many an OMG moment thus far and even though it’s massive (I’ve been reading it for over a month now), it doesn’t feel slow – something I also found with ‘The Priory of the Orange Tree’ (which ADoFN is a prequel to) as well. In fact, it’s making me want to reread ‘Priory’ again so I can make fresh connections, as I’ve definitely forgotten some things since my 2019 read…