Yvonne‘FORGETTING OPHELIA‘ by JULIE C. GARDNER
BOOK BEGINNINGS / FIRST LINES
I should’ve known better – I thought I did – but I asked one innocent question and was permanently haunted. Afterward, whenever I logged onto Facebook, I had to scroll past ads that didn’t apply to me. Beautiful infants in Baby Gap onesies, their Michelin-tire thighs poking out. This one boy who kept popping up had feet like mini potatoes. They were so tiny I was sure they’d fit inside my mouth. That was what I actually thought the first time I saw him: I could fit those in my mouth. I tried erasing the browser history, but my curiosity trailed me like a cat you just fed tuna. And all because I was stupid enough to Google “how old is too old to adopt”
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THE PREMISE
Ever-hopeful Lia thinks she’ll be with handsome, brooding Jake forever. Until one day he completely blindsides her and makes her question everything she knows…
Lia Townsend is expecting a ring and a trip to Hawaii for her fifth wedding anniversary. Instead, her husband, Jake, walks out on her. Out of the blue. Devastated, Lia vows to win back Jake and the perfect life they shared.
Because it was perfect, wasn’t it?
But as Lia searches for the truth behind Jake’s departure, the cracks in the shiny varnish begin to show. And once she uncovers his secret, all that she once knew and believed in crumbles.
Lia’s eccentric mother, her best friend, and two vastly different men each pull her in new directions, and Lia attempts to push past the pain and start anew.
But Jake isn’t gone for good. When an accident rocks the lives of their best friends, Lia and Jake are thrown together. Will Lia choose to salvage her old life with the man who broke her heart – or was everything they shared an illusion?
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WHAT IS ‘BOOK BEGINNINGS’ ?
Would the first few lines of your book make you want to read on?
If so, would you like to share them with us, (without revealing too many spoilers of course) ?
Visit your host, Gilion @ ‘Rose City Reader’
You can then leave a link to your own book beginnings post, or just browse for some great reads, there are always plenty of new authors and titles to be discovered.
Don’t forget that Gilion and all the other contributors to this meme love to hear from you, so why not leave a comment or two at the same time?
I can’t wait to do a little blog hopping myself and check out all the great Book Beginnings you have!
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I hope you’re loving this book – it sounds good to me!
I don’t generally read too much contemporary fiction, however this will definitely make for a slightly lighter interlude after some of the intense titles I have coming up in my TBR pile over the next few weeks!
Thanks for taking the time to visit this week and enjoy your weekend 🙂
Even if I’m not convinced about this one, I do love the beginning. How true it is that one quick browse of a website or question in a search engine can come back to haunt us online. It’s almost creepy how targeted we are!
The thing that really gets me, is that not only am I served up spurious adverts for things I may have searched for just out of interest and never meaning to buy – but then when I visit the site of an overseas blogger, those same adverts pop up to haunt me!
Talk about ‘Big Brother’ – I can see the day dawning in the not too distant future, when we won’t be allowed to think for ourselves, let alone have freedom of choice – Hopefully I won’t be around to see that day!
Author of the book, Julie Gardner, sounds like such a lovely person and was only too eager to put together a Guest Post, so ‘Forgetting Ophelia’ is definitely on my ration of contemporary fiction.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend 🙂
I like the opening – so true. It’s not just on Facebook, ads come up all over the internet, as though they all know what we’ve been looking at, most annoying.
The knowledge Google seems to have and the power it is able to wield, never ceases to amaze me. The same with Twitter (I haven’t joined the ‘facade book’ rat race yet) and to a lesser extent just about every search engine or WordPress application I use!
Hubbie is still getting suggestions and adverts dished up by Amazon for ‘SpongeBob Square Pants’ merchandise, after ordering quite a lot of the stuff for one of my niece’s birthdays – The only problem with this picture? – My niece is now 27 and she would have been 4 or 5 when we placed the order!! Perhaps Amazon is not that intelligent after all 🙂
The really annoying adverts are the ones that have videos behind them, which start to autoplay as soon as my mouse goes within about 10 feet of them – now those I can’t ignore so easily!
Anyway – back to ‘Forgetting Ophelia’, which is showing great promise with those opening lines.
Thanks for stopping back, it seems like an age since we last spoke – I can’t believe how quickly this year has passed us by and I hope that all is well with you 🙂
I hope you’re enjoying it!
This one is still a way down my TBR pile, however I do have a lovely Guest Post to be published on the day of the book’s release on October 8th, so these posts are leading up to that.
Thanks for stopping by and Happy Reading 🙂
I can relate to the opening lines as I too have considered adoption. See what we are featuring at Girl Who Reads
One of our extended family successfuly adopted about five years ago, however the process was totally horrendous for them, leaving them feeling like they had laid their souls bare.
As they said at the time, we have to jump through just about every hoop there is to adopt, when anyone in the street can go ahead and give birth to a child and no one queries their suitability to become a parent!
Happily, everything has worked out great for them, all this time on and they have become a complete family unit.
Good Luck with whatever decision you make and thanks for visiting this week 🙂
Hi Yvonne, this does sound good and it is true, those online ads really target us. Even when I’m browsing online shopping, then when I log onto my Instagram, products I was looking at on online shops will pop up on there as ads too now….it’s a little creepy.
Anyway, the book sounds good but her saying the baby’s feet look like potatoes that could fit into her mouth kind of threw me off.
Enjoy your week, I am trying to get caught up on blog land this week a little bit. I’m, still recovering from a nasty cold. I hope you are doing well xo
The late summer cold bugs have been doing the rounds here as well, although so far I have managed to avoid them! Sometimes they are much more difficult to shake off than a winter cold, so I hope that you will soon be on the mend and feeling more like your old self 🙂
Technology, or at least the pace of technological change, actually scares me quite a lot. I am having trouble keeping up with it all even now and I really worry for the next twenty years or so, as I can see myself getting left far behind and becoming increasingly disconnected!
Like yoursef, I intensely dislike the detailed targeting which on-line ads bombard me with. It actually makes me afraid to check out certain items out, for fear that they will be misinterpreted by the search engines, who will then throw out ads for items I really don’t want to have circulated.
I know where Julie was coming from when she wrote the line about the baby’s feet, but I agree that perhaps it wasn’t the best analogy, when you actually see it written down. Still looks like a great book though 🙂
Have a lovely week, Happy Reading, and take care of yourself 🙂