Friday Fun - November 1, 2024

Welcome to my Friday Fun post. This is where I share with three different book parties that post on Fridays: Book Beginnings on Fridays, the Friday 56, and First Line Friday.

This week I have two books to share with you.

I started an ARC of Dragonfly Ashes by C.C. Warrens, the second book in her Cherry Creek Mysteries series. This book will release on November 2nd.

I'm also reading Sookie's Silence by Marisa Masterson for a reading challenge.

        Book Beginnings on Friday     

(Please join Gilion Dumas for Book Beginnings every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.)

and

First Line Friday

(Please join C arrie for First Line Friday.)

Here are my Book Beginnings/First Line Friday selections:

  Dragonfly Ashes by C.C. Warrens:

"A shrill sound pierced the night, sweeping through the house like the unearthly wail of a banshee."

Living next to the firehall in our town, my first thought was wondering if it was the fire siren. But then I wondered if it was someone screaming, as the author had used the word "wail." I needed to keep reading to find out what was going on. C.C. Warrens definitely grabbed my attention from the first line.

Sookie's Silence by Marisa Masterson:

"The baby sobbed in her bed." 

I needed to know what was wrong with the baby. 

Now for:

The Friday 56

The Friday 56 is normally hosted over at Freda's Voice. But Anne from My Head is Full of Books is taking over for a while. 

Rules:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
(If you have to improvise, that's ok.)
 *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grab you.
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post below in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url. It's that simple.

Here are my Friday 56 selections:

Dragonfly Ashes by C.C. Warrens:

 

"'That is not how the Emory family fixes houses, young lady. We do not cut corners with super glue, hot glue, or that abominable substance known as duct tape.'"

Sookie's Silence by Marisa Masterson:

"Sookie tapped his arm lightly and pointed to her sister. When he looked to Wren and then back at her sister, the older one ducked her head and made a muffled sound near Letty's ear. As far as he could hear, the odd rasping had no actual words to it. Still, the little girl reponded well, relaxing into the crook of his fiancee's arm."

Reviews:

Last week I shared two books in my Friday Fun post. Here are the links to the reviews:

Christmas in the Cascades by Marissa Adams, April Kidwell, Marline Williams, Chris Daniel, and Cali Black

Never Forgotten by Hannah Linder 

Never Forgotten by Hannah Linder Review

 

Never Forgotten by Hannah Linder is another wonderful Christian historical romance set during the Regency era. This book was full of suspense and danger and mystery, with plenty of suspects and suspicious characters to keep the reader guessing exactly what was going on and who was guilty of what.

We first meet Simon Fancourt as a young man who is desperate to get away from his strict, seemingly meaningless life in London, England. He makes his way to America, breaking his engagement to Georgina Whitmore against his father’s demands. The next we see him he comes upon his wife being brutally murdered, finding himself suddenly a widower with two children and desperate for vengeance and truth to be revealed, so he heads back to England where he soon discovers that even though he thought he evaded his father’s demands he was sadly mistaken.

Georgina, who has felt abandoned, now finds herself face to face with the man who left her. But after all this time, she has to figure out if she wants him or not.

Decisions need to be made, but can their relationship ever move beyond that of acquaintances? And at the same time, Simon is desperate to solve the mystery of his wife’s murder, bringing danger upon himself and those he cares about. The author has woven a tangled web that the reader is going to need to have unraveled. And there are twists and turns that I did not see coming that left me in suspense.

There were times I cringed due to the violence, some from the bad guys, but also from Simon who is so bent on revenge that he jumps to conclusions and lashes out. I kept thinking, “um, perhaps he needs to remember that the Lord said vengeance belongs to Him.” I admit I was a bit disappointed at the extent of violence he would bestow as someone who was supposed to be a Christian, and the “good guy.”

Quite the emotional book, and one that will keep the reader flipping or swiping pages to see what is going to happen. Definitely a book I highly recommend. And my favorite by this author so far.

I received an e-copy of this book through NetGalley and was not required to write a favorable review. These are my own honest thoughts.