First Line Friday: On Saturday

FIRST LINE FRIDAY

Thanks for the heads-up nudge, Heidi. Life can get pretty busy, but I do enjoy doing this one. So glad you’re enjoying it.

Happy Friday & welcome to the First Line Friday hosted at Reading is my Super Power ! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line. Today I’m delighted to feature the first line of Count the Night by Stars by Michelle Shocklee. Now this is the same author I featured last week with her book Appalachian Song which is a book I have read and loved. The one I am featuring today I have not read but hope to very soon, enjoy.

FIRST LINE(S)

May 29,1897

My darling,

No one could accuse Luca Moretti of being a coward. I thought you brash and arrogant that day I saw you in the lobby of the Maxwell House Hotel. You stood taller than all the other men in their tailored suits, not caring that the elbows of your coat were worn or that one of the brass buttons was missing. Instead, you kept your shoulders back and your gaze steady, even when the mean treated you as though they bettered you somehow. I’d never seen that kind of boldness before, and it intrigued me.

414 pages Tyndale Fiction March 22, 2022 publication date

ABOUT THE BOOK

Count your nights by stars, not shadows. Count your life with smiles, not tears.
1961. After a longtime resident at Nashville’s historic Maxwell House Hotel suffers a debilitating stroke, Audrey Whitfield is tasked with cleaning out the reclusive woman’s room. There, she discovers an elaborate scrapbook filled with memorabilia from the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Love notes on the backs of unmailed postcards inside capture Audrey’s imagination with hints of a forbidden romance . . . and troubling revelations about the disappearance of young women at the exposition. Audrey enlists the help of a handsome hotel guest as she tracks down clues and information about the mysterious “Peaches” and her regrets over one fateful day, nearly sixty-five years earlier.

1897. Outspoken and forward-thinking Priscilla Nichols isn’t willing to settle for just any man. She’s still holding out hope for love when she meets Luca Moretti on the eve of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Charmed by the Italian immigrant’s boldness, Priscilla spends time exploring the wonderous sights of the expo with Luca—until a darkness overshadows the monthslong event. Haunted by a terrible truth, Priscilla and Luca are sent down separate paths as the night’s stars fade into dawn.

I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend. Thank you for stopping in today.