Book Beginnings & The Friday 56 #3

 

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader, the meme encourages to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book.

 "The Friday 56" is also a weekly event, hosted by Freda's Voice, where you find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it) that grab you from page 56 or 56% in your book/eReader (If you have to improvise, that's ok.)

What they say about first impressions can be applied to books as well. I've been guilty of judging a story by its first line, paragraph, page, etc. That is why Book Beginnings is one of my favorite features! I can think of many books that left me slack-jawed from the start. Can you?

Drew Evans is a winner. Handsome and arrogant, hemakes multimillion dollar business deals and seduces New York’s most beautiful women with just a smile. He has loyal friends and an indulgent family. So why has he been shuttered in his apartment for seven days, miserable and depressed?

He’ll tell you he has the flu.
But we all know that’s not really true.
Katherine Brooks is brilliant, beautiful and ambitious. She refuses to let anything - or anyone - derail her path to success. When Kate is hired as the new associate at Drew’s father’s investment banking firm, every aspect of the dashing playboy’s life is thrown into a tailspin. The professional competition she brings is unnerving, his attraction to her is distracting, his failure to entice her into his bed is exasperating.

Then, just when Drew is on the cusp of having everything he wants, his overblown confidence threatens to ruin it all. Will he be able untangle his feelings of lust and tenderness, frustration and fulfillment? Will he rise to the most important challenge of his life?

Can Drew Evans win at love?

Tangled is not your mother’s romance novel. It is an outrageous, passionate, witty narrative about a man who knows a lot about women…just not as much as he thinks he knows. As he tells his story, Drew learns the one thing he never wanted in life, is the only thing he can’t live without.

 "Do you see that unshowered, unshaven heap on the couch? The guy in the dirty gray T-shirt and ripped sweatpants? That's me, Drew Evans."

 The first thought that came to mind was the way that this seemed like the forth wall had been broken and Drew, was talking straight to the audience. It reminded me of Ferris Bueler in a weird way. And the visual of a hot, (assuming) dirty guy on a couch was something that felt different. When we usually meet our hero or swoon worthy guy, he is nothing short of a 12 on a scale of 1 to 10. This is fun.

 ""Before we get into that, there's something I want to do first."
There's amusement in her voice as she asks, "What do you want to do, Drew?"
I pick her up, sweep everything off my desk, and lay her down.
"You.""

A girl.
A coma.
A life she can't remember.

When Emma Walker wakes up in the hospital with no knowledge of how she got there, she learns that she's been in a coma for six months. Strangers show up and claim to be her parents, but she can't remember them. She can't remember anyone. Not her friends, not even her boyfriend. Even though she can't remember, everyone wants her to just pick up where she left off, but what she learns about the 'old her' makes her start to wish she'd never woken up. Her boyfriend breaks up with the new girl he's dating to be with her, her parents want her to start planning for college, her friends want their leader back, and her physical therapist with the hazel eyes keeps his distance to save his position at the hospital.

Will she ever feel like she recognizes the girl in the mirror?

"Someone was speaking. No, he was yelling. It sounded angry, but my body refused to cooperate with my commands to open my eyes and be nosy."

Already I was curious as to whether she was waking up or if these were her thoughts within the comma. Not to mention that I wanted to know who "he" was. Each chapter offers a useless fact as its opening. Chapter one's was "A ducks quack doesn't echo and no one knows why." Between this and the opening line, I was instantly intrigued.

"I shook my head. "He broke up with you in a note on your car?" She nodded pathetically. "Yes," she whined. "And he hasn't spoken to me since. And I get it, you're back, that's great. I just wanted to make sure he was OK and to tell him that I understood why he needed to go back to you. But he won't..."

Until Next Time,