Top 5 Tuesday #3

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly MEME hosted by Bionic Book Worm, this week’s prompt is:

Top 5 Opening Lines

I can’t help it, I’ve definitely chosen more than 5 books for this topic because I think it’s so great.

I have a thing for shocking/murderous lines 😅

❥Heroine by Mindy McGinnis
When I wake up, all my friends are dead.

❥Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye
Of all my many murders, committed for love and for better reasons, the first was the most important.

❥Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley.

❥Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
On the second Sabbat of Twelfthmoon, in the city of Weep, a girl fell from the sky.

❥The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis
This is how I kill someone.

Bonus 1: iconic first lines that I love

❥Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

❥Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
‘“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

❥Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Bonus 2: opening paragraphs that I absolutely love

❥Cracked by Eliza Crewe
There are some people you know you shouldn’t anger because it isn’t right. Like your mom-if she’s the nice sort. There are other people you know you shouldn’t anger because they have the authority to punish you. Police officers, politicians, insane asylum wardens, your mom-if she’s the bad sort. But there are some people you shouldn’t anger that you don’t know about, because no one ever survived to warn you. I’m the third kind.

❥Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
The real story isn’t half as pretty as the one you’ve heard. The real story is, the miller’s daughter with her long golden hair wants to catch a lord, a prince, a rich man’s son, so she goes to the moneylender and borrows for a ring and a necklace and decks herself out for the festival. And she’s beautiful enough, so the lord, the prince, the rich man’s son notices her, and dances with her, and tumbles her in a quiet hayloft when the dancing is over, and afterwards he goes home and marries the rich woman his family has picked out for him. Then the miller’s despoiled daughter tells everyone that the moneylender’s in league with the devil, and the village runs him out or maybe even stones him, so at least she gets to keep the jewels for a dowry, and the blacksmith marries her before that firstborn child comes along a little early. Because that’s what the story’s really about: getting out of paying your debts.

Obviously I saved by favourite book for last, and if that opening paragraph doesn’t sell you on it then I don’t know what will. I’d love to know some of your favourite opening lines, and if any of these ones grabbed your attention! Happy reading! 💗

Advertisement