It’s time to play “guess that book” and also watch our TBRs weep.

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and is all about the first line of a current/upcoming read. Friday 56 is a meme hosted by Freda’s Voice, where you turn to page 56 (or 56%) in what you’re reading a find a snippet that jumps out at you.

Click To Reveal The Book

Sure, you think you know the story of the fearsome red dragon, Dragonia. How it terrorized the village of Skendrick until a brave band of heroes answered the noble villagers’ call for aid. How nothing could stop those courageous souls from facing down the dragon. How they emerged victorious and laden with treasure.

But, even in a world filled with epic adventures and tales of derring-do, where dragons, goblins, and unlicensed prestidigitators run amok, legendary heroes don’t always know what they’re doing. Sometimes they’re clueless. Sometimes beleaguered townsfolk are more hapless than helpless. And orcs? They’re not always assholes, and sometimes they don’t actually want to eat your children.

Heloise the Bard, Erithea’s most renowned storyteller (at least, to hear her tell it), is here to set the record straight. See, it turns out adventuring isn’t easy, and true heroism is as rare as an articulate villager.

Having spent decades propagating this particular myth (which, incidentally, she wrote), she’s finally able to tell the real story—for which she just so happened to have a front-row seat.

Welcome to Erithea. I hope you brought a change of undergarments—things are going to get messy.

✿ Lots of tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic humor.
✿ There’s a dragon!
✿ Gives bards the attention they clearly deserve.
✿ It’s got a hecking awesome title.
✿ High fantasy world adventured by a party of hopeless heroes.
✿ Comedic exploration of the traditional fantasy hero archetype.

This is a weekly meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook meant to take place on Mondays, but since Fridays tend to be my TBR-focused post, I’ve decided to combine them here. Next Monday’s prompt is: no romance.

Honestly, this prompt is a little tricky, because I haven’t actually read the book yet. So I can’t promise none of these books have some sort of romance subplot. Maybe there’s a little something lurking there that I haven’t discovered yet? Who knows?

               

I can 100% confirm that Network Effect doesn’t have romance, because if there’s one thing you can trust, it’s that Murderbot has better things to do than ponder over humans and their weird mating rituals.

I’m also willing to bet there’s no romance in Escaping Ordinary, which is the second book in the Talespinners series. It’s got a dragon, which is an immediate win for me. The first book was super cute, so I’m looking forward to this one. It’s set in a storybook world, where characters are trying to find their way into a book, which I think is a super cute premise.

I think most middle grade books are safe to assume there won’t be romance involved, so I’m going to throw out Attack of the Killer Komodos, which is coming out at the end of this year. I really enjoyed the first book The Mutant Mushroom Takeover, so I’m looking forward to getting another does of sciencey adventure goodness with book two!

Just like the first book in the series, I’m expecting Narwhal I’m Around to be a hilarious, chaotic adventure filled with animals and … who knows what else, honestly. The randomness is part of what I loved about the first book. No romance here, just plenty of laughs!

I actually have no idea whether or not Domesticating Dragons has romance in it, but I see nothing that would lead me to believe there is! Just lots of sweet, sweet dragons. Actually, its comp of Build-A-Bear meets Jurassic Park is what first grabbed my attention!

What are you reading this week? Share its first line in the comment below or drop your own First Line links!