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:

“The problem with mushrooms, Pansy decided, half-squatting in the damp, forest earth, was that far too many of them looked alike. Take the crop of orange fungus blanketing one side of the fallen log before her, for example. Was it the delicious, yet rare, Phoenix Tail mushroom she’d spent most of the morning searching the forest for? Or was it the far more ominously named Bloodletter Shroom? Gods only knew the answer to that one. Because Pansy certainly didn’t; not even with a borrowed copy of Fatleaf’s Fungal Fancies clutched in one dirt-stained hand.”

I love the sound of these first few lines. They’re so intriguing and I already like Pansy.

Do you recognize the lines?

Here’s a hint:

This is an upcoming cozy romantasy novel.

Still not sure? Here’s another hint:

It is written by Jessie Sylva.

The First Lines Friday book is:

How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days.

About the Book:

• Title: How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days
• Author: Jessie Sylva
• Page Length: 384 pages
• Publication Date: January 20, 2026
• Publisher: Orbit

Synopsis:

WHAT IF COTTAGECORE AND GOBLINCORE FELL IN LOVE?

When a halfling, Pansy, and a goblin, Ren, each think they’ve inherited the same cottage, they make a bargain: They’ll live in the house together and whoever is driven out first forfeits their ownership.

Amid forced proximity and cultural misunderstandings, the two begin to fall in love.

But when the cottage—and their communities—are threatened by a common enemy, the duo must learn to trust each other and convince goblins and halflings to band together to oust the tall intruder.

Links: Goodreads     

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