First Lines Friday is a weekly post hosted by Wandering Words. In this post, instead of judging a book by its cover, its author, or its prestige, we judge it by its opening lines.
To do this simply:
1. Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
2. Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
3. Finally… reveal the book!
I have seen a few book bloggers participate in this, and it’s a fun little activity to do.
I’ve pulled this one off my shelf. I never got to finish it, but I may have to revisit it one day!
First Lines (taken from Chapter 1):
God as my witness, none of this would have ever happened if it were not for those two fools back in Salalah. Them and their map.
This may be a little tricky. Do you think you can guess it?
Here’s another hint.
Think of epic ocean adventures.
Still can’t think of what it could be?
The female lead is a retired, middle-aged pirate.
One more try?
The author of The City of Brass wrote this!
If you guessed it, leave a comment to let me know!
Scroll down for the reveal, its…
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend.
Blurb:
Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.
But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.
Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.
