“love, lies, and deceit”
‘Last Summer’
by Kerry Lonsdale
First Lines

Thanks to the combination of Little Bird Publicity and Netgalley, for introducing me to Kerry Lonsdale, a well established and highly successful author, who is now very firmly on my radar for further reading, and affording me the opportunity to read her latest book, Last Summer

Last Summer, is now almost at the top of my TBR pile, and it is about time for me to share those all important and often intriguing, opening lines with you. So …

For all you ‘First Page Browsers’

BOOK BEGINNINGS / FIRST LINES 

CHAPTER ONE 

“Ella.”

A soft murmur comes from somewhere beyond her dreams. Her name.

“Ella.”

Another whisper.

Damien.

He says her name again. It draws her from the depths of slumber. She was dreaming. Dreaming about … what?

Biting tongues and keeping secrets.

“Ella, sweetheart. Wake up.”

Her eyes flutter open. She looks up into her husband’s blue-grays, the whites of his eyes bloodshot. Her heart goes out to him.

He must be working late nights again. She tries to recall which client is giving him difficulty: the new commercial bank in Atlanta or the social media company based in London touting itself as the Facebook for the iGen? But she doesn’t know. Her mind is blurry, a camera lens that can’t focus.

Damien leans over her. Dark whiskers dust his jaw. Locks just as dark sweep back from his forehead. He’s been running his fingers through the thick mass. He does that when he’s stressed. And worried. He’s definitely worried. Why? And why are his jeans rumpled and shirt crinkled? He looks like he hasn’t showered in days.

With a quick glance over his shoulder, he shoots her a conspiratorial smile, a flash of straight teeth. He drops a white bakery bag on a food cart. “I got you an omelet as promised.”

When did he promise that?

And where did that food cart come from?

Ella looks past her husband’s looming form and her heart stalls. Stark walls surround them in a box-shaped room. Lysol and antiseptic cling to the air. The drone of unfamiliar voices penetrates the closed door. A door she doesn’t recognize …

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So you have taken a look, will you read the book?

Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Just to give you an extra helping hand, here is the book’s premise …

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LAST SUMMER (premise)

Lifestyle journalist Ella Skye remembers every celebrity she interviewed, every politician she charmed between the sheets, and every socialite who eyed her with envy. The chance meeting with her husband, Damien; their rapid free fall into love; and their low-key, intimate wedding are all locked in her memory. But what she can’t remember is the tragic car accident that ripped her unborn child from her. Ella can’t even recall being pregnant.

Hoping to find the memories of a lost pregnancy that’s left her husband devastated and their home empty, Ella begins delving into her past when she’s assigned an exclusive story about Nathan Donovan, a retired celebrity adventurer who seems to know more about her than she does him. To unravel the mystery of her selective memory loss, Ella follows Nathan from the snowcapped Sierra Nevada to the frozen slopes of southeast Alaska. There she discovers the people she trusts most aren’t the only ones keeping secrets from her—she’s hiding them from herself. Ella quickly learns that some truths are best left forgotten.

AUTHOR KERRY LONSDALE

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You might also like to visit Gilion, over at ‘Rose City Reader‘, where you can share links to the book beginnings from her own reading schedule and that of many of our fellow bloggers. There are always plenty of new authors and titles to be discovered.

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