FIRST LINES FRIDAY 56: Wish You Were Here | Never Hollowed By The Stare

“First Line Fridays” is by Hoarding Books and is all about the first line of a current/upcoming read. Friday 56 is a meme hosted by Freda’s Voice, where you turn to page 56 (or 56%) in what you’re reading a find a snippet that jumps out at you. The idea to combine the two came from Kat @ Here There Be Dragons“

I found this meme on The Writerly Way. And I’m doing this on a Thursday just to be difficult.

FIRST LINE

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. This wasn’t how a guy was supposed to celebrate his thirty-fifth birthday. He was supposed to be in a pub, listening to a drunken rendition of “Happy Birthday,” or at a BBQ being introduced to so-and-so’s cousin with the great personality, or out to dinner with a slice of wheat-free, dairy-free, taste-free cake. Hell, anywhere but here.

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Jack shook his head in disbelief. “All that just to get The Man on his own. Nikonov wasn’t an easy target.”

“Not as easy as some, no, but easier than Valadian.” Blade checked his coat for damage. “He was also ticketed to a quarter million roubles.”

“Fuck,” Jack muttered. “I’m on the wrong side of this business.”

“The money is nice,” Blade said softly, not looking up from his meticulous work. “The freedom of choice is nicer, though.”

There were enough tonal undercurrents in those words to sweep away the unwary. Tired and sore, Jack didn’t have the mental capacity to navigate those waters, so he fell quiet. Unable to look away, he watched Blade go over the coat twice more before he was seemingly satisfied. The obsessive actions left Jack even more unsettled by this strange man.

Wish you were here?

American Assassin the movie, based on the late Vince Flynn's ...

BOOK REVEAL

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Jack Reardon, former SAS soldier and current Australian Meta-State asset, has seen some messy battles. But “messy” takes on a whole new meaning when he finds himself tied to a chair in a torture shack, his cover blown wide open, all thanks to notorious killer-for-hire Ethan Blade.

Blade is everything Jack doesn’t believe in: remorseless, detached, lawless. Yet, Jack’s only chance to survive is to strike a bargain with the devil and join forces with Blade. As they trek across a hostile desert, Jack learns that Blade is much more than a dead-eyed killer—and harder to resist than he should be.

A year later, Jack is home and finally getting his life on track. Then Ethan Blade reappears and throws it all into chaos once more. It’s impossible to trust the assassin, especially when his presence casts doubts on Jack’s loyalty to his country, but Jack cannot ignore what Blade’s return means: the mess that brought them together is far from over, and Ethan might just bring back the piece of Jack’s soul he thought he’d lost forever.

See me gush about this spectacular, squee-tastic book here.

What first lines grabbed your attention this week?