Frankly my dear….

We are at week 40 of our challenging blog hop, talking about favorite book quotes.

I’m not sure it was in the book Gone With the Wind (I read it a million years ago), but I do so love that line from Rhett Butler, when, utterly fed up with Scarlett’s shenanigans he tells her,

Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!

The best of times

Another catchy phrase is the opening of A Tale of Two Cities:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

But, confession time–catchy though it is, once you get past “the age of foolishness” it becomes a bit cumbersome for this modern reader. And, um, I haven’t read the book, nor even seen the movie! I did, however, appear in my high school production of Oliver.

Another take on the French Revolution

Every author knows how powerful the opening lines of a story can be in hooking the reader. Writing that opening hook is an incredible struggle for me. I’ve heard an editor say that most books, both trad and indie published, don’t have a hook. My own thought on this is that maybe one person’s hook is another person’s boring opening.

Here’s one I like, the opening scene of The Forbidden Rose, by Joanna Bourne, a romantic suspense set during the French Revolution that I highly recommend.

“You have not been foolish,” she said, “but you have been unlucky. The results are indistinguishable.”

The rabbit said nothing. It lay on its side, panting. Terror poured from it in waves, like water going down the steps of a fountain.

“The analogies to my own situation are clear. I do not like them.”

And here’s Joanna Bourne’s opening from The Spymaster’s Lady, also a tale set during the French Revolution:

She was willing to die of course, but she had not planned to do it so soon, or in such a prolonged and uncomfortable fashion, or at the hands of her own countrymen.

And one last line…

Great secondary characters can land a book on the permanent keeper shelf. Here’s a bit from Loretta Chase’s Mr. Impossible describing the heroine’s fatalistic but funny maid:

Leena not only spoke English, Greek, Turkish, and Arabic, but could read and write a little in these languages–unheard of accomplishments for a woman in this part of the world. She was on the other hand, deeply superstitious, with a tendency to discern the dark cloud attached to every silver lining.

What are your favorite book lines from books? Share the quotes below, or hop along with my fellow MFRW authors and see how they address this topic.

 

Images: Wikimedia commons andAmazon