Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted each week by Rose City Reader. It’s a chance to share the first sentence or so of the book you are reading this week. You can check out others’ book beginnings here. I’m also going to link up with Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower for First Line Friday.
This week’s book beginning:
Synopsis:
1863: In a small Creole cottage in New Orleans, an ingenious young Black woman named Stella embroiders intricate maps on repurposed cloth to help enslaved men flee and join the Union Army. Bound to a man who would kill her if he knew of her clandestine activities, Stella has to hide not only her efforts but her love for William, a Black soldier and a brilliant musician.
Meanwhile, in New York City, a Jewish woman stitches a quilt for her husband, who is stationed in Louisiana with the Union Army. Between abolitionist meetings, Lily rolls bandages and crafts quilts with her sewing circle for other soldiers, too, hoping for their safe return home. But when months go by without word from her husband, Lily resolves to make the perilous journey South to search for him.
As these two women risk everything for love and freedom during the brutal Civil War, their paths converge in New Orleans, where an unexpected encounter leads them to discover that even the most delicate threads have the capacity to save us. Loosely inspired by the authors’ family histories, this stunning novel will stay with readers for a long time.
New Orleans, Louisiana March 1863
She opens the door to the Creole cottage just wide enough to ensure it is truly him.
Would the beginning keep you reading? My review will be up next week – come back and see what I thought of it!
Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Coffee Addicted Writer. It starts each Friday and runs through the following Thursday. Each week, there’s a new prompt featuring a book-related question. It’s designed to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, make new blogging friends, and gain followers. See what others have to say on this topic and link up your own post here.
This week’s prompt:
If you receive a request from an author to read his/her book and you don’t have time, do you suggest another way to help the author? (submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews)
Thus far, I haven’t gotten requests that I don’t have time to read. That day may come, and when it does, I’d love to have ideas for suggestions I could make to help if I couldn’t fit the book into my schedule. If y’all have some ideas like that, feel free to share in a comment!
I’m definitely intrigued by that opening, especially cause now I want to know who that “him” is! I massively overloaded by TBR on NetGalley to the point where I can’t really, in good faith, accept any review requests so I put that in my Review Policy, but I do still get them occasionally at which point I offer them a guest-post spot so they can tell people about their books and their writing, and they do tend to enjoy doing that!
I hope you have a lovely weekend 🙂
Juli @ A Universe in Words
I like the guest post idea! I’ve never thought of that.
And girl, NetGalley. I need a month or two off work just to read and catch up. LOL
Happy weekend!
I have never been asked, so I’m looking for ideas if I ever do get asked to review a book. Have a great day and weekend! 🙂
Thank you for visiting! Happy weekend to you, too!
What a gorgeous cover! Thanks for sharing! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Thanks, Ashley! The cover caught my eye first, then the description. It’s good so far!
I haven’t had too many requests. I have been able to fit most of them in, but that is because I suggest a time scale and the author agrees!
Have a great weekend!
Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog
My post:
https://budgettalesblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/26/book-blogger-hop-author-request-books/
That’s what I do, too. I ask how soon a review is needed/wanted, and so far, they’ve fit!
I think this book does sound fascinating, I hope you enjoy it. Have a great weekend.
Thanks, Cindy! Happy weekend to you, too!
That looks like a fabulous, interesting book!
My first line comes from The Finding of Miss Fairfield by Grace Hitchcock:
Sophia Fairfield’s heart skipped at the sight if Mother holding a damp handkerchief to her eyes as Father and his business partner Prescott Payne , stood before the floor length windows facing Charleston Harbor with their heads together, soeaking in low somber tones over the crackling of the fireplace.
Ooh, yours sounds intriguing, too!
Happy Friday!
I’m currently reading Eloise and the Grump Next Door by St. Clair and Proctor. It is so much fun!
“The sun is an evil, evil orb.”
Hope you have a great weekend!
That’s a heck of a start! Here in the South, indeed, sometimes the sun is an evil, evil orb. I’ll have to check that one out!
This book sounds very good and I like the opening line. I haven’t read a Civil War novel for several years. Time to do something about that! My quotes come from LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY
Lessons in Chemistry is on my list. I can’t wait to hear what you think of it!
I suggest a spotlight instead of a review.
Excellent suggestion – thank you!
This sounds like an intriguing story! Looking forward to your review! 😊
That sounds like a good read. I’m reading A Worthy Pursuit by Karen Witemeyer. The first line is: “I’m closing the school, Miss Atherton, and that’s my final word on the subject.”
Hope you have a great week!
I love Karen Witemeyer! I’ll have to read that one.