First Line Friday — A Passionate Hope

9 Feb

Yay, it’s Friday! Many of you are probably saying finally! With that being said, what’s a better way to start the weekend early than with First Line Friday. Please leave a comment with the first sentence in the book nearest to hand, then head over to Hoarding Books to find out what other bloggers are spotlighting today.

 

This week I am featuring the first line of Jill Eileen Smith‘s newest release, A Passionate Hope. I loved this book! (You can read my review HERE.) If you like Biblical fiction, then this novel is a must-read!

 

 

Hannah and her husband, Elkanah, share a deep and abiding love, for each other, for their God, and for his tabernacle at Shiloh. Greatly disturbed by the corruption of the priests, they long for restoration and pray for a deliverer. But nothing changes as the years pass. Years that also reveal Hannah to be barren.

Pressured by his family to take another wife, Elkanah marries Peninnah, who quickly begins to bear children. Disgraced and taunted by her husband’s new wife, Hannah turns again to prayers that seem doomed to go unanswered. Do her devotion and kindness in the face of Peninnah’s cruelty count for nothing? Why does God remain silent and indifferent to her pleas?

Travel back to the dusty streets of Shiloh with an expert guide as Jill Eileen Smith brings to life a beloved story of hope, patience, and deliverance that shows that even the most broken of relationships can be restored.

Jill Eileen Smith is the bestselling, award-winning author of the Wives of King David series, the Daughters of the Promised Land, the Wives of the Patriarchs, and The Loves of King Solomon series. Her research has taken her from the Bible to Israel, and she particularly enjoys learning how women lived in Old Testament times.

When she isn’t writing, she loves to spend time with her family and friends, read stories that take her away, ride her bike to the park, snag date nights with her hubby, try out new restaurants, or play with her lovable, “helpful” cat Tiger. Jill lives with her family in southeast Michigan.

Contact Jill through email (jill@jilleileensmith.com), her website (http://www.jilleileensmith.com), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jilleileensmith), or Twitter (https://twitter.com/JillEileenSmith).

 

What’s your first line?

 

28 Responses to “First Line Friday — A Passionate Hope”

  1. susandyer1962 February 9, 2018 at 7:21 am #

    Happy Friday!

    My first line comes from a book I will be reading soon, August and Everything After by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski…..
    I started wearing my grandmother’s old cat-eye glasses in June, right after my latest crush nearly crushed me.

    Have a great weekend and stay warm!

    • rbclibrary February 9, 2018 at 7:51 am #

      So love that line! I haven’t heard of this book. I’ll check it out. Thanks for sharing and happy Friday!

  2. nashpredsfan27 February 9, 2018 at 9:05 am #

    Another one I haven’t read…yet.

    Happy Friday.

    Four years to the day after the alien planet arrived above Earth, Sofi’s papa had collapsed on the rickety front porch of their buttermilk-yellow farmhouse. –Reclaiming Shilo Snow by Mary Weber

    • rbclibrary February 9, 2018 at 9:07 am #

      I have heard such wonderful things about that series. Thanks so much for sharing the first line!

  3. Becky February 9, 2018 at 9:21 am #

    Ah, I need to add this to my TBR ASAP! Thanks for sharing!

    I’m featuring “The Saturday Night Supper Club” by Carla Laureano on the blog today, but my first line here will be the book I’m currently reading, “Across the Blue” by Carrie Turansky.

    February 1909
    Isabella Grayson’s shoes sank into the plush red carpet of Broadlands’ south hall, and she released a soft sigh. What luxury!

    Happy reading and have a wonderful weekend!

    • rbclibrary February 9, 2018 at 1:07 pm #

      Ahhh is right! Thanks for stopping by!

  4. Beth Erin February 9, 2018 at 12:27 pm #

    I love this cover!

    • rbclibrary February 9, 2018 at 1:07 pm #

      Me too! I am working on a Top 10 Tuesday post that features Biblical fiction. All so pretty.

  5. Anneliese Dalaba February 9, 2018 at 12:58 pm #

    Pretty cover. On my blog, I’m featuring Wilted Dandelions by Catherine Ulrich Brakefield. Here I will share the first line of the book I’m currently reading, Rumors and Promises by Kathleen Rouser. Stone Creek, Michigan, 1900. “Sophia Bidershem jerked awake as the train whistle blew.” I wish you a wonderful weekend.

    • rbclibrary February 9, 2018 at 1:06 pm #

      Happy weekend to you as well!

  6. bellesmoma16 February 9, 2018 at 1:46 pm #

    I just got this book! I can’t wait to read it. I’ve heard such good things.

    Over on my blog, I am featuring Heather B. Moore’s novel, Worth the Risk. I am very excited to read that book. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun.

    Here, I will post from the novel I am currently reading, A Refuge Assured by Jocelyn Green. It is an AMAZING story that I am enjoying wholeheartedly. I am just starting chapter 29, so I will share the first two lines from this chapter.

    Asylum, Pennsylvania
    July 1795

    Still damp with morning’s dew, the cool earth soiled Vivienne’s apron as she knelt in her garden, tugging weeds from between iris and yarrow. Geese soared overhead, soft brown chevrons against a sky of robin’s-egg blue.

    • rbclibrary February 9, 2018 at 2:17 pm #

      That book does look amazing! Need to read it and Laura Frantz’s new book.

  7. bettylouise31 February 9, 2018 at 1:47 pm #

    I am featuring a book completely different from your book. One of my favorite cat stories by Shirley Rousseau Murphy about sentient cats. I am looking forward to read the one comes out in November.

    • rbclibrary February 9, 2018 at 2:16 pm #

      Cats are favorite of mine, especially when they involve mysteries.

      • bettylouise31 February 9, 2018 at 3:07 pm #

        There is some mystery but usually I understand it as the tale moved along

      • rbclibrary February 9, 2018 at 5:01 pm #

        🙂

  8. Kathleen Denly February 9, 2018 at 2:11 pm #

    Well, sounds like someone is excited. That cover is lovely. Happy Friday! 🙂

    • rbclibrary February 9, 2018 at 2:16 pm #

      It’s a lovely book too!

  9. hjsnyder28 February 9, 2018 at 4:23 pm #

    I just received this book in the mail, and I can’t wait to read it! Happy Friday!

    • rbclibrary February 9, 2018 at 5:00 pm #

      Enjoy it!

  10. carylkane February 9, 2018 at 8:08 pm #

    Josie Gallagher gripped the letter from the county manager’s office with tight hands. – Her Secret Daughter by Ruth Logan Herne

    Happy Friday and Happy Reading! 🙂

    • rbclibrary February 10, 2018 at 5:33 am #

      A “gripping” first line. (feel free to groan) It really is a good first line! Happy weekend!

  11. lelandandbecky February 9, 2018 at 8:27 pm #

    Happy Friday! My first line is from Forward to What Lies Ahead by Chloe S. Flanagan:

    “Regina’s cellphone buzzed sharply, shattering the silence of her apartment and making her coffee table vibrate.”

    • rbclibrary February 10, 2018 at 5:32 am #

      I hate when that happens! 😉 Happy weekend!

  12. Paula Shreckhise February 9, 2018 at 9:06 pm #

    From Across the Blue by Carrie Turansky:
    Paragraph 5 of page one.
    February 1909
    Bella has visited many lovely homes in London after her presentation at court and the rounds of balls and dinner parties during her first two seasons, but she’d never seen a more lavish home tha Broadlands, her family’s new country estate.

    • rbclibrary February 10, 2018 at 5:32 am #

      Lots of people have been sharing this book. I need to check it out! Happy weekend!

  13. Fiction Aficionado February 9, 2018 at 10:22 pm #

    I really enjoyed this one.

    I’m featuring Jennifer Rodewald’s Valentine’s Day novella on my blog, but at the moment I’m refreshing my memory on Mary Weber’s The Evaporation of Sofi Snow:

    “The ice-planet arrived in the dusky heat of summer twilight during Earth’s Fourth World War.”

    Have a great weekend.

    • rbclibrary February 10, 2018 at 5:31 am #

      Sounds ominous! I have heard great things about this novel. Thanks for sharing the first line.

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