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:

“Halla of Rutger’s Howe had just inherited a great deal of money and was therefore spending her evening trying to figure out how to kill herself.”

Uh, what? I need to find out why she doesn’t want to live with a great deal of money!

Do you recognize the lines?

Here’s a hint:

This is an upcoming fantasy romance.

Still not sure? Here’s another hint:

It’s written by one of my favorite authors, T. Kingfisher.

The First Lines Friday book is:

Swordheart.

About the Book:

• Title: Swordheart
• Author: T. Kingfisher
• Series: The World of the White Rat
• Page Length: 426 pages
• Publication Date: February 25, 2025
• Publisher: Bramble

Synopsis:

Halla is a housekeeper who has suddenly inherited her great-uncle’s estate… and, unfortunately, his relatives. Sarkis is an immortal swordsman trapped in a prison of enchanted steel. When Halla draws the sword that imprisons him, Sarkis finds himself attempting to defend his new wielder against everything from bandits and roving inquisitors to her own in-laws… and the sword itself may prove to be the greatest threat of all.

Links: Goodreads     

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