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?

The Rules:

• 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!

First Lines:

“On a full moon night, after a day of fasting, the young bride Sorel Kalmans leapt from a window and left her life behind.”

I am so intrigued by this one line that I’m ready to drop everything to start this book. It doesn’t hurt that it’s by one of my new favorite authors.

Do you recognize the lines?

Here’s a hint:

It’s an upcoming historical fiction featuring Jewish mythology and a genderqueer lesbian MC.

Still not sure? Here’s another hint:

It’s written by Sacha Lamb.

The First Lines Friday book is:

The Forbidden Book.

About the Book:

• Title: The Forbidden Book
• Author: Sacha Lamb
• Page Length: 256 pages
• Publication Date: October 1, 2024
• Publisher: Levine Querido

Synopsis:

Dybbuks.

Illegal printing.

A genderqueer lesbian with a knife.

Set against a backdrop of literary censorship and growing Jewish political consciousness, Sydney Taylor and Stonewall award-winning Sacha Lamb’s sophomore novel is a soaring exploration of identity, survival, and ultimately, hope.

On the night before her wedding, 17-year-old Sorel leaps from a window and runs away from her life. To keep from being discovered, she takes on the male identity of Isser Jacobs — but it soon becomes clear that there is a real Isser Jacobs, and people want him dead. Her mistaken identity takes Sorel into the dark underworld of her small city in the Pale of Settlement, where smugglers, forgers, and wicked angels fight for control of the Jewish community. In order to make it out, Sorel must discover who Isser Jacobs really is — and who she wants to be.

Links: Goodreads     

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