First Line Friday is something every reader can participate in. Pick up a book near you. Type the first line in the comments, along with the title of the book and the author. Then check out the books other readers have featured in the comments on this blog or on the Hoarding Books link at the end of the post. You might find a book you would like to read simply by reading the first line. You can also click on the title of the book below and it will take you to Amazon so you can see what the book is about and the reviews other readers of shared.
The book I’m featuring today is Wilted Dandelions by Catherine Ulrich Brakefield.
Buffalo, New York
1837
“Spinster Rachael picks weeds, hoping someone will pick her.”
I met this author at our ACFW Great Lakes Chapter meeting in January and decided to read one of her novels. It was time well spent. The characters are well developed and believable. I love that the heroine is strong and self-sufficient, yet vulnerable. The hero is brave and desires to obey God, while dealing with his inner weaknesses in a way that do not diminish him as a man. This novel was hard to put down.
The story takes you on an adventure through the heart of Indian country in the 1800s. Rachael Rothburn’s one desire is to be a missionary and share the love of Jesus with people who have never heard of Him. She sees herself as a spinster and has given up on marriage. Dr. Jonathan Wheaton desires the adventure of going west and, as a believer, would like to use his skill to help people as well as tell them about Jesus. Unfortunately, anyone desiring to join in the expedition must be married, so they agree to a marriage of convenience. On the journey, they battle raging rivers, hostile Indians, and treacherous mountains, while having to deal with ungodly men and women, yet the greatest battles are the ones within themselves. How long will pride and feelings of jealously keep these two from surrendering to God’s perfect plan?
Now it’s your turn. Place your first line in the comments and then check out other bloggers who participate in First Line Friday. Just click on the link below.
Anneliese Dalaba 
It looks and sounds interesting!
I’ve got the first line from The Saturday Night Supper club up on my blog, and I’m currently reading another great contemporary romance – Paper Hearts by Courtney Walsh. She’s one of my new favourite authors. Here’s the first line:
“I can’t believe she did this to me again.” Abigail Pressman stared at the computer screen in disbelief.
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Thank you Iola for your comment and please check out Wilted Dandelions and my other books!
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Happy Friday!
My first line comes from a book I will be reading soon, August and Everything After by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski…..
I started wearing my grandmother’s old cat-eye glasses in June, right after my latest crush nearly crushed me.
Have a great weekend and stay warm!
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Awww! Hoping for a happy ending for her! Here are the first (few) lines from the book on top of my TBR pile, Steal Away Home by Billy Coffey. “We cross the river when I see in the rearview that the cabbie has something to say to me. His voice carries over the traffic and jackhammering and the bustle of the city: ‘You ain’t got a chance, you know that. Right? My guys, they’ll murder ya.'”
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That sounds scary…suspenseful. Happy reading and I wish you a wonderful weekend.
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HaHa, you have no idea what our Good Lord had planed for Rachael and Jonathan! After all, God is the author of romance as well as love!
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Aw, poor Rachael!
Here’s the first line from my current read:
Four years to the day after the alien planet arrived above Earth, Sofi’s papa had collapsed on the rickety front porch of their buttermilk-yellow farmhouse. –Reclaiming Shilo Snow by Mary Weber
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I know I’ve experienced in my lifetime instances like Rachael!
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This looks interesting. Thanks for sharing!
I’m featuring “The Saturday Night Supper Club” by Carla Laureano on the blog today, but my first line here will be the book I’m currently reading, “Across the Blue” by Carrie Turansky.
February 1909
Isabella Grayson’s shoes sank into the plush red carpet of Broadlands’ south hall, and she released a soft sigh. What luxury!
Happy reading and have a wonderful weekend!
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Thank you for commenting! Check it out while it is still on sale.
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Thanks! And a wonderful weekend for you, too!
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That time is a!ways interesting. It sounds like an exciting trip. On my blog I am featuring one of my favorite cats series, Joe Grey and his freinds. Now we have moved into the next generation.
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It was well written and definitely exciting. I highly recommend it.
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Thank you Anneliese, especially for this opportunity to meet your friends. They might be interested that my husband and I took a road trip and followed Rachael’s and Jonathan’s trail.
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The trip was exciting! Rachael put aside her own inhibitions of marrying a man she hardly knew to travel into a unknown land so she could minister ‘Christ’s the Good News’ to the lost.
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I need to squeeze one of Cathy’s stories into my tbr! So many books, so little time!
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This is the only book by this author that I’ve read, but it was well worth it. I highly recommend it. But I certainly understand about so little time. 🙂
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I would love that! I now have the second book of my Destiny series releasing on April 17th. Swept into Destiny has done very well, and I can’t wait to see what Into Destiny’s Whirlwind will do!
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That is a phenomenal first line! I will definitely check this book out.
Over on my blog, I am featuring Heather B. Moore’s novel, Worth the Risk. I am very excited to read that book. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun.
Here, I will post from the novel I am currently reading, A Refuge Assured by Jocelyn Green. It is an AMAZING story that I am enjoying wholeheartedly. I am just starting chapter 29, so I will share the first two lines from this chapter.
Asylum, Pennsylvania
July 1795
Still damp with morning’s dew, the cool earth soiled Vivienne’s apron as she knelt in her garden, tugging weeds from between iris and yarrow. Geese soared overhead, soft brown chevrons against a sky of robin’s-egg blue.
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Asylum, PA. What an interesting name for a town. I imagine the explanation of the name is part of the story.
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It was actually a real place! It was a sort of colony for French refugees during the French Revolution.
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How interesting! Thanks for the update.
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Thank you for your interest in Wilted Dandelions! Please make sure to let me know how you liked the novel.
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Oh my goodness, what a sad first line, but this sounds like an amazing story. Happy Friday!
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It really is worth reading. A happy Friday to you, too. I’m having a hibernation day as the snowstorm sweeps through Michigan. Lovely!
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That must be beautiful to see! Stay safe and warm!
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Yes! Rachael was often called ‘Spinster Rachael’ because she was over twenty and unwed! She had a born again experience and wanted to become a missionary, but had to accept a marriage of convenience first. She learned that God doesn’t create coincidences, he designs possibilities! If you like happy endings, this is the book for you!
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What an interesting first line. I certainly hope her story gets better!
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It’s truly a very good and fun read.
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Haha, you’ll have to read the book and see for yourself!
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What an interesting first line. I certainly hope her story gets better!
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I certainly enjoyed the book. It was hard to put down.
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Thank you Anneliesa for sharing with me how you found it hard to put Wilted Dandelions down! Hope you get a chance to read Swept into Destiny, I’ve had many good reviews on this one too!
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I feel her pain.
Josie Gallagher gripped the letter from the county manager’s office with tight hands. – Her Secret Daughter by Ruth Logan Herne
Happy Friday and Happy Reading! 🙂
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Happy Friday to you, too!
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Don’t we all, at some times in our lives have felt that sort of pain? Rachael rises above her circumstances to realize that God’s love can even overshadow our worst nightmares!
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Happy Friday! My first line is from Forward to What Lies Ahead by Chloe S. Flanagan:
“Regina’s cellphone buzzed sharply, shattering the silence of her apartment and making her coffee table vibrate.”
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Sounds like an interesting read.
I’m featuring Jennifer Rodewald’s Valentine’s Day novella on my blog, but at the moment I’m refreshing my memory on Mary Weber’s The Evaporation of Sofi Snow:
“The ice-planet arrived in the dusky heat of summer twilight during Earth’s Fourth World War.”
Have a great weekend.
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Now is the time to see! I understand that this special 99 cent promotion will soon be expiring!
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Spinster is such an old fashion word but I love reading it. Not that I rejoyce in her being a spinster but I love the sound of the word 😉 Happy reading! My first lines: “”Tell me a story.” Grandma smiled through a mess of wrinkles and brushed a lock of wavy blonde hair off my brow. “Another? Three books weren’t enough?”
“Not a book story. One of your stories.”
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That sounds like a sweet book. I’m a grandma, so I can relate. 🙂 But I don’t have a mess of wrinkles. Only a few. lol
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Isn’t it? Back in the 1800s you were barely out of short skirts before you were suppose to be married. I got married at 24. If I lived during the 1800s, I’d be thought of as as spinster. Wow! that’s an eye opener! Haha, but Rachael had thick skin, and didn’t care what people thought.
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