First Line Friday 56 || Romance and Pirates

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

In this seafaring fantasy, a soft-spoken and empathic teen must chart her own course to rescue the ruthless pirate who raised her.

If there’s one thing Thea Fowler has learned from her mother, it’s that the only way for a woman to survive in a man’s world is to make herself strong—invulnerable, even. Strength, after all, is how Clementine Fowler survived after her world was washed away by ash and lava and became one of the most notorious pirates the world has ever known.

Unfortunately, Thea has inherited none of her mother’s ruthlessness and grit.

After a lifetime of being told she is a disappointment, Thea longs to escape life under her mother’s thumb. And when she falls for a handsome sailor named Bauer, she thinks she’s found her chance at a new life. But it’s not long before first love leads to first betrayal, and Thea learns that there’s more than one way to be strong.

• Female pirate who will not be taken lightly or underestimated
• Tongue-in-cheek sarcastic narration that is just *chef’s kiss*
• Absolutely gorgeous prose
• Romance and pirates is really just win-win
• A short, quick read that’s hard to put down
• A coming-of-age story filled with people telling Thea she can’t do something and her doing it anyway, just out of spite
• You know, the best sort of coming-of-age

5 On My TBR is hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and is 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: translated. I actually don’t read a whole ton of translated works (other than everything and anything Fredrick Backman writes and ever will write, and you should too, darn it!). So I’m going to flip this prompt just a teensy bit and do books that include other languages. Because English is fine and all, but other languages are better.

               

Pilar Ramirez and the Escape from Zafa by Julian Randall

Full disclosure: I’ve actually started this book, so I think it actually exists on my “Currently Reading” list rather than my TBR. But you know what? I’m going to count it anyway. Because technicalities are fun and I technically haven’t read it yet. Pilar Ramirez is based on mythology from the Dominican Republic and contains plenty of Spanish . . . which is sometimes frustrating to my very white child, who can barely speak English (I blame the South) let alone Spanish. For me, having been raised around Puerto Ricans my entire childhood? I’m loving Pilar so far, even though I’ve only just started the book, and I can’t wait to get more into the adventure!

Shad Hadid and the Alchemists of Alexandria by George Jreije

Shad Hadid is an aspiring baker who dreams of opening his own Arabic bakery. Which is just the sort of character you would think of when you think fantasy adventure, right?! But hey, this magic-baker-saves-the-day premise worked exceedingly well in A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, so I am more than willing to give this another go. Plus, Minion loves baking, and books about baking is basically the easiest thing I can get her to read, so that’s a win in my book. Technically, this book doesn’t come out until October 2022, which is still some time away, but I’m so excited for it! It’s been quietly sitting there on my TBR for months, so it’s about time it gets a shout-out.

Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Not gonna lie, I have absolutely no idea whether or not this will have another language in it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The first book had some Cantonese, I think? Maybe? I dunno, it’s been a while. There’s definitely talk of other languages, and I’m going to count it, because I really freaking want to read this book. And I feel like everyone needs to know it. Hence, it’s on this list. I’m not usually one for rom-com type books, but I picked up Dial A for Aunties and sat down and read it in a day because I had so much fun with it. It’s the sort of book that makes me keenly miss my grandmother, because the minute I set it down I thought, oh my gosh, I absolutely need to share this with Nana because she would love it! Which, of course, isn’t possible. Unless someone has a Ouija board and a lot of time on their hands, I suppose. But I’m pretty sure that’s still the mark of one heck of a book.

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

This one’s also a little bit of a cheat, and if I’m honest, I’m ashamed that I haven’t read it yet. I’m simply assuming that this one includes another language, since it’s set in an alternate (steampunk) Cairo and based on Arabic mythology. I would assume that, at some point, Arabic is used. Technically, we could count “djinn” itself as including another language, but let’s not split hairs there. The point is that Clark is a freaking amazing author and everything I’ve heard about this book points to the fact that I should’ve read it the minute it was released. There’s no reason at all for this to still be on my TBR, and yet here we are.

Charlie Hernández and the League of Shadows by Ryan Calejo

I bought the first two books in this series last year, but do you think that I read them? No, of course not. I was busy doing this silly thing called getting a degree instead. Pffft. Slacker. Now that the third book, Charlie Hernández the Golden Dooms, is being released later this year, it seems like a pretty good time to finally pick up the series. This is an adventure fantasy book based on Hispanic folklore, which means—you guessed it—plenty of Spanish! As I tried to make this list, I realized that I tend to be a little biased towards languages that I’m more comfortable/familiar with and I should probably fix that. So, you know, hit me up in the comments if you’ve got a recommendation for a good book that features other languages!