Friday Fun - August 14, 2026

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

This week I have two books to share with you.

I'm starting an eARC of Braving Red Waters by Sarah Hanks. This is the third book in her Time Sailors series and it releases on August 26th.

I'm also starting an eARC of Everlasting Love by Latisha Sexton. This is the second Lavender Falls book and it releases on August 25th.

        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:

 Braving Red Waters by Sarah Hanks:

"Miles Sutton stuck to the shadows as he crept around the brick town house."

Sneaky, sneaky. I wondered why he was sneaking. Good guy or bad guy?

Everlasting Love by Latisha Sexton:

"I was only four years old when Mama died, leaving me with nothing but pictures, faded memories, and a stack of handwritten letters addressed to me."

I felt sadness for the child who lost her mama so young, but then I was intrigued by the idea of the letters. 

Now for:

The Friday 56 

The Friday 56 is hosted by Anne from My Head is Full of Books. 

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:

Braving Red Waters by Sarah Hanks:

"'We're the only ones up?' Darkness masked the sea and surroundings. So quiet. Only the purr of a motor and gentle swish of water lapping against the boat.

He chuckled. 'Most people don't get up before dawn while on vacation.'

She covered a yawn, then took a sip of coffee. 'So, how often does this happen?' She eyed the waitress stocking fresh fruit at the breakfast bar and lowered her voice. 'How many times have you seen . . . what happened to Phoebe?'"

Everlasting Love by Latisha Sexton

"Nora scoffed. 'Everyone thinks you are. That doesn't mean you have to.' Removing a brownie from the bag, she took a small bite. 'Is it what you want to do?'

'It's what's expected of me.

'That's not the same thing.'

I popped the last bite of brownie into my mouth. 'I don't know what I want, Butterfly.' I answered truthfully. Well, it was a half-truth. I didn't know what I wanted to do after high school but I did know that I wanted to feel useful with whatever career I ended up with, and I knew that I wanted to stay in Lavender Falls. I wanted to get married here. Raise my future kids in this little town."

Book Blogger Hop.

Book Blogger Hop

The Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Billy over at Ranblings of a Coffee-Addicted Writer. The hop occurs weekly, starting on Friday and ending the following Thursday, featuring a specific book-related prompt each week. The main goal is to connect bloggers, encouraging them to follow each other, discover new titles, and grow their audience.

This week's question is: Is there a book you keep coming back to, reading it more than once?

My answer:  I used to have several series I would reread over and over. The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer, I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore, Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger. But for the last several years I have been participating in reading challenges and launch teams, so I have really been expanding my horizons, so to say. I've discovered so many authors that I now love and I've learned that I enjoy a wide range of genres in Christian fiction. Now I need to make time to reread my favorite series. I do plan to reread Twilight this year. I tend to reread favorite series when a new book releases too. So, when the new Keeper book comes out, I'll reread that series. And I reread the Hunger Games series earlier this year so I could read Sunrise on the Reaping. I also recently reread the Holly Cross series by C.C. Warrens. It's my first Christian fiction series that I could reread over and over again.

And now it is time to share my current Reviews:

Last week I shared one book in my Friday Fun. I'm almost done reading it, but not quite. I will share my review next week.

I did finish the book I shared a couple of weeks ago, so here is that review:

Where We Belong by Kim Vogel Sawyer