So I asked ChatGPT to recommend a thriller, and it suggested The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. I wonder how it picked that one, because something tells me it wasn’t as random as I’d hoped. Anyway, it’s a novel I have been wanting to read, so I did. I wanted it to be twisted, as everyone hyped it to be, but it was in the middle for me. I have been thinking I will be judged when I say that I get books from Amazon Kindle, but in reality, 99.9% are free, and this one cost me less than a euro; it is self-published, and the plot sounds fun. First Lines Friday is a weekly feature for book lovers, formerly hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
- Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page.
- Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first.
- Finally… reveal the book!
Note: The original host blog does not appear to be active any longer, but if anyone knows of a new host, please
First Lines:
NorthCoast Audio—Recording Studio.
I keep my hands flat on the desk, the surface cool beneath my palms as I settle in. No tapping, no shifting, no breathing too close to the mic once the red recording light switches on—habits ingrained through repetition, so familiar they’ve become second nature.
Outside, the sky is a stormy gray—typical for early spring in Portland, where drizzle feels less like weather and more like its own season.
Goodreads Blurb:
She’s chasing a story.
He’s chasing the truth.
Neither expects mystery and legend to get personal.
When podcast host Ivy Bloom and her co-host roast a bestselling author’s painfully awkward love scene, the clip goes viral overnight.
The author, grumpy, reclusive mystery writer Porter Shaw, would rather disappear than relive it. But his publisher has a different idea.
Forced into a joint promotion in Porter’s hometown of Valentine Falls, Ivy and Porter strike an uneasy she’ll help him write the romance his story lacks, and he’ll give her access to the town’s legendary Heartlight Falls, a local legend wrapped in myth, grief, and unfinished truth. Neither expects to uncover clues to an unsolved cold case, a mystery that has haunted Porter and the town of Valentine Falls for fifteen years.
As attraction deepens and secrets surface, Ivy and Porter discover that some mysteries don’t just demand to be told… They demand to be felt.
Goodreads Link here
The StoryGraph Link Here