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 (I cheat a little bit here *cough*)
• Finally… reveal the book!

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

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Hello, reader!

I hope your Friday is treating you well. If not, how about a little First Lines Friday post to help forget your woes? Or at least distract you for a couple of minutes, haha. I have to work this weekend and I’m not excited about it, but I’m still happy that we’ve made it to the end of the week!

But on to the bookish stuff! The novel I’ve picked for today’s First Lines Friday post is a contemporary novel that has been on my Netgalley shelf for… an embarrassingly long amount of time. Especially since it’s a book that I’ve really wanted to read! I think what has me hesitating is the fact that I don’t really pick up contemporaries a lot, but this one has elements that definitely appeal to me.

Now, let’s see if the first lines can appeal, as well!

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The Line(s):

“Everyone has a story about the first time they read the Orman Chronicles. This is mine.”

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The Hints:

This YA contemporary was released in February of 2021.

It has one of my favorite tropes: bookish themes!

It also takes a close look at grief and love.

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The Reveal:

Amelia Unabridged by Ashley Schumacher

Click the cover to be taken to the Goodreads page

Goodreads Synopsis

Sparks fly between two teens as they grapple with grief, love, and the future.

Eighteen-year-old Amelia Griffin is obsessed with the famous Orman Chronicles, written by the young and reclusive prodigy N. E. Endsley. They’re the books that brought her and her best friend Jenna together after Amelia’s father left and her family imploded. So when Amelia and Jenna get the opportunity to attend a book festival with Endsley in attendance, Amelia is ecstatic. It’s the perfect way to start off their last summer before college.

In a heartbeat, everything goes horribly wrong. When Jenna gets a chance to meet the author and Amelia doesn’t, the two have a blowout fight like they’ve never experienced. And before Amelia has a chance to mend things, Jenna is killed in a freak car accident. Grief-stricken, and without her best friend to guide her, Amelia questions everything she had planned for the future.

When a mysterious, rare edition of the Orman Chronicles arrives, Amelia is convinced that it somehow came from Jenna. Tracking the book to an obscure but enchanting bookstore in Michigan, Amelia is shocked to find herself face-to-face with the enigmatic and handsome N. E. Endsley himself, the reason for Amelia’s and Jenna’s fight and perhaps the clue to what Jenna wanted to tell her all along.

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Did that first line capture your attention? Did it make you want to read the rest of the story? Let me know in the comments!

And, as always, happy reading!