Maybe it is because I am Southern myself, but I feel that certain Southern authors have a way of putting words together that are kind of like the South itself: warm, smooth, and colorful all at the same time. One of my favorite contemporary Southern authors is Joshilyn Jackson and I highly recommend all of her books. Today, I am bringing you the first lines of “Someone Else’s Love Story”:
“I fell in love with William Ashe at gunpoint, in a Circle K. It was on a Friday afternoon at the tail end of a Georgia summer so ungodly hot the air felt like it had all been boiled red. We were both staring down the barrel of an ancient, creaky .32 that could kill us just as dead as a really nice gun could.”
These are the opening words of Shandi, a 21 year old young woman trying to raise her three year old genius son. Ms. Jackson has such a special way of developing her story and characters and the characters of this book are no exception. From Shandi, her son Natty, her mother, her father, her best friend Walcott to William Ashe and his best friend, Paula, all of these people have flaws but care about each other in such special ways.
Please join me at Rose City Reader for Book Beginnings.
Intriguing. Intriguing. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Here’s mine:
Book Beginning@EverythingNyze
Now if that doesn’t pull you in, I don’t know what would.
Great beginning. Thanks for sharing.
Elizabeth
Silver’s Reviews
My Book Beginnings
I’m definitely adding this book to my TBR list! Like you, I enjoy books written in a Southern “voice,” and I can already tell this one definitely has it. LOVE the observation about the gun’s killing ability!
My Friday post features DEAR SUGAR.
I hope you love it as much as I did. She is one of my favorites. Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting.
I have yet to read any Joshilyn Jackson but I really have been wanting to try her books. I do like the excerpt quite a bit. Thanks for sharing!
I hope you try her books. There is always such an air of mystery running through them even if the book itself is not a mystery. They are great!