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 arrived at another Friday and I, for one, am super excited! This probably has a lot to do with the fact that, as of 3:30 pm EST, I will be on vacation! I’m looking forward to a week of relaxation and hanging out with the family. Before I go into full relaxation-mode, though, it’s time for First Lines Friday. Today’s selection is something I recently picked up to try and tackle my Netgalley backlist. I’m loving it so far and I think the opening lines will definitely capture your attention! Let’s see if you can guess what book I’m talking about from just a few lines and a couple of hints.

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The Line(s):

“Today he would become a god. His mother had told him so.
‘Drink this,’ she said, handing him a cup. The cup was long and thin and filled with a pale creamy liquid. When he sniffed it, he smelled the orange flowers that grew in looping tendrils outside his window, the ones with the honey centers. But he also smelled the earthy sweetness of the bell-shaped flowers she cultivated in her courtyard garden, the one he was never allowed to play in. And he knew there were thinks he could not smell in the drink, secret things, things that came from the bag his mother wore around her neck, that whitened the tips of her fingers and his own tongue.”

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The Hints:

This is an adult fantasy that features multiple POVs.

The color of the cover and part of the title share a name.

The author has previously written both young adult and middle grade novels.

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The Reveal:

Click the cover to be taken to the Goodreads page

Goodreads Synopsis

“The first book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy, inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and woven into a tale of celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic.

A god will return
When the earth and sky converge
Under the black sun

In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world.

Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.”

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As I mentioned, I’ve already started reading this book in an effort to knock some novels off of my Netgalley backlist. I’m so glad I requested it because I’m absolutely loving this story! There are certain POVs I prefer more than others (Xiala has my whole heart) but this has been thoroughly enjoyable, so far, and I can’t wait to continue!

Did those first few lines capture your attention? Did they make you want to read the rest of the story? Let me know in the comments!

And, as always, happy reading!