Friday Fun - May 1, 2026

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 reading an ARC of The Escape Game by Gina Holder. This book is the second in The Game Masters series and it releases next week.

I'm also starting an ARC of the newest book in Penny Zeller's Small Town Shenanigans series, Blueprint for Love. This book also releases next week.

        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:

 The Escape Game by Gina Holder:

"They were not going to win."

I couldn't quite tell where this was going, but I wanted to find out. Who was "they"? Was someone playing a game? Was someone upset that they weren't going to win? Was someone not wanting someone else to win? It was made clear quite quickly.

Blueprint for Love by Penny Zeller:

"It could have been worse."

Another sort of vague first sentence. What could have been worse? How bad was the situation?

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:

The Escape Game  by Gina Holder:

"A narrow pathway wound through a maze of loaded bookcases, antique furniture, and stacks of jigsaw puzzle boxes. Books spilled from the shelves, creating lopsided piles from one end of the room to the other. He'd been warned, but the chaos was worse than he'd imagined."

Blueprint for Love by Penny Zeller:

"The older woman inclined her head, and she arched her eyebrows as a broad smile covered her face. 'All right, dearie. If you say so.'

If Cameron hadn't been making bets in the first place, he wouldn't have found himself at a senior citizen kickboxing class. And if he didn't find himself at a completely unorthodox group fitness event, he wouldn't have to be worried about Beulah cornering him in the parking lot and mentioning he and Jeanette would made a cute couple.

Because they wouldn't."

Reviews:

Last week I shared one book in my Friday fun post. I actually didn't end up reading that one as I was still trying to finish Chancing the Frontiersman's Heart, and then I needed to start ARCs that are releasing next week.

I did finish the one book, so here is the review:

Chancing the Frontiersman's Heart by Andrea Byrd