Books That Had Me Hooked From The First Line

Do you ever pick up a book and start reading and from that very first line you instantly know you will love the story?

There are some books that had me completely hooked and needing to know more from the very first line. Every single time that happens it always ends up being a book that becomes an absolute favourite of mine!

So I wanted to share some of these books and maybe it will intrigue you enough to want to read it.

1 “He was an easy mark.” – The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

2 “Alizayd Al-Qahtani didn’t last a month with his caravan.” – The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

3 “Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she’d been told that she would kill her true love.” – The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

4 “I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.” – Red Rising by Pierce Brown

5 “Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.” – Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

6 “People lived because she killed.” – We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

7 “You do not enter a race to lose.” – Wonder Woman Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

8 “Kell wore a very peculiar coat.” – A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

9 “Asha lured the dragon with a story.” – The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccerelli

10 “The desert sings of loss, always loss, and if you stand quiet with your eyes closed, it will grieve you too.” – The Candle and the Flame

So these are the first lines that had me hooked. Every single one of these has become a favourite of mine and highly recommend reading them.

Of course a special shout out to my favourite books ever, The City of Brass and The Kingdom of Copper! I am completely obsessed with these and how can you not be?! Just look at how intriguing these very first lines are!

Are there any books that had you hooked from the very first line?

Friday Favourites – Character Deaths

This is hosted by Something of the Book who created this tag out of a love for lists. There are different topics for us all to be able to take part and you can find the prompts here. There isn’t a specific number of favourites so it’s entirely up to you how many you share. You can share your most or least favourites too!

Just to let you all know that this post could potentially be full of spoilers if you haven’t read the book as I will be discussing characters who have died.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

When I’m reading and I am loving the book, I get so invested in the characters that the death of my favourite characters completely destroy me. I also put off reading books because I am scared of reading who will die. Anyone else do that?

So this post will be all about character deaths that I am still not over.

1 Will Herondale from The Infernal Devices – the epilogue of Clockwork Princess completely and utterly destroyed me. I was a sobbing mess. I adore this trilogy but I just can’t bring myself to read that last book. And whenever Jem is mentioned in other books it always reminds me of Will’s death.

2 The 13 from Throne of Glass – the absolute worst part of Kingdom of Ash was reading the scene where Manon and Abraxos had to watch the 13 sacrifice themselves to win the battle. I had to stop reading because although I had a feeling some of them would die, I was not expecting Manon to lose all of her family.

3 Matthias from Six of Crows – he had so much potential! I adored him and Nina and how much they helped each other grow and change and omg I could not deal when he died.

4 Ragnor from Red Rising – he did not need to die! He could have helped bring about so much change and he was one of the few who was truly Darrow’s friend and this trilogy has made me suffer so much.

5 Jason Grace from Heroes of Olympus – although he was only in the third Trials of Apollo book he died at the end of it and I was so completely shocked that I had to reread it. He was never my favourite character but he died to save the life of Piper and he didn’t even get to meet Leo and omg middle grade books are not supposed to make me sob like this okay!

6 Holland from A Darker Shade of Magic – when I first met him I did not like him but by the end I was totally rooting for him and I was so sad that he died. He had such a tragic life and he deserved to be happy! Also it will be bittersweet reading the new trilogy because he won’t be in it *sobs*

7 Sam Cortland from Throne of Glass – he was already dead in Throne of Glass but we meet him in the novellas set a year or so before Throne of Glass and I quickly fell in love with. I mourned his loss in every single book and every single time Aelin mentioned him. He would have been a great King of Terrasen and I will die on this hill!

8 Kate Harker from This Savage Song – urm excuse me but August and Kate had finally found a true friend in each other and then Schwab goes and kills Kate in Our Dark Duet?! Another book which left me in tears.

9 Sam from Rebel of the Sands – I did not expect him to die so his death was even more of a shock. And it was left ambiguous until the very end that he had died. He deserved to live and be happy with Shahrzad!

10 Every single Harry Potter death – don’t even get me started on these books and the number of people JK Rowling murdered. Teenage me was not ready for that. Dobby, Fred, Remus, Tonks, Sirius and so many more. I just can’t….

So these are the worst deaths I have had to deal with in books. Pretty sure I will be adding to these in the next year as there are a few books in which I am pretty certain will have character deaths.

What character deaths were the worst for you? Do you put off reading a book because you’re afraid of who will die?

Friday Favourites – Magic Systems

This is hosted by Something of the Book who created this tag out of a love for lists. There are different topics for us all to be able to take part and you can find the prompts here.

There isn’t a specific number of favourites so it’s entirely up to you how many you share. You can share your most or least favourites too!

I love fantasy worlds with their own magic systems! They’re all so different and I love seeing the different spins to how they use magic in these worlds! So these are some of my favourite magic systems:

1 A Darker Shade of Magic – I love how there’s an antari in each London and only they can travel between the Londons.

2 The Grisha Trilogy – The whole magic system is so great! I always found the way the system works so interesting and how it combines science.

3 Harry Potter – Okay so of course I had to include this! Being a wizard and attending Hogwarts was all I wanted to do as a kid…admit you all waited for your Hogwarts letter too!

4 Shadowhunters – I love how they use runes to enhance different abilities and I think it would be so useful to be able to do this!

5 The Daevabad Trilogy – The jinns have different abilities and some are more powerful than others. From being able to conjure fire to being able to shape shift! Though Nahri’s abilities are my favourite, she can pick up any language instantly and be able to heal herself and others.

6 The Lunar Chronicles – The Lunars powers are quite terrifying to be honest but I still love it!

So these are some of my favourite magic systems! What magic systems do you love?

Top 5 Wednesday – Fictional Places You’d Take a Date To

Hey booknerds! It’s another Top 5 Wednesday post! This is hosted by Sam over on Thoughts on Tomes where you share you top 5 for the chosen topic for that week. You can check out each weeks topic over on Goodreads.

There are so many fictional places in books that sound so beautiful and magical and I would love to go there and they would be amazing places to go on a date with my husband. So these are the places that I think me and my husband would have great fun on a date.

1 The Shire from The Lord of the Rings – my husband loves the outdoors so I think he would love the beautiful greenery of the shire

2 Night Court from ACOTAR – So as much as I hate the high lord there I still can’t deny that the night court would a wonderful place to go on a date

3 Artemisia from The Lunar Chronicles – it is always described so beautifully with a wonderful view of earth that I know it would be a great date to go there and explore!

4 Red London from A Darker Shade of Magic – this would be a great place to go exploring and discovering new things

5 Daevabad from The City of Brass – my husband is OBSESSED with jinns so yup this is the perfect date for him. I doubt he would ever want to leave to be honest. Yup we would have to move there.

So these are my top places I would take my husband on a date. Where would you love to go on a date?

Illumicrate Unboxing – Magic and Mayhem Box

This is super late but I still wanted to share this unboxing with you all. This was a special edition box by Illumicrate. It was inspired by V.E. Schwab’s books and as usual this box was amazing! I absolutely loved everything in the box.

They also recently released their next special edition box which is inspired by the Grishaverse. It will be sent out in time for the release of King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo. I cannot wait to get this box!

So back to the unboxing of the Magic and Mayhem box. There was so many amazing items in this box and I just cannot choose what my favourite item is!

The first item is a double sided tote bag, one side inspired by shades of magic and villains inspired on the other. I love this bag so much! The artwork is by @rowatree

They included a make up bag with a Lila Bard quote designed by @stellabookishart and it’s beautiful and such a great size.

They also included an As Travars keyring designed by @fableandblack

They included a set of 4 beautiful character bookmarks inspired by the shades of magic books. The artwork is by @merwild

I loved that there was useful items included too like this travel bottle. The lettering is by @xcrini

There was a set of 6 tarot style character cards which are all stunning. Artwork by @amaretta_

Also included was a beautiful art print of Lila and Kell designed by @victoriaying

I love getting candles in book boxes so I absolutely loved that they included a layered candle inspired by the four Londons. Made by @ameliakitchencandles

Mugs are another favourite item of mine so I loved that they included one! This beautiful mug artwork is designed by @temporaryplacesshop

I love that a knitted scarf was included as it’s getting cold and I can’t wait to use it! It’s designed by @fableandblack

They also included a set of 4 postcards which is inspired by the 4 Londons. I love the artwork on the cards. They were designed by @moledrocraftco

A beautiful booksleeve inspired by Victor Vale’s love for black out poetry designed by @illumicrate

Another of my favourite items is enamel pins so I love the one they included! It’s stunning! And designed by @fableandblack

Lastly they also included an exclusive cover of Vengeful by V.E. Schwab and a letter written by her too. I love this cover so much!

So this was everything included in the box! Seriously guys, I highly recommend buying their boxes, both their special edition and quarterly boxes. I love getting both! They are worth every single penny and I know that if I ever didn’t get a box I would really regret it.