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?  If you want to make your own post, feel free to use or edit the banner above, and follow the rules below:

• 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!

If you’re using Twitter, don’t forget to use #FirstLinesFridays!

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Hello, reader!

We’ve made it to Friday and, even though I’m working this weekend, I’m pretty stoked! This week has been such a blur it feels like. Partly because I got my first dose of the Covid vaccine on Tuesday and one of the possible side effects is fatigue. I’m tired all the time anyways, so of course the one side effect I get makes me even more sleepy! I was a zombie all day Wednesday and have slowly been getting back to normal. Still, I’m excited to be on my way to being vaccinated!

Annnnyways, let’s get to the post, shall we? For today’s First Lines Friday, I’ve picked a middle grade that has recently captured my imagination. All of you that are a part of the Middle Grade Marvels group will instantly know what I’m talking about 😉 For everyone else A) you should totally come join us and B) let’s see if you can guess which book it is!

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The Line(s):

“The prisoner gazed out her window. It was one of four in Crowstone Tower, the tall stone cage in which she was being held.
Here, if she kept her eyes up, she could pretend that the prison walls far below did not exist, and that she was looking upon the world from a castle, or perhaps a mountain.
But today she was done with make-believe; pretending she was in a dream, pretending someone was going to save her.”

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Any Guesses?

This is a middle grade fantasy featuring three sisters…

…three magical items…

…and a family curse

The Reveal:

Click the cover to be taken to the Goodreads page

Goodreads Synopsis

“A spellbinding middle grade fantasy about three sisters–adventurous Betty, curious Charlie, and proper Fliss–who go on a quest to break the curse that’s haunted their family for generations.

All Betty Widdershins wants is an adventure–one that takes her far away from Crowstone, the gloomy island where she’s always lived. But instead of an adventure, Betty and her sisters, Fliss and Charlie, are given of a set of magical objects, each with its own powers: a scruffy carpet bag, a set of wooden nesting dolls, and a gilt-framed mirror. And these magical objects come with their own terrible secret: the sisters’ family is haunted by a generations-long curse that prevents them from ever leaving their island–at the cost of death.

The sisters set out to break the curse and free their family forever. But after stumbling upon a mysterious prisoner who claims to be able to help them, they find themselves in great danger. And in order to break the curse–and stay alive–they must unravel a mystery that goes back centuries, one that involves shipwrecks, smugglers, and sorcery of the most perilous kind.”

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Have you read this book? Did those first few lines capture your attention? Let me know in the comments!

And, as always, happy reading!