First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.

What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?

If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:

📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page
📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
📙 Finally… reveal the book!

Here are the first lines:

Viv buried her greatsword in the scalvert’s skull with a meaty crunch. Blackblood thrummed in her hands, and her muscular arms strained as she tore it back and out in a spray of gore. The Scalvert Queen gave a long, vibrating moan … and then thundered to the stone in a heap.

Any guesses? Here’s some books to stare at while you ruminate on it…

Annnd the book is 🥁🥁… Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree!!

(Did you get it right??)

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

SERIES: Legends & Lattes (Book #1)

LENGTH: 305 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, LGBTQIA+, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Cryptid Press

RELEASE DATE: 18 February 2022

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

High Fantasy with a double-shot of self-reinvention

Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian cashes out of the warrior’s life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where she plans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen.

However, her dreams of a fresh start pulling shots instead of swinging swords are hardly a sure bet. Old frenemies and Thune’s shady underbelly may just upset her plans. To finally build something that will last, Viv will need some new partners and a different kind of resolve.

A hot cup of fantasy slice-of-life with a dollop of romantic froth. 

Thank you so much for reading, and have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar