Opening Lines (10)

Opening Lines is a new feature here on Portrait of a Book that showcases the first lines of recent and/or upcoming releases. If you're looking for your next read, let these first lines help you decide!



THE MADMAN'S DAUGHTER
By: Megan Shepherd
Published By: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: Jan. 29, 2013
Buy the Book: Amazon

In the darkest places, even love is deadly.

Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.

Inspired by H. G. Wells's classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman's Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we'll do anything to know and the truths we'll go to any lengths to protect.

"The basement hallways in King's College of Medical Research were dark, even in the daytime."


HYSTERIA
By: Megan Miranda
Published By: Walker Children's
Release Date: Feb. 5, 2013
Buy the Book: Amazon

Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian. She can't remember the details of that night but everyone knows it was self-defense, so she isn't charged. But Mallory still feels Brian's presence in her life. Is it all in her head? Or is it something more? In desperate need of a fresh start, Mallory is sent to Monroe, a fancy prep school where no one knows her . . . or anything about her past.But the feeling follows her, as do her secrets. Then, one of her new classmates turns up dead. As suspicion falls on Mallory, she must find a way to remember the details of both deadly nights so she can prove her innocence-to herself and others.

In another riveting tale of life and death, Megan Miranda's masterful storytelling brings readers along for a ride to the edge of sanity and back again.

"My mother hid the knife block."


MIDWINTERBLOOD
By: Marcus Sedgwick
Published By: Roaring Brook Press
Release Date: Feb. 5, 2013
Buy the Book: Amazon

Seven stories of passion and love separated by centuries but mysteriously intertwined—this is a tale of horror and beauty, tenderness and sacrifice.

An archaeologist who unearths a mysterious artifact, an airman who finds himself far from home, a painter, a ghost, a vampire, and a Viking: the seven stories in this compelling novel all take place on the remote Scandinavian island of Blessed where a curiously powerful plant that resembles a dragon grows. What binds these stories together? What secrets lurk beneath the surface of this idyllic countryside? And what might be powerful enough to break the cycle of midwinterblood? From award-winning author Marcus Sedgwick comes a book about passion and preservation and ultimately an exploration of the bounds of love.

"The sun does not go down."


THE RUINING
By: Anna Collomore
Published By: Razorbill
Release Date: Feb. 7, 2013
Buy the Book: Amazon

Annie Phillips is thrilled to leave her past behind and begin a shiny new life on Belvedere Island, as a nanny for the picture-perfect Cohen family. In no time at all, she falls in love with the Cohens, especially with Libby, the beautiful young matriarch of the family. Life is better than she ever imagined. She even finds romance with the boy next door.

All too soon cracks appear in Annie's seemingly perfect world. She's blamed for mistakes she doesn't remember making. Her bedroom door comes unhinged, and she feels like she's always being watched. Libby, who once felt like a big sister, is suddenly cold and unforgiving. As she struggles to keep up with the demands of her new life, Annie's fear gives way to frightening hallucinations. Is she tumbling into madness, or is something sinister at play?

The Ruining is a complex ride through first love, chilling manipulation, and the terrifying depths of insanity.

"I'd never been to California."



Do any of these opening lines grab your attention? What are your favorite first lines that you've read lately?

Review: Fracture by Megan Miranda

FRACTURE
By: Megan Miranda
Published By: Walker & Company
Release Date: Jan. 17, 2012
Series: None
Pages: 264
Genre: Contemporary Fiction / Paranormal
Reading Level: Young Adult
Source: BEA
Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads Summary: Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine

-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and friendship and the fine line between life and death.



The idea that someone could clinically die and still return to life has always been intriguing to me. Would that person see the world differently? How would their life change? Fracture explores some of these questions in a perhaps unexpected way.

Delaney Maxwell spends eleven minutes trapped in an icy lake before she is rescued. Miraculously, she makes a full recovery from her coma, yet her MRI shows that something isn't right with certain areas of her brain. Despite this, Delaney seems fine, and eventually she is released to go home. But everything doesn't go back to normal. Delaney feels an unexplainable pull to those who are dying, and no matter how she tries, she can't seem to resist the urge to follow the pull. Soon Delaney meets Troy Varga, who also recovered from a coma and feels a similar pull to the dying. But Troy may not be exactly who he seems. As Delaney struggles to come to terms with her new life, with her feelings for her neighbor Decker, and with her tense relationship with her mother, Delaney learns a lot about human nature, life, and even death.

I have to admit that Fracture was not quite what I was expecting. I thought that Delaney would be looking for more from life, trying to piece things together as she wanted them. Instead, her near-death experience caused her to slowly break down and, as the title suggests, fracture. In some ways she struggled with survivor's guilt, but she also struggled to figure out what the pull to the dying meant and what she should do about it. With this, Fracture had an interesting blend of contemporary and paranormal elements. On one level, Delaney was trying to be a normal high school senior and sort out her feelings for Dexter, but on another level, she had a sort of sixth sense. I think that I enjoyed the contemporary aspect more than the paranormal. I could sympathize with the conflict that Delaney had trying to figure out her feelings for Decker as well as understand her relationship with her mother. The emotions were very intense and very well captured.

Then there was the paranormal aspect as well as Troy. Troy was intriguing at first, but then the fascination wore off. Even though I could understand his reasoning, I still had issues with it. In addition, while the paranormal aspect added something to the story, I think that it could have used a bit more fleshing out, and it still felt unresolved at the end. Despite this, the book definitely makes you think about what you would do with only one day left to live and makes you think about life in general.

Fracture is a compelling debut from Megan Miranda, one that I read in one sitting because I was so eager to know the full story. I will look forward to reading more from Megan Miranda!

Teaser Tuesday (25)

I'm very excited to be one of the many blogs participating in Teaser Tuesdays! TT is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. To participate:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
(Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here is my teaser:



"I crumpled onto the floor and held my head in my hands, pressing my fingers into my temple. Something in there was wrong. Not a fluke or an anomaly and definitely not a miracle.

An abomination. And I had no one to talk to but Troy."


p. 157 (ARC) from FRACTURE by Megan Miranda

Please share your teasers - post them or link to your blog!