Book Beginnings & The Friday 56 #8

"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.)

Happy Friday the 1st. It's confession time! I (Keira) have not started a new book since last Friday, therefore, my BB and 56 was going to be the same. Instead, I'm going with the book I'm starting next, so we'll be reading the beginning and an excerpt from page 156 together! In my defense, I've been on vaca... 

The Legacy by Necole Ryse

Nineteen-year-old Raevyn Jones has never worn a designer gown. She's never had access to unlimited champagne or chauffeured limo rides.
But when she is dropped in the midst of the Black Ivy League--against her will--she has to pretend that everything is normal, as if she belongs.
When her new friends start to question her sketchy past and her shaky legacy at Benjamin Wallace Fitzgerald University, Raevyn realizes she will have to rely on her street smarts more than ever before.
Raevyn starts to receive cryptic text messages and emails from an anonymous sender and she soon discovers that not only does someone want her to leave B.W.Fitz--someone also wants to end her life.

"I needed to get out of the car before I lost every piece of my damn mind. Stuffed in the back seat of my father's Subaru, my legs had been folded under me for only God knew how long during the trek to Ohio."

First I have to think what Ohio looks like. But other than that it gives you a little suspense about what is to come.

""You look like someone I know." He flipped the omelette. "Someone I haven't seen in a long time."

"Who?" "Ain't no way you'd know him." He smiled, like he was visiting a memory. "A guy named Chuck, graduated in '94." "Chuck Jones?" I asked with a thumping heart."

I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You by Courtney Maum

Where'd You Go, Bernadette meets Beautiful Ruins in this reverse love story set in Paris and London about a failed monogamist's attempts to answer the question: Is it really possible to fall back in love?
Despite the success of his first solo show in Paris and the support of his brilliant French wife and young daughter, thirty-four-year-old British artist Richard Haddon is too busy mourning the loss of his American mistress to a famous cutlery designer to appreciate his fortune.
But after Richard discovers that a painting he originally made for his wife, Anne -when they were first married and deeply in love-has sold, it shocks him back to reality and he resolves to reinvest wholeheartedly in his family life . . . just in time for his wife to learn the extent of his affair. Rudderless and remorseful, Richard embarks on a series of misguided attempts to win Anne back while focusing his creative energy on a provocative art piece to prove that he's still the man she once loved.
Skillfully balancing biting wit with a deep emotional undercurrent, debut novelist Courtney Maum has created the perfect portrait of an imperfect family-and a heartfelt exploration of marriage, love, and fidelity.

 "Moments of great import are often tinged with darkness because perversely we yearn to be let down." 

Hmmm... I'm not sure if this is meant to be thought provoking, but I find myself pondering whether this is true or not. Perhaps for me it would be more accurate had the author said, "...we expect to be let down", but that's a topic for another day. Book wise, BANG. I already want to know more about the narrator.

"I suppose it's inevitable. Here it is: I miss you. Dave and I have set the date for our wedding: July 21. Now that it's set, though, it feels definitive. It makes me miss you. I'm sure you can understand this better than I can, as I've never been married. It feels like a good-bye. I mean, it is a good-bye, obviously, and it has been, it's just, what do I do with the missing part? What do I do with the part of me that does miss you, that falls asleep at night, sometimes dreaming of a parallel life?"

Any good beginnings, middles, or ends you want to share?

Until Next Time,