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:

“Summer, 1348

One wicked July, a boy approached the ancient archway of the Porta di Santo Stefano. Squinting into full summer sun, he saw the heavy wooden doors shut tight. Although it was midday and the normal time for business, no guards stood outside, no people sought entrance. The year before, the scene would have been very different.”

I’m intrigued already! What changed? Where are the people? What’s going on? Why is the month … wicked? Are we talking wicked as in describing the heat and can’t say it’s wicked hot because a Boston accent didn’t exist, or are

Do you recognize the lines?

Here’s a hint:

This is a recently published historical fantasy.

Still not sure? Here’s another hint:

It’s written by debut author Anna Rasche.

The First Lines Friday book is:

The Stone Witch of Florence.

About the Book:

• Title: The Stone Witch of Florence 
• Author: Anna Rasche
• Page Length: 368 pages
• Publication Date: October 8, 2024
• Publisher: Park Row

Synopsis:

“A twisty, historical witchy escape.” —Entertainment Weekly

A woman’s secret. A deadly Plague. Unleash the hidden magic…

1348. As the Black Plague ravages Italy, Ginevra di Gasparo is summoned to Florence after nearly a decade of lonely exile. Ginevra has a gift—harnessing the hidden powers of gemstones, she can heal the sick. But when word spread of her unusual abilities, she was condemned as a witch and banished. Now the same men who expelled Ginevra are begging for her return.

Ginevra obliges, assuming the city’s leaders are finally ready to accept her unorthodox cures amid a pandemic. But upon arrival, she is tasked with a much different mission: she must use her collection of jewels to track down a ruthless thief who is ransacking Florence’s churches for priceless relics—the city’s only hope for protection. If she succeeds, she’ll be a recognized physician and never accused of witchcraft again.

But as her investigation progresses, Ginevra discovers she’s merely a pawn in a much larger scheme than the one she’s been hired to solve. And the dangerous men behind this conspiracy won’t think twice about killing a stone witch to get what they want…

Links: Goodreads     

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