Happy Friday! Today’s first line comes from my weekend read, The Governess of Penwythe Hall by Sarah E. Ladd. The spring-y cover is lovely, and I know I am going to love what’s inside too! I am anticipating a wonderful journey to Regency-era Cornwall for intrigue and romance!
What are you reading this weekend? Leave your first line in the comments, then head over to Hoarding Books for more fabulous first lines!
Cornwall was in her blood, and Delia feared she’d never escape its hold.
Cornwall, England, 1811
Blamed for her husband’s death, Cordelia Greythorne fled Cornwall and accepted a governess position to begin a new life. Years later her employer’s unexpected death and his last request for her to watch over his five children force her to reevaluate. She can’t abandon the children now that they’ve lost both parents, but their new guardian lives at the timeworn Penwythe Hall . . . back on the Cornish coast she’s tried desperately to forget.
Jac Twethewey is determined to revive Penwythe Hall’s once-flourishing apple orchards, and he’ll stop at nothing to see his struggling estate profitable again. He hasn’t heard from his brother in years, so when his nieces, nephews, and their governess arrive unannounced, he battles both grief at his brother’s death and bewilderment over this sudden responsibility. Jac’s priorities shift as the children take up residence in the ancient halls, but their secretive governess — and the mystery shrouding her past — proves to be a disruption to his carefully laid plans.
Rich with family secrets, lingering danger, and the captivating allure of new love, this first book in the Cornwall series introduces us to the Twethewey family and their search for peace, justice, and love on the Cornish coast.
Sarah E. Ladd has always loved the Regency period — the clothes, the music, the literature and the art. A college trip to England and Scotland confirmed her interest in the time period and gave her idea of what life would’ve looked like in era. It wasn’t until 2010 that Ladd began writing seriously. Shortly after, Ladd released the first book in the Whispers on the Moors series. Book one of the series, The Heiress of Winterwood, was the recipient of the 2011 ACFW Genesis Award for historical romance.
Hi! Happy Friday.
I shared the first couple of lines from my recent read, You’d Be Mine by Erin Hahn. I thoroughly enjoyed the book & definitely recommend it to you. Here, though, I will be sharing the opening lines of my current read, Mother Country by Irina Reyn.
First-World Problems
Brooklyn, April 2014
In this Brooklyn neighborhood, Nadia was sure she was the only nanny from Ukraine. She preferred to think of herself as an observer, a temporary traveler, someone waiting for a new life to begin, rather than who she really was: a worker executing an invisible task within the neighborhood’s complex ecosystem.
I’m only 10% into Mother Country but already it’s proving to be an interesting read. It’s about a mother whose daughter is trapped in war-torn Donbass in Ukraine. I think this one will turn out to be an important read for me.
Hope you enjoyed that. Happy weekend!
Sounds really good. Enjoy it!
I’m reading this book now… and really enjoying it! Happy reading!
Over on my blog, I’m sharing the first line of Amanda Dykes’s novella “Up from the Sea”. Here I’ll share with you the first line from chapter 25 of the book I’m currently reading, The Governess of Penwythe Hall by Sarah E. Ladd. “They’d found her.”
That line makes me want to drop everything and get back to reading Ladd’s book! LOL
Happy Friday!
Today on my blog I am sharing the first few lines from The Memory House by Rachel Hauck. It is SO awesome. You can see my post by going to: https://christianfictiongirl.blog/2019/04/11/first-line-friday-82-2/. Currently, I am on chapter 22, so I will share a line from there.
“The knock came late as the house rattled with the crashes and flashes of a spring thunderstorm.”
Hope you have a great weekend. Happy reading! 🙂❤️📚
The Memory House is my favorite by Hauck. It is excellent!
I’m loving it!
I’m reading this one right now!
The book I shared today on my blog is Caught by Surprise by Jen Turano but since I’m currently reading the same book as you I’ve been sharing the first line from my current chapter (17) so I’ll share that here too: “Delia chewed her lip as she traversed the path to Fairhold Cottage, mentally practicing what she wanted to say.” Hope you have a great day and a wonderful weekend!
I am only a couple of chapters into the book, but it has great tension going on already. I want to know more!
My first paragraph is from an exceptional book by a new author: A retelling of Ruth and Naomi in Victorian times.
Shadow Among Sheaves by Naomi Stephens:
England, July, 1861
Both women were starving.
After nearly three weeks in Abbotsville, Rena’s shoulder blades now cut against her skin like she was made of paper. Head pounding, she lay beside Nell in a stable which smelled of manure, desperate for a way to escape the unbreakable claws of poverty.
I’m looking forward to reading Sarah’s book!
Naomi Stephen’s book sounds great. It could be a contender for my Faith And Fiction Bible Study!
Happy Friday!
I’m reading Sarah’s first series Whispers on the Moors this month, but I hope to get to this book at some point.
Today on my blog, I am sharing the opening line from Susan Anne Mason’s A Worthy Heart. I’m also reading The Daughter of Highland Hall by Carrie Turansky. The first line is:
“If she lived to be one hundred and five, Katherine Evangeline Ramsey would never understand why every debutante must begin the London social season by curtsying to the king and queen.”
Hope you have a great weekend. 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing! Enjoy your books!
Weddings, Willows, and Revised Expectations by V. Joy Palmer is on top of my “read this next” stack. I’m sharing from Chapter 1 on my blog, so here is the first line from the prologue:
“A great philosopher looks at his various struggles as fodder for his innovative thinking, but, since I am not a great philosopher, I look at my struggles as something akin to stepping on a bee the size of a Komodo dragon.”
Happy Friday and have a good weekend!
Haha! Have a wonderful weekend!
Very descriptive opening!
I’m sharing about a FREE novella by Tari Faris on my blog today, but I’m also in the middle of listening to Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell, narrated by Juliet Stevenson. I’m absolutely loving it–both the story and the narration. Here’s the first line from chapter 16:
The day arrived on which the masters were to have an interview with a deputation of the work-people.
Have a great weekend!
Free is always good! Thanks for stopping by.
I love this cover! And Regency literature is always wonderful…just added this story to my Amazon wish list. 🙂 Happy reading Beckie!
I am only a little of the way into the story, but I am loving it.
Today I’m sharing the first lines from Glory Road by Lauren K. Denton:
“I’d been on the porch steps shelling purple hull peas for less than an hour and my thumbnails had already turned purple.”
https://moments-of-beauty.blogspot.com/2019/04/first-line-fridays-glory-road-by-lauren.html
Happy reading!
I finished that book a few days ago. Loved it!