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:

“Does “falling in love” imply that you fall and keep falling or that you fall and land into love? In other words, was love a dark, vertical tunnel without end, or more of a soft, cushiony feather bed? This was what I was thinking about while I opened cupboards and peeked inside closets, trying to feign disinterest, because the truth was, as soon as I’d taken one look at the 1920s Romanesque Revival mansion on Hill Street, a crumbling, ivy-covered brick and stone castle, I knew that I couldn’t live without it, that I was in love, that it was—or would be—mine.”

I’m intrigued, and this sounds like a very atmospheric house to set a story in.

Do you recognize the lines?

Here’s a hint:

This is an upcoming psychological thriller/horror book.

Still not sure? Here’s another hint:

It’s written by Kelly Dwyer.

The First Lines Friday book is:

Ghost Mother.

About the Book:

• Title: Ghost Mother
• Author: Kelly Dwyer
• Page Length: 323 pages
• Publication Date: August 6, 2024
• Publisher: Union Square & Co.
• Synopsis:

A mesmerizing psychological ghost story that blurs the thin line between reality and delusion—and a chilling tour de force that is unputdownable and unforgettable.

Lilly Bly desperately wants to have a baby. She is struggling with infertility and bad spending habits when her husband, Jack, lands a new job that moves them from Chicago to a small town in Wisconsin. Impractical Lilly falls in love with a decrepit mansion well out of their price range, certain this is where she’ll finally become a mother, and Jack reluctantly agrees to buy the wreck. But after Lilly learns her dream house was the site of a gruesome murder-suicide in the 1950s, she begins to experience strange occurrences, leading her to believe the house is haunted. Are her ghostly encounters real, or is this a cascading mental breakdown? The more Lilly learns about the deaths, the more she becomes obsessed with discovering the truth about the tragic crime. As her visions become increasingly vivid, her relationship with Jack deteriorates, leading to a dramatic and irreversible climax.

Links: Goodreads 

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