Only 3 days to Christmas! Yay! I hope you have all your shopping/baking/etc. done so that you can relax with family and friends and maybe a good book! Still have a frenzied to-do list? Consider downloading an audiobook to accompany you on your errands and chores. It just might bring the stress level down.
The folks at Hoarding Books are featuring Christmas on this First Line Friday. I have chosen a book that combines a lot of what I love — Christmas, Jane Austen, and mystery. I am looking forward to cracking open Jane And The Twelve Days of Christmas by Stephanie Barron and getting lost in a Regency mystery. To find out what Christmas books other bloggers are sharing, click HERE.
Jane Austen turns sleuth in this delightful murder mystery set over the twelve days of a Regency-Era Christmas party.
Christmas Eve, 1814: Jane Austen has been invited to spend the holiday with family and friends at The Vyne, the gorgeous ancestral home of the wealthy and politically prominent Chute family. As the year fades and friends begin to gather beneath the mistletoe for the twelve days of Christmas festivities, Jane and her circle are in a celebratory mood: Mansfield Park is selling nicely; Napoleon has been banished to Elba; British forces have seized Washington, DC; and on Christmas Eve, John Quincy Adams signs the Treaty of Ghent, which will end a war nobody in England really wanted.
Jane, however, discovers holiday cheer is fleeting. One of the Yuletide revelers dies in a tragic accident, which Jane immediately views with suspicion. If the accident was in fact murder, the killer is one of Jane’s fellow snow-bound guests. With clues scattered amidst cleverly crafted charades, dark secrets coming to light during parlor games, and old friendships returning to haunt the Christmas parties, whom can Jane trust to help her discover the truth and stop the killer from striking again?
That sounds interesting!
On my blog, I’m featuring the first line from a fun Christmas read called ‘Tinsel in a Tangle’ by Laurie Germaine, but here, I’m going to share the first line from another Christmas book I recently finished, this one by Chautona Havig, called ‘Carol and the Belles’:
“I’ll never get off this plane.”
Merry Christmas!
Sounds like what people in Atlanta experienced last Sunday. eek. Merry Christmas!
I’ll be one of those running around a little tomorrow. Fortunately, I only have a couple of things to pick up.
My first line comes from Deborah Raney’s Circle of Blessings:
Dakota Territory, 1864
It was almost closing time, and in all of his seventeen years, James Collingwood could not remember being so bone-weary as he felt tonight.
Merry Christmas!
Another great line from Deborah Randy! Merry Christmas!
I enjoyed this series! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
“Good morning, Kansas!” The radio scratched out static over deejay Kris Kristiansen’s lilting baritone. – Silver Bells by Deborah Raney
Oh I bet that is a great book! I love Deborah Raney.
You had me at Jane Austen 🙂
Next up on my TBR…
The music seeped into her soul like fog over the Thames. (from A Song Unheard by Roseanna M. White)
Merry Christmas!
That is a strong first line. Merry Christmas to you!
Happy Friday!
My FLF comes from a book I’m reading now Secrets of the Tulip Sisters by Susan Mallery.
Kelly Murphy was willing to accept certain injustices in the world. That brownies had more calories than celery.
Happy Holidays!
Love it! Merry Christmas!
That sounds interesting. The book I’m featuring on my blog today is A Match of Sorts by Lucette Nel. Merry Christmas!
Thanks for stopping by! And a very Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Interesting!!! I will have to check this book out.
Merry Christmas!
Today on my blog I am featuring Desert Duet by Debra Marvin. I’m just beginning chapter 3, so I will leave the first line from that chapter.
“The new gray fedora, with its crisp, black grosgrain band, would be a stylish, but dismal failure at preventing sunburn.”
I’m really enjoying this story! Happy Friday. 😊
Cute line! Merry Christmas!
Now this book sounds interesting ~ I will have to look for it! 🙂 I love Jane Austen!
Over on my blog, I’m featuring Monster by Frank Peretti, but over here, I’ll share the first line of another on my TBR pile, The Cottage by Michael Phillips: “The letter two weeks before had been brief. Less than half a page. Yet in an instant it had turned her life upside down.”
Merry Christmas ~ May God remind you of His presence and unfailing love in Jesus Christ throughout the season! 🙂
The Cottage is in my TBR pile. I need to move it up to the top. Merry Christmas to you and your family!
My first lines come from a historical mystery. In spite of the name. It is NOT a paranormal. You won’t go wrong with a Man Austin book.
Thanks for stopping by the old blog! Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to you!
I love all things Jane Austen, and I have seen this book before…it must go on my reading list! 🙂 Merry Christmas!
I love Austen too. This is a really good series. Merry Christmas to you!
I think I REALLY WANT TO just snuggle up with a book and read… this book in particular! Thanks for reminding me of this series! Merry Christmas my friend!
Yes!! Merry Christmas to you and your family.
This book looks like a lot of fun! I am eager to read your thoughts :).
I’m sharing the first line of a classic today on the blog, The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke. So, here’s the first line of my current read: “I glared at the incessant blinking of my cursor and groaned.” – A Cliche Christmas by Nicole Deese.
Merry Christmas, Courtney!
Jane Austen meets Agatha Christie? Sounds like fun!
I’m sharing from All is Bright by Andrea Grigg over on my blog, a wonderful novella set in Australia … which means a summer Christmas (FYI, that’s normal for me. Not so normal for most of you, or for my Icelandic pastor and his family.)
I’m currently reading A Sweethaven Christmas by Courtney Walsh, an new favourite author. Here’s the first line:
“Why is that woman staring over here?” Lila shifted in the tall-backed linen-covered chair and nodded towards a blonde woman at the bar.
I suspect this is going to be more than a Christmas story …
Blessings as you celebrate the birth of our Saviour this week!
Merry Christmas, Iola!