First Lines Fridays | 11th of August 2023

Hello Hello! How are you?

Today I’m back with a First Lines Fridays post in which I’m featuring a book that I have on my August Trope-ical TBR and which I’m really excited for.

I should be posting a Down the TBR Hole post this week, but I didn’t have much time for myself this past week and had a bad pain and fatigue flare over the weekend, so I didn’t get around to drafting the post! I’ll hopefully have one up next week though!

Keep on reading to find out what first lines I want to share with you today and which book they come from!

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers 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!

He woke to the feeling of rough ground beneath him and the stench of mortal blood.

His body was slower to recover than his mind. Unwelcome sensations burned through him as his skin tightened like newly fired clay.

The dew of the grass seeped into the back of his thin blue robe, and he felt the dirt splattered on his bare legs and feet. A humiliating shiver passed through him, sweeping from scalp to heel. For the first time in seven years, he caught a chill.

The mortal blood that flowed through him was like sludge compared to the liquid sunlight of the ichor that had burned away all traces of his mortality and released him back into the world. For seven years, he had swept through lands near and far, stoked the vicious hearts of killers, nurtured the embers of conflicts into flames. He had been rage itself.

To feel the boundaries of a body again… to be poured back into this weak vessel… it was torment enough to make him pity the old gods. They had lived this atrocity two hundred and twelve times over.

He would not. This would be his final taste of mortality.

But what book is this quote from?

Lore by Alexandra Bracken

Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.

Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family’s sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt’s promises of eternal glory. For years she’s pushed away any thought of revenge against the man–now a god–responsible for their deaths.

Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend of Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods.

The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore’s decision to bind her fate to Athena’s and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost–and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.

I absolutely love the sound of this book. I love anything with mythology and this premise sounds so unique but also so fast-paced and action-packed. I’ve never read a book by this author before, but I’m glad I get to try this one out soon. I also have the stunning Fairyloot edition with the gold and black sprayed edges and it’s signed by the author, so it’ll go on my “most beautiful books” shelf when I’m done with it!

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed reading this post.

See you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx