First Lines Fridays 26th December 2025 | Jo Linsdell

First Lines Fridays 26th December 2025

                      

First Lines Fridays


Books: First Lines Fridays 26th December 2025

Some books don’t need a synopsis.
Some don’t need reviews, ratings, or recommendations.

All they need is one perfect opening paragraph.

That’s the magic of First Lines Fridays—a space where stories get just a few lines to make an impression. No context. No hints. Just words on the page and the question: would you keep reading?


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Why I Love First Lines Fridays

I'm joining in with First Lines Fridays because it’s a brilliant way to highlight more books from my own collection. Whether it’s a current read or one still on my TBR pile, I love sharing those unforgettable opening lines that instantly grab you.


What is First Lines Fridays?

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? 

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open 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!

My Pick For This Week


The first lines of the book:


The crisp, December air of a decade ago still clung to the edges of their memories, a nostalgic perfume laced with the heady scent of cheap champagne and the sharper, metallic tang of youthful defiance. Five figures, united by the unshakeable certainty of their late twenties, had gathered in a dimly lit university common room, the fairy lights strung haphazardly across the ceiling casting a festive, yet somehow melancholic, glow. It was the eve of their graduation, a threshold moment, and the air thrummed with a potent cocktail of excitement and a gnawing apprehension for the unknown future. Liam, ever the dramatist, had produced a thick, leather-bound journal, its pages still blessedly blank, and a fountain pen with an exorbitant price tag.



Do you know which book this is from? Scroll down to find out!


First Lines Fridays



And the book is...


The Christmas Pact by Jasper Blackwood



About the book


Book synopsis for The Christmas Pact by Jasper Blackwood

Five friends. One pact. A Christmas reunion none of them will survive.

Ten years ago, five university friends
If one of us calls for help, the others come. No questions asked.

This Christmas, the call arrives.

They gather at a remote, snowbound lodge only to find their friend dead, a message pinned to his chest:
ONE OF YOU BROKE THE PACT. ONE OF YOU KILLED ME.

When a blizzard seals them inside and “gifts” appear revealing their darkest secrets, paranoia takes over. Old betrayals surface. Trust fractures.
And someone begins hunting them from the shadows of the lodge.

But the truth is worse than any of them imagined—
because the dead man isn’t dead, and one of them is far more dangerous than the storm outside.

A tense, claustrophobic holiday thriller where every friendship has an expiration date.



Buy now



Where to find The Christmas Pact by Jasper Blackwood online: 

 



First Lines Fridays


Let’s Talk Books 

Have you read The Christmas Pact—or is it on your TBR?
Did those opening lines hook you, or would you have put the book back on the shelf?

Tell me in the comments:

  • What’s the best opening line you’ve read recently?

  • Do first pages influence whether you keep reading?

If you enjoy discovering books through their beginnings, don’t forget to check back every Friday for more First Lines Fridays features—and feel free to join in yourself!



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