First Lines Fridays 9th October 2026

Books: First Lines Fridays 9th 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 it's 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:

“Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Skylar Blackwood and I’d like to welcome you all to Tidewater Castle on this beautiful spring afternoon. We are here today to celebrate the marriage of Kirsty Middlemore and Ben Woj… Woj…” I stopped. “I told you to practise the bridegroom’s name before we left the office,” Jen scolded. She had the bag with the marriage register balanced on her knee. “You say, Voy - ja - hoff - ski.” I ignored the bit about practising.

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

And the book is...

Book synopsis Marriage Spells Murder by Bella Colby

She's a witch sworn off magic, but when peanuts poison the bad-tempered bridegroom, can she summon a solution before the killer gets away with murder?

Skylar Blackwood hasn't used magic since the love spell she cast on her high school sweetheart backfired and ruined her marriage. Now she’s a wedding celebrant in the sleepy seaside town of Tidewater, where the only magic is the fake kind performed by her friend and fellow outcast, Herb.

But Skylar’s peaceful life is turned upside down when the grumpy groom drops dead at the altar and Herb is arrested as prime suspect. Worse still, Skylar’s ex-husband (who she might still be a teeny bit in love with) shows up as the lead detective on the case.

Skylar is going to need more than a touch of magic to find the murderer and get Herb out of prison, while keeping her witch identity a secret, and beating her doubting ex in solving the case.

Together with Wolfie, her disgruntled grey wolf familiar, Skylar races to reveal who really killed groomzilla, as the body count continues to rise.

If you like a twisty magical mystery to mull, second chance romance, quirky characters and snappy dialogue with more snark than you can boil a brew at, join the fun in Marriage Spells Murder.

Conjure your copy now to start solving the crime.