First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
- Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page.
- Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first.
- Finally… reveal the book!
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Happy Friday readers everywhere! Hopefully you’ve all had a wonderful week and are getting excited for a weekend of reading. If you missed my post yesterday, May is Historical Romance month here on the blog and today’s First Lines Friday is the first book of the month that I am reading. It’s a little less romance and heavier on the historical themes, but I’m loving it all the same.
What I enjoy from reading historical romance books, is of course the swoony heroes and strong heroines, but it’s also learning more about history through these stories and today’s book I’m sharing with you all has a heavy dose of historical reality. It’s two young women across a small time gap in the same small town, but their roles in a symbolic and essential piece of Belgium history.
I won’t pretend to know a lot of about Belgium history, but I’m learning more with each page and appreciating the struggle of these strong young women each day. Their stories are inspiring and heartfelt through every page and I hope you’ll give it a consideration for one of you next purchases if you’re interested in this kind of story!
Now onto FIRST LINES FRIDAY!
May 1942
L’ Elpe, Belgium
In a small town of silvery waterways and whispering oaks, a young woman named Julienne stood on the threshold of a tiny room. How was it possible, she thought, that these four ordinary walls could hold
echoes of both her deepest joys and her darkest miseries?
Papa was outside with their packed bags, waiting for the driver. Julienne had already bid farewell to the rest of the house; her bedroom, where she’d spent hours dreaming and re-reading book after book as
the wind rustled through the leaves of the oak outside her window; the parlor, with its oversized, deeply worn wingback chairs, where tutors opened to her a multitude of new ideas.
But the recollections murmuring from this room always compelled Julienne to hurry past. Even now, standing in its doorway, her eyes closed, she could almost hear the endless squeaking of Mama’s rocking
chair, always pulled up to the window. There weren’t many Germans stationed here for L’ Elpe was too insignificant to deeply interest the Third Reich. But even the freshest-faced, wide-eyed sentry had been
a world of terror to Mama. Each time she glimpsed one, even from a distance, she rocked harder, whimpered, and twisted her beautiful brown hair into tight knots, rebuffing all attempts at comfort.
First Lines Friday reveal…….
The Belgian Girls by Kathryn Atwood
Available May 8th, 2025!
I have just been condemned to death. I will be shot tomorrow. Long live the King. Long live Belgium.
When the Germans overrun Brussels during the First World War, Gabrielle is infuriated to see her newfound happiness shattered. It isn’t long before she is faced with an impossible choice. Three decades later, shy and bookish Julienne moves to Brussels with her widowed father at the height of the Nazi occupation and is horrified to witness the city’s callous treatment of Jews.
In this dual timeline novel inspired by the life of Belgian spy Gabrielle Petit, two very different young women must discover their inner strength to become the heroes their city needs. And when loyalties are tested and decades-old secrets are revealed, their legacies will become entwined forever.
Written by historian and storyteller Kathryn J. Atwood, The Belgian Girls is a tale of hope, forgiveness, and the healing power of friendship.
Looking for book recs…
Adventures in Literature 
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