First Line Friday #56

Posted April 12, 2019 by thebeccafiles in First Line Friday / 30 Comments

first line friday

Happy Friday!

As you may or may not know, last weekend I attended the Christian Fiction Readers Retreat (CFRR) in Rockville, MD. I had such an amazing time and met met some incredible authors, bloggers, and readers while I was there. I will be sharing some blog posts to share more about my trip, but for this week I wanted to feature one of the books from my swag bag 🙂

Caught by Surprise (Apart From the Crowd, #3)

Amazon | Goodreads

September 1883–New York City

The first inkling Miss Temperance Flowerdew had that her rather mundane day was about to turn anything but mundane happened when a closed carriage trundled up beside her, keeping pace with her every step as she walked down the sidewalk adjacent to Broadway.

I recently read my first book by Jen Turano called Flights of Fancy. I’ve had this one on my TBR for quite some time as well but I plan on starting at the beginning of the series. One thing that is often talked about Jen’s books is the humor found within the pages. After reading Flights of Fancy and now meeting her in person, I can share that her sense of humor is more than enough reason to pick up each of her books! A certain friend of mine may or may not have won an entire chest of her books at CFRR, and I may or may not admit I’m a bit jealous 😉

About the Book:

After years of hiding her true nature, Miss Temperance Flowerdew is finally enjoying freedom outside of the shadow of her relations, so the last thing she expected on her way to work was to be grabbed off the street by a stranger and put on a train bound for Chicago.

When Mr. Gilbert Cavendish is called upon to rescue a missing woman, he follows the trail to Chicago only to discover that the woman is his good friend, Temperance. Before they can discover who was behind her abduction, they’re spotted alone together by a New York society matron, putting their reputations at risk.

Even though Gilbert is willing to propose marriage, Temperance is determined not to lose her newfound independence. But when the misunderstanding in Chicago escalates into a threat on her life, accepting Gilbert’s help in solving the mystery may lead to more than she ever could have dreamed.

About the Author:jen-turano

Jen Turano is a graduate of the University of Akron with a degree in Clothing and Textiles. She pursued a career in management for nine years before switching to full-time motherhood after the birth of her son. When she’s not writing, Jen can be found watching her teenage son participate in various activities, taking long walks with her husband and dog, socializing with friends, or delving into a good book. She lives in suburban Denver, Colorado. Learn more at www.jenturano.com.


Now it’s your turn!

Grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line. To see what First Lines others are sharing this week head over to Hoarding Books.

Tags: , , , ,


30 responses to “First Line Friday #56

  1. Hi! Happy Friday.

    I shared the first couple of lines from my recent read, You’d Be Mine by Erin Hahn. I thoroughly enjoyed the book & definitely recommend it to you. Here, though, I will be sharing the opening lines of my current read, Mother Country by Irina Reyn.

    First-World Problems

    Brooklyn, April 2014

    In this Brooklyn neighborhood, Nadia was sure she was the only nanny from Ukraine. She preferred to think of herself as an observer, a temporary traveler, someone waiting for a new life to begin, rather than who she really was: a worker executing an invisible task within the neighborhood’s complex ecosystem.

    I’m only 10% into Mother Country but already it’s proving to be an interesting read. It’s about a mother whose daughter is trapped in war-torn Donbass in Ukraine. I think this one will turn out to be an important read for me.

    Hope you enjoyed that. Happy weekend!

  2. This is such a fun book! I honestly enjoy reading all of Jen Turano’s books. Thank you for sharing this first line today.

    Over on my blog, I’m sharing the first line of Amanda Dykes’s novella “Up from the Sea”. Here I’ll share with you the first line from chapter 25 of the book I’m currently reading, The Governess of Penwythe Hall by Sarah E. Ladd. “They’d found her.”

  3. Kay Garrett

    Lexie Grant’s father had to pick today, of all days, to come back from the dead.
    HOLIDAY SECRETS by Susan Sleeman
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

  4. Happy Friday!
    Today on my blog I am sharing the first few lines from The Memory House by Rachel Hauck. It is SO awesome. You can see my post by going to: https://christianfictiongirl.blog/2019/04/11/first-line-friday-82-2/. Currently, I am on chapter 22, so I will share a line from there.

    “The knock came late as the house rattled with the crashes and flashes of a spring thunderstorm.”

    Hope you have a great weekend. Happy reading! 🙂❤️📚

  5. Paula Shreckhise

    My first paragraph is from an exceptional book by a new author: A retelling of Ruth and Naomi in Victorian times.
    Shadow Among Sheaves by Naomi Stephens:
    England, July, 1861
    Both women were starving.
    After nearly three weeks in Abbotsville, Rena’s shoulder blades now cut against her skin like she was made of paper. Head pounding, she lay beside Nell in a stable which smelled of manure, desperate for a way to escape the unbreakable claws of poverty.

  6. I love that name.

    On my blog I shared the one I am reading on my kindle. I am about to start Beauty in Hiding: Of course it was raining.

  7. Caitlin H

    Happy Friday!

    Love the cover art. This series is on my TBR pile . . . I can’t wait to read this one. Anything by Jen Turano is sure to be funny. That opening line foreshadows trouble 🙂

    Today on my blog, I am sharing the opening line from Susan Anne Mason’s A Worthy Heart. I’m also reading The Daughter of Highland Hall by Carrie Turansky. The first line is:

    “If she lived to be one hundred and five, Katherine Evangeline Ramsey would never understand why every debutante must begin the London social season by curtsying to the king and queen.”

    Hope you have a great weekend. 🙂

  8. This is such a fun series! Weddings, Willows, and Revised Expectations by V. Joy Palmer is on top of my “read this next” stack. I’m sharing from Chapter 1 on my blog, so here is the first line from the prologue:

    “A great philosopher looks at his various struggles as fodder for his innovative thinking, but, since I am not a great philosopher, I look at my struggles as something akin to stepping on a bee the size of a Komodo dragon.”

    Happy Friday and have a good weekend!

  9. Ooh! I love Jen Turano and this book sounds really good. I’ll have to look into it. On my blog, I’m sharing a book by Mary Conneally, The Tangled Ties That Bind. Here, I will share the first lines of Chapter 3 in my current read, Signed, Sealed, Delighted by Crystal L. Barnes. “Distance. Joe needed distance. Only thing was, the one person he needed distance from was the one person he’d promised to watch over.”

  10. Iola

    I’d love to go to CFFR 🙂

    I’m sharing the first line from Beyond the Stars, Past the Moons by Jebraun Clifford on my blog today. It’s from the Encircled anthology, which I’m looking forward to reading.

    Here’s another first line from the anthology. This one is from Edged in Silver by Laurie Lucking:

    “If only I didn’t have to go home.”

    Happy reading. Have a great weekend 🙂

  11. I still need to read one of Jen Turano’s books! *gasp*

    I’m sharing about a FREE novella by Tari Faris on my blog today, but I’m also in the middle of listening to Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell, narrated by Juliet Stevenson. I’m absolutely loving it–both the story and the narration. Here’s the first line from chapter 16:

    The day arrived on which the masters were to have an interview with a deputation of the work-people.

    Have a great weekend!

  12. I would love to attend CFRR one year! And I haven’t read any of Jen Turano’s books, but I’ve heard they’re wonderful! Happy reading!

    Today I’m sharing the first lines from Glory Road by Lauren K. Denton:

    “I’d been on the porch steps shelling purple hull peas for less than an hour and my thumbnails had already turned purple.”

    https://moments-of-beauty.blogspot.com/2019/04/first-line-fridays-glory-road-by-lauren.html

  13. I’m late this weekend because I just got back from being out of town. I will share a book that was waiting for me in the mailbox — Living Lies by Natalie Walters. “Just let go.”

    Have a great week!

Leave a Reply