First Lines Fridays 30th October 2026

Books: First Lines Fridays 30th October 2026

Ready for another First Lines Friday? It's that time of the week when we judge a book not by it's cover or even by its blurb. Instead we will be judging it's ability to hook us from the opening lines. Let's see if this week's pick will have you adding it to your TBR list or not.

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I'm participating in First Lines Fridays as I think it's a great way to highlight more of the books that are on my bookshelves.

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:

I watch them through my window. They are almost obscured by the big white van parked in the drive. But I can just about see the woman, directing the men as they lug furniture into the house. She’s smiling. Her husband walks over and slips an arm around her. They hug for a second. There’s a big grin on his face too. Well, I guess they would be happy, wouldn’t they? Moving into a lovely new home in a leafy neighbourhood, a stone’s throw from the river. Their little girl runs over and clutches the woman’s leg with one arm. The other arm is pulling along a rainbow-coloured mini suitcase. They stand for a moment, picture-postcard perfect, before the woman pulls away and starts waving her arms at their movers. Seeing that little family unit, I feel more alone than ever, my nose pressed against a glass door that won’t open. They thought they were going to have an idyllic life in their new house, watching their daughter grow up happy and contented. I take one last look, before forcing myself to turn away. Should have been me.

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

And the book is...

The Woman at No.3 by Rebecca Collomosse (book cover)

Book synopsis The Woman at No.3 by Rebecca Collomosse

The moment we moved in, I knew something was wrong.

We’ve finally found our dream home. It’s perfect for our little family: my hardworking husband Mike, my two-year-old daughter Poppy, and me. Three nice bedrooms. An Aga. A river view. And, best of all, a garden for Poppy to play in.

But something is off.

A cracked stove. Scribbles on the wall. The lights flicking off every evening — always at the same time. Our daughter crying in the night, pointing at the corner of her room. “She has no face.”

Then I met Josie, the woman at No.3.

Pale. Polite. Smiling. Obsessed. She knows things she shouldn’t. Offers to babysit my daughter again and again. And when I told her no — she didn’t like that.

Now the gifts are arriving. Notes through the door. A bottle left in the kitchen with no explanation. And my daughter won’t stop screaming in her sleep.

Everyone thinks I’m imagining it. But I know what I saw. What I heard.

We finally found our dream home. But what if our worst nightmare lives next door . . . ?