I run an online community for romance authors, Write with Harte, and this week I did a post on writing opening lines. I don't know about you, but there's nothing like a great opening line in a book. I can't tell you how many books I've picked up based on the opening line alone. 

When I write, I think a lot about the opening line and usually like to start in the middle of something, whether it's an event, a conversation, or a thought. I can't say I'm a master, but I like to think my first lines create interest. At least once, I was provocative 🫢(Meant to Be).

But there are some authors whose first lines stay with me, which isn't something that normally happens. There are plenty of books in which I remember scenes, or in the case of Persuasion, a letter, but not very many where I remember the opening line. 

Here are a few that have stuck with me:

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” —Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Of course, it's the OG of the domestic romance. 

“I’ve come in contact with a lot of liars, but none quite so big as Google.”  —Swift and Saddled by Lyla Sage 

I bought this book, the second in the series (I never read the first), based on this line.

Here's another I bought based on the first line:

“The Devil had a wicked mouth and a voice as smooth as bourbon.” —Phantasma by Kaylie Smith

Back in the mid-2000s, when Twilight was the rage, I remember vacillating on whether I'd read it. And then I read the opening line:

I'd never given much thought to how I would die—though I'd reason enough in the last few months—but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this. Twilight by Stephanie Meyers 

👉Are there first lines of books that have stuck with you?