First Class First Lines

[Saxton B. Little]

Share your favorite first lines of books, you know the first sentence(s) that grab your attention and draw you into the story. A good first line can make or break a book!

[Saxton B. Little]

"Today I shocked the lawyers, and it surprised me, the effect I could have on them."
from the Prolgue of The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan

This one sentence pulled me in and made me wonder. What shocked the lawyers? why was the "I" of the story surprised? One well written sentence and I was hooked.

[Amy Raffa]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
English novelist (1812 - 1870)  

[Saxton B. Little]

Anerican Boy by Larry Watson

"I was 17 years old when I first saw a woman's bare breasts...and when you consider that I also saw my first bullet wound on that same body, you have a set of circumstances truly rare."

If that doesn't make you curious about the character...

I thoroughly enjoyed Watson's first novel, Montana 1948 and really should get to this one.

[Saxton B. Little]

"Death is only the beginning; afterward comes the hard part"

The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfield