Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings

It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring my current read, My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry.  The excerpts shared are from a hardcover edition borrowed from the library.

   

Beginning: Prologue

Flash of metal.

Thunder in my ears.

"This is the five o'clock news,"

The radio, chirping merrily from the pine dresser, laden with photographs (holidays, graduation, wedding): a pretty blue and pink plate; a quarter bottle of Jack Daniel's, partially hidden by a birthday card.

My head is killing me.  My right wrist as well.  The pain in my chest is scary.  So, too, is the blood.

 

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Page 56:  "There was a silence.  Ed didn't notice, his head glancing from them to the paper and back to them again."

 

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My thoughts:  I'm still trying to process all the information and wonderful books I received last week at Library Journal's Day of Dialog and Book Expo.  While I arrange my reading queues of forthcoming and recently published titles, I am working on clearing the stacks of library books currently in my possession.  

My Husband's Wife leapt from the stacks because I couldn't resist the title and the blogosphere buzz.  I am only a few chapters in, but am already fascinated with the characters--solicitor Lily and her aspiring artist husband Ed Macdonald, and their neighbors, 9 year-old Carla Cavoletti and her single mother.  The prologue is set in the present day, but the story begins fifteen years earlier, in the year 2000.  With alternating chapters told in Lily and Carla's voices, I can sense that all is not as it appears, with shocking truths and events to be revealed.

 

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From Goodreads:  It won't be so bad when you're there, says my new husband before kissing me on the mouth. He tastes of Rice Krispies and that strong toothpaste of his which I still haven't gotten used to. I know, I say before he peels off to the bus stop on the other side of the road. Two lies. Small white ones. Designed to make the other feel better. But that's how some lies start. Small. Well meaning. Until they get too big to handle.

When young lawyer Lily marries Ed, she's determined to make a fresh start. To leave the secrets of the past behind. But then she takes on her first murder case and meets Joe. A convicted murderer whom Lily is strangely drawn to. For whom she will soon be willing to risk almost anything.

But Lily is not the only one with secrets. Her next-door neighbor Carla may be only nine, but she has already learned that secrets are powerful things. That they can get her whatever she wants. When Lily finds Carla on her doorstep sixteen years later, a chain of events is set in motion that can end only one way.

 

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This Friday Focus post was originally written and published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.  Retweeting and sharing on Google+ are appreciated.