Friday Fun - August 1, 2025

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'm starting an eARC of Under the Mistletoe by Penny Zeller. This is book 3 in her Small Town Shenanigans series. 

I'm also going to be reading The Long Way Home by Cali Black, book two in the Home for Christmas series. This book released a couple of weeks ago.

        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 Carrie for First Line Friday.)

Here are my Book Beginnings/First Line Friday selections:

Under the Mistletoe by Penny Zeller:

"When choosing a vacation spot, some people travel to the Hawaiian Islands, Alaska, or Glacier National Park."

Okay, true. But, I wouldn't choose any of those. 

The Long Way Home by Cali Black:

"John Carter swished the last pile of sawdust into the black dustpan and tipped it into the composting bin."

I wondered where the sawdust had come from. Had he been making something?

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 is my Friday 56 selection:

Under the Mistletoe by Penny Zeller:

 

"While Gracely tended to her work duties, including checking in the Bryant family, Braxton headed upstairs and spent a reprieve away from people while reading one of his technical guides. While an extrovert like Gracely could never comprehend such a thing, it didn't take Braxton long to get what he termed 'peopled out.'"

The Long Way Home by Cali Black: 

"Mags had told him all about the women's visit. He listened, dry-mouthed and weak-kneed to the encounter she'd had with Mandy Bradford and her friends-the two ladies with the little girl at table five and the beautiful purple sweater woman. Abject fear had rippped through him the moment he'd seen Mandy at the diner, and it hadn't left him yet."

Reviews:

Last week I shared two book in my Friday Fun post. Here is my review for the first book:

Buried Wilderness Secrets by Jaime Jo Wright