A Touch of Vegas on First Line Friday

First Line Friday is a series of blog articles posted on the first Friday of every month. The first line of a story, we’re told, must hook the reader. Implied is that the reader will not buy the book if the first line isn’t great. These entries are a sampling from the authors I met at the 20Books writers conference in Vegas. Do these first lines hook you into reading more?


This first line Friday Book cover for Selfsame shows the back of a female in a red cape standing on a rocky outcropping facing a distant castle-like building or city.

Aria dropped her spear on the grass and stepped into the water’s edge.

SelfsamE
Lower Earth Rising Book 1
Eden Wolfe

This first line Friday book cover the Princess of Shadows shows woman with long brown hair and a purple gown 3/4 turned toward a valley and toward a castle on a mountain top across the valley against a dark sky filled with lightening bolts

Air rushed into Lina’s lungs. Her eyes snapped open, but she saw only darkness.

Princess of Shadows:
The Princess and the Pea Retold (Fairy Tale Adventures)
A. G. Marshall

This first line Friday book cover for the Pulse with two men and a boy holding weapons and standing with their backs to the camera looking out of a cave-like place toward a city

The sunlight breaks through the blinds like a hot knife cutting through a stick of butter.

The Pulse
Greenlight Boys Book 1
Daniel MacLagan

In the top third of this first line Friday book cover for The Lost Yearsis a round clock shape photograph of a city inside a frame that looks like gears. The clock hands shows four o'clock and  in the smaller portion of the photograph the city is in ruins

A small, white corner protruded from the damp ground, barely waving in the gentle breeze. 

The Lost Years:
The Palumbra Chronicles: Book One
L. D. Fairchild 

This first line Friday book cover for Project Dandelion has a woman wearing a gas mask with a worn flag behind her.

Katrina wanted to scream. Instead she rolled onto her belly and stretched her arms underneath the thin pillow.

Project Dandelion
Project Dandelion Book 1
Heather Carson

This first line Friday book cover for Lies the Guardians tell has a woman with long brown hair and her arms crossed on the top half. On the bottom half is a dome over a city

“Is there a problem, Sierra?”

Claudia loomed over Sierra’s desk, a scowl on her face, the emerald-tree orb on the head of her staff pulsing in unison with the blue luminescence that lit the walls of the classroom.

Lies The Guardians Tell
Lies of The Guardians Book 1
Herman Steuernagel

This first line Friday book cover for Upload has a textured background in a wine red color with an eye in the center. In front of the eye are a pair of crossed swords.

Jett is pure adrenaline. Even with a shackle on her right ankle, she can’t stand still, shifting weight from one foot to the other.

Upload
The Daughter of Rebellion
J Lynn Hicks

Clarification

Even though these are authors I met at the conference in Vegas, there are no affiliate links in this post. I don’t make a cent off of the books listed on this page. These titles are here for your enjoyment. And to entice you to buy more books. Buy books from Indie authors like these and you make a direct difference in that author’s life. Leave a review and you help the author and any reader looking for a similar book.

Do You Want to Read More?

Did you enjoy a touch of Vegas on First Line Friday? Check out previous First Line Fridays. You’ll put another enormous smile on my face if you tell me in the comments below— Which ones spoke to you? Did you buy it?

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