Great First Lines

They say that your first sentence, paragraph, page...should capture the reader's attention and make them want to read more. That made me curious about how some of my favorite authors start their books, so I've developed this quirky habit of checking out the first line of books when I'm in a bookstore.

Covenant Child by Terri Blackstock is one of my all-time favorite books. The first line of the book is...

"There's a question that haunts me in the blackest hours of night, when wasted moments crowd my dreams and mock the life I know."

Is that a great first line or what? You know you just have to find out what the question is that haunts this character and the rest of the book is just as intriguing as the first line. I highly recommend it.

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(Copyright© 2010, 2011 Jan Christiansen. All rights reserved.)

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