First Line Friday — Catching Christmas

7 Dec

It’s the first Friday in December! Are you ready for Christmas yet? I am almost finished with the decorating, the shopping, and the baking. Ok, I am so not ready! LOL! But that won’t stop me from enjoying some Christmas reading. Today I am sharing the first line of Catching Christmas by Terri Blackstock. She is a go-to author for my book club, and her novella is our December selection.

Please share your first line and then head over to Hoarding Books for more fabulous first lines!

 

 

This Year, Christmas Comes Just in Time

As a first-year law associate, Sydney Batson knows she will be updating her resume by New Year’s if she loses her current case. So when her grandmother gets inexplicably ill while she’s in court, Sydney arranges for a cab to get her to the clinic.

The last thing cab driver Finn Parrish wants is to be saddled with a wheelchair-bound old lady with dementia. But because Miss Callie reminds him of his own mother, whom he failed miserably in her last days, he can’t say no when she keeps calling him for rides. Once a successful gourmet chef, Finn’s biggest concern now is paying his rent, but half the time Callie doesn’t remember to pay him. And as she starts to feel better, she leads him on wild-goose chases to find a Christmas date for her granddaughter.

When Finn meets Sydney, he’s quite sure she’s never needed help finding a date. Does Miss Callie have an ulterior motive, or is this just a mission driven by delusions? He’s willing to do whatever he can to help fulfill Callie’s Christmas wish. He just never expected to be a vital part of it.

 

Terri Blackstock is a New York Times and USA Today best-seller, with over seven million books sold worldwide. She is the winner of two Carol Awards, a Christian Retailers Choice Award, and a Romantic Times Book Reviews Career Achievement Award, among others. She has had over twenty-five years of success as a novelist. Terri spent the first twelve years of her life traveling in an Air Force family. She lived in nine states and attended the first four years of school in The Netherlands. Because she was a perpetual “new kid,” her imagination became her closest friend. That, she believes, was the biggest factor in her becoming a novelist. She sold her first novel at the age of twenty-five, and has had a successful career ever since.

In 1994 Terri was writing romance novels under two pseudonyms for publishers such as HarperCollins, Harlequin, Dell and Silhouette, when a spiritual awakening prompted her to switch gears. At the time, she was reading more suspense than romance, and felt drawn to write thrillers about ordinary people in grave danger. Her newly awakened faith wove its way into the tapestry of her suspense novels, offering hope instead of despair. Her goal is to entertain with page-turning plots while challenging her readers. She hopes to remind them that they’re not alone, and that their trials have a purpose.

Terri has appeared on national television programs such as “The 700 Club” and “Home Life,” and has been a guest on numerous radio programs across the country. The story of her personal journey appears in books such as Touched By the Savior by Mike Yorkey, True Stories of Answered Prayer by Mike Nappa, Faces of Faith by John Hanna, and I Saw Him In Your Eyes by Ace Collins.

18 Responses to “First Line Friday — Catching Christmas”

  1. lelandandbecky December 7, 2018 at 9:12 am #

    I have just been introduced to author Stacey Weeks, and am excited to start reading her book “Mistletoe Melody”. Here is the first line:

    “Incoming!”

    • rbclibrary December 7, 2018 at 11:39 am #

      Duck!! Have a great weekend!

  2. carhicks December 7, 2018 at 10:00 am #

    I love it. This one sounds fun, yet with a bit of mystery and intrigue.

    • rbclibrary December 7, 2018 at 11:38 am #

      No mystery or intrigue in this book. Just heartwarming Christmas story.

      • carhicks December 7, 2018 at 6:56 pm #

        Love those kinds of stories.

      • rbclibrary December 9, 2018 at 4:37 pm #

        It’s a good one. Thanks for stopping by!

  3. Michelle December 7, 2018 at 10:19 am #

    Great author!

    I am showcasing the book `Shadows of Deception` (Ashley Dawn) on my blog,

    So here I’ll put the first line of a non-fiction book I am reading.

    Next Level Thinking (Joel Osteen)

    So often we let our environment, how we were raised, and other people’s expectations of us set the limits for our life.

    • rbclibrary December 7, 2018 at 11:38 am #

      Thanks for sharing. Hope you have a great weekend.

  4. susandyer1962 December 7, 2018 at 11:11 am #

    Happy Friday!

    My first lines come from The Mother In Law by Sally Hepworth………

    I am folding laundry at my dining room table when the police car pulls up. There’s no fanfare— no sirens or flashing lights— yet that little niggle starts in the pit of my stomach, Mother Nature’s warning that all is not well.

    Have an awesome weekend and stay warm! Happy reading!😊📚💕

    • rbclibrary December 7, 2018 at 4:04 pm #

      Uh oh! Have a great weekend.

  5. Anneliese Dalaba December 7, 2018 at 12:30 pm #

    I love reading Christmas romances this time of year, so I’m featuring one on my blog today, but here I’ll share one of the books I’m currently reading, The Christian History Devotional by J. Stephen Lang. I’ll be slowly reading it for a long time. And I’m not reading it in the right order. Today I’m on April 10. “1820: We are so accustomed to the Salvation Army that we forget how radical it seemed when it first appeared. Its founder was William Booth, born on this date.” Have a wonderful weekend and happy reading!

    • rbclibrary December 7, 2018 at 4:03 pm #

      I have a similar book. It’s fascinating.

  6. thebeccafiles December 7, 2018 at 4:18 pm #

    Happy Friday!
    This week on my blog I’m sharing from I know the Plans by Melissa Wardwell but it’s also my current read so I’ll share the first line from chapter 8 where I’m currently at: “So how are things going?” Hope you have a great weekend!

    • rbclibrary December 9, 2018 at 4:38 pm #

      Hope yours was great as well!

  7. bellesmoma16 December 7, 2018 at 5:27 pm #

    Happy Friday!

    On my blog, I’m sharing the first couple of lines from Silent Days, Holy Night by Phyllis Clark Nichols. I’m just starting chapter 2 now, so I’ll post the first lines from there.

    “‘Since I can’t go to Grancie’s today, could I go tomorrow?’ I didn’t think Dad was looking, so I took another sugar cube and stirred it into my tea.”

    Hope you have a great weekend filled with awesome reading time. 😀❤📚

    • rbclibrary December 9, 2018 at 4:38 pm #

      Thanks! You too!

  8. Yvette - Bookworlder December 8, 2018 at 1:35 am #

    Happy Friday! I’m sharing from Georgette Heyer’s Envious Casca on my blog today, but here’s the first line from the next Heyer book I’ll be reading, Why Shoot a Butler?:

    “The signpost was unhelpful.”

    • rbclibrary December 9, 2018 at 4:37 pm #

      Good first line. I haven’t read many of her books, but have enjoyed the ones I’ve read.

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