Happy Friday! Today I am participating in First Line Friday, hosted by Reading is My Superpower, AND First Lines Friday, created by Wandering Words!
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!
“Politics,” my dad used to tell me, “is sleight of hand.” Smoke and mirrors. The art of the steal rather than good old fashioned hard work.
Anyone have any guesses on what book this is? I’ll give you a few clues…
any guesses yet? no? okay, one more gif…
Last chance to guess!
Today’s book is…
The [Un]Popular Vote by Jasper Sanchez Published on June 1, 2021 by Katherine Tegen Books
Genres: Contemporary, Queer, YA, Neurodivergent, Aspec
Pages: 416
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Vaseline on the teeth makes a smile shine. It’s a cheap stunt, but Mark Adams knows it’s optics that can win or ruin an election.
Everything Mark learned about politics, he learned from his father, the congressman who still pretends he has a daughter and not a son. To protect his father’s image, Mark promises to keep his past hidden and pretend to be the cis guy everyone assumes he is. But when he sees a manipulatively charming candidate for student body president inflame dangerous rhetoric, Mark decides to risk the low profile he assured his father and insert himself as a political challenger.
One big problem? No one really knows Mark. He didn’t grow up in this town, and he has few friends; plus, the ones he does have aren’t exactly with the in-crowd. Still, thanks to countless seasons of Scandal and The West Wing, these nerds know where to start: from campaign stops to voter polling to a fashion makeover. Soon Mark feels emboldened to get in front of and engage with voters—and even start a new romance. But with an investigative journalist digging into his past, a father trying to silence him, and a bully front-runner who stands in his way, Mark will have to decide which matters most: perception or truth, when both are just as dangerous.
““Politics,” my dad used to tell me, “is sleight of hand.” Smoke and mirrors. The art of the steal rather than good old fashioned hard work.”
I’ve been listening to The [Un]Popular Vote by Jasper Sanchez this week and LOVING it!!! It’s a little jarring at times because I haven’t read anything with so much queer pain since Anger is a Gift. But! There’s also hope and that’s lovely.
What have you been reading lately? Let me know in the comments and have a splendiferous day!
Do you participate in either of these memes? Let me know if you do and link your posts in the comments so I can visit! And don’t forget to have a splendiferous week!
Happy Friday!
I’m currently in the middle of Celebration at Christmas Cove by Carrie Jansen so I will share a line from there. “When Celeste approached main street and noticed the long line of vehicles, including two shuttle buses, parallel parked all the way down the road, she thought, I must be the only person on the island not at the center yet.”
Hope you have a wonderful weekend! Happy reading!
My book is The Heart of a Cowboy by Jody Hedlund:
She was going to drown. The Neosho River wrapped its cold fingers around Linnea Newberry and pulled her down.
I’m reading Deadly Target by Elizabeth Goddard. The first line is: “Puget Sound – For a few hours every Saturday morning, Erin Larson could forget evil existed.” Happy weekend!