Instead of Six Sentences Sunday, I thought it would be fun to do a mid-week Hook ‘Em Six Sentences. Many writers are voracious readers. Post your six sentences here and maybe you’ll hook someone into giving your book a place on their shelf or ereader!
- Just some simple rules:
- 1. Start with your six sentences. Anything more won’t be approved and I’ll be contacting you to re-comment.
- 2. Surprise me with the genre. This is open to fiction and nonfiction.
- 3. Leave your name and a buy link. And if you’re not published, that’s okay too. Give me your best :).
- See, simple! You never know, but I might be stuffing my Kindle full of books.
Here is my six sentences from my debut novel, Shadow Watcher, available in digital and print.
Yet through his lust, he must’ve glimpsed the accusation on her face. He shot up off the couch, but she was faster and dashed back into the bedroom for her weapons.
“You owe me some truths, lover,” she said, sarcasm dripping off her last word.
He raised a brow. “Ditto, sweetheart.”
Cocky bastard.
Genre: Paranormal Romance Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Watcher-Crimson-Romance-ebook/dp/B008VHSGWI/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1355290350&sr=1-3&keywords=ashlyn+mathews
Hi – here’s my six sentences from my paranormal romance The Silver Rose available in digital format.
An aura of light shimmered about Rosa as she hummed softly to herself. Aden’s sharp hearing caught the lilting tune of a folk song he hadn’t heard in centuries. The song thrust his memory back into the past;; to a time he’d locked away and rarely allowed himself to think about. His world tilted and his hard-won calm, regained after leaving the inn and spending the remainder of the night resting illegally in the gentle-spirited Lavender Cottage, evaporated.
Aden ground his teeth so hard his jaw protested and a needle-like pain jabbed at his temple. Anger whipped through him as long-buried memories sought release.
Links to purchase are on my website here: http://www.rowenamayosullivan.com/p/my-books.html
A beautifully written piece. I just loved The Silver Rose!
Very nice, Rowena. Is this from the beginning of the book or another section where you wanted to hook the reader?
Hi Maggie
It’s from a scene the day after he arrives in Raven’s Creek – and is in Chapter Five (their shortish chapters).
Ah Deb. Thank you so much.
1st six from Under Fire: The Admiral
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Gemma Hendrickson sank to her knees in the powdery white sand watching Pacific waves crash over a brand-fricking-new million-dollar plane. All her years in the Coast Guard and she’d never had a plane shot from under her. Three days into helping out as a medical mission pilot in Ecuador and she’d been rat-a-tat-tatted out of the sky . . . “Oh, hell.”
It had happened so fast. She’d seen the trawler in the cove, seen the flashes coming from the 50 cal on the bow, and instinctively attempted an evasive maneuver.
http://tinyurl.com/d493omz
Very suspenseful! I loved the ‘rat-a-tat-tatted’. It went well with your heroine’s terse thoughts.
Love the voice in this. I’m going to go check it out.
Great idea Ashley, here’s my Six:
I believe we were all aware of a sexual tension growing in the intellectual-rich loam. There were little things at play now: the way Ellie moistened her lips and looked at us with eyes that lingered from one to the other. The way Luca’s irises had darkened from snow shadow to moon shadow as he looked upon her. The way I’d catch myself with a reminder to breathe as my eye was drawn to these small distinctions. Like da Vinci’s sfumato, our mutual attraction hung in the air, and I was struck by the notion that the smoky quality depicted in his art was desire. Desire like this.
Loving Leonardo
A polyamorous Victorian love story
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009LS3H6Q
Gorgeous images! Snow shadow to moon shadow. Sigh! 🙂
I agree, the description is exquisite.
Thanks!
From Love, Eternally, Book One of the Roman Time Travel Series. Gigi Perrin, our modern, flute-playing heroine, has just traveled through time. Our Roman hero, Magnus, is witness to her appearance in ancient Ravenna.
The air sparkled and a woman appeared, ethereal, glittering like the stars. Magnus’s chest tightened as she turned and stared at him, clutching a golden flute.
The air cleared and he let out his breath as she came into focus. Her wide green eyes blazed with an emerald fire, the whites so clear they held a tinge of palest blue. Her body was slim, her bearing regal, and he was instantly aware of her slightest movements: the trembling of her fingers, the sudden flicker of doubt in her beautiful gaze.
Her vulnerability unleashed a thunderbolt that surged straight to his heart.
Genre: Paranormal/Time Travel
http://www.morganoneill.com/
Deborah, this definitely says Time Travel or some type of paranormal travel. May I ask at what point in the book this hook occurs and why you decided you need one here?
Hi Maggie,
It happens twelve pages in. There is a prologue, in which Magnus fights a battle that pits him against a great enemy and sets up the conflict he will encounter in the fifth century A.D., then Chapter 1, which shows Gigi’s life in the twenty-first century and her time traveling (from her POV), and then this little bit comes from the next chapter, where Magnus witnesses her “arrival.” We decided it would be interesting to have him see this, because he is a pagan, and he assumes Gigi is either his goddess in human form, or someone sent by his goddess. That is why he initially decides to protect her (at the risk of life and limb). Hope this explains, Maggie, and thanks for your interest!
Thanks for the explanation.
Hi Deb
As you know, I loved this book.
Dr. Isabella Mumphrey shoved her glasses tighter on the bridge of her nose and pursed her lips. She’d yet to fail at anything she set out to do. Grad school at seventeen, doctorate in anthropology at twenty-two. There had to be a way to get more funding. Grant forms, statistical data, and the letter from the dean stating the funding for her department was going to be cut in half sprawled across the coffee table.
“Hello! Hello!” her cockatoo caterwauled as her cell phone emitted the thundering beat of Native American drums.
Action adventure romance
Secrets of a Mayan Moon.
Paty Jager
http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Isabella-Mumphrey-Adventure-ebook/dp/B008SIB0C8
Nice opening! An anthropologist heroine? Wonderful!
I’ve already read this book and I still love the opening. Great job, Paty!
…He lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed each knuckle while never taking his gaze from mine. My heart did a little back flip and amazingly remained in my chest. I let my other hand touch his cheek, my thumb brushing across the hint of bristle on his chin. And then, just as though it was something I did every day, I leaned in and kissed him. Right there, on the wide warm sidewalk, with people swarming past us as though we were a boulder in a stream…
~~ Do Not Tell Me No ~~
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A3M6G62
http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=Kathryn+Jane
I love the imagery in this. Very sexy!
Thank you Deborah!
Awww, I love this. Okay, I’m downloading this one! Thanks Kathy for sharing!
I love that last line “…with people swarming past us as though we were a boulder in a stream.”
Thanks Maggie, it’s one of my favorites too! They’re on the strip in Vegas, but she’s a little bit country. 😉
Wow, thanks Ashlyn!
Love this.
Thanks Rowena!
Silent Moon by Sarina Dorie
Genre: Paranormal romance/fantasy romance
Cassia Woodwick blinked the cobwebs of sleep from her eyes, finding herself in a bed of lacy ferns and cushions of moss. The gray greeting of dawn glowed through the oak trees at the horizon. As usual, Cassia had no memory of how she’d gotten to the forest. At least she was clad in a nightgown this time.
She rose and shook leaves from her chemise and cape, freezing when she saw the smear of red on her fingers. Horror stole over her as she glimpsed the bloody mass sprawled across the bushes of laurel, only recognizable as human by its torn leather jerkin and the sword in the clover nearby.
http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Moon-Sarina-Amanda-Dorie/dp/147014977X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355336714&sr=1-1&keywords=silent+moon+sarina+dorie
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/131672
I was whip-sawed by the change in this scene, and I loved every second of it. Congrats!
Ooooh, I love paranormals! Okay, getting this one too. Thanks Sarina!
Wow! This is a huge hook. The two lines that got me were: “At least she was clad in a nightgown this time.” and the last line. I’ll go check it out.
I stared out the hospital window at the heat-glazed street below, knowing I shouldn’t be shocked to see brown lawns, charred rooftops and the sun-scorched branches of leafless trees in the middle of January. But I was. I’d never get used to a hot winter in Colorado.
Few people ventured outside in the daytime anymore. The risk of getting caught in a sun storm was greater now than ever, and only a rare few survived the storm’s lethal rain of radioactive sun sparks. Exposure killed you slowly with Sun Fever, or if you were lucky, it let you live with altered DNA that turned you into a freak like me.
SUN STORM – Til The World Ends Anthology
http://www.amazon.com/Til-The-World-Ends-ebook/dp/B009YEV2ZK/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1355337362&sr=1-1
I forgot to give the genre. 🙂 It’s post-apocalyptic romance, and SUN STORM is one of the three novellas in the collection. It’s available for preorder now (kindle & paper), but will be out by the end of January.
This sounds wonderful, Karen. I’m going to download it.
Harrowing and thought-provoking. Great writing!
Here are the first six sentences in my most recent romantic women’s fiction novel, HEALING NOTES.
Misty, grey clouds drizzled rain onto the blue-grey stucco of the small clinic and dotted the dirty, pock-marked sidewalk in front of Rachel Cullen’s car. Even the doors on the nine small offices were grey. The lack of color matched her mood—no contrast, no feeling, just grey. It was her last time meeting with Dr. Patterson. She should be happy. She’d been fighting the counseling every step of the way during the last six months.
I forgot to put a buy link. This is the webpage for the book with several buy-link options: http://maggiejaimeson.com/healingnotes.html
I felt your character’s depression. Loved the images; evocative of the hopeless mood of your heroine. I find myself thinking of her, and hoping she will get well.
Thanks Deborah. That was the purpose, to start from her place of hopelessness where she can only get better as the story moves forward.
Wow, great mood setting, Maggie!
Thanks Karen, that means a lot that you noticed it. When I began my first novel over 8 years ago, I had almost no setting. In the subsequent 9 novels since then, I’ve worked on that and it has become progressively better. This novel was my eighth.
I agree with Karen, Maggie. What a great way to use setting to establish mood. Nicely done!
Lovely imagary Maggie. I find myself wanting to know more about what happened to her.
Ghost Hand by Ripley Patton
Genre: YA Paranormal Thriller
Five minutes into my Calc class, I glanced up and caught the new guy staring.
He sat across the aisle from me, his eyes locked on my glowy, see-through right hand and the pencil that hovered between my fingers, never quite touching them.
I slowly set my pencil on my desk.
His eyes tracked my movements, still staring.
I raised my fingers and wiggled them at him in a cheesy little wave. Normally, that was enough to make people turn away and try not to notice my ghost hand.
Available now in e-book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AF1CM0A
And paperback: https://www.createspace.com/3904994
As well as on Kobo and Nook via Barnes and Noble.
This is quite original, and I am left wondering what a ghost hand is. Great hook!
Thanks Deborah,
This is the first six sentence of the book, so I’m glad it has a good hook.. Initial reviews have been good too so Squeee!
Thanks Ashlyn.
You’re very welcome!
Great hook! I’m intrigued.
Definitely hooked me. Interesting that only one hand is ghostly. Now you’ve made me go look. 🙂
Thanks Karen and Maggie. You can read the first 4-and-a-bit chapters using Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature if you’re dying to know more:)
Here’s my six, from GLASS CEILINGS, my contemporary romance novel (available from http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008H0G9X2 ).
Cheers,
Alicia
In her mind she heard again the skipper’s words, ‘… sent to a watery grave’ and her stomach did a back-flip. She hurriedly kicked herself upwards, the frenzied action of her own fins further disturbing the sandy ocean floor. When she got above the cave, which looked like every other piece of reef, she searched desperately for the other entrance, the one she and Andy had used to exit the cave. She knew it was there somewhere, camouflaged by coral and weeds, so when she couldn’t see it, she got close enough to feel around with her gloved hands, and finally located it.
Verity wasted no time.
She plunged into the cave’s dark interior.
What happens next?!!! Nice!
Great action – I agree with Ashlyn! What happens next? 🙂
Thanks Deborah!
Well, in a nutshell, Verity saves the day, and Royce, the hero, starts to wonder if maybe there’s more to this female upstart who stole ‘his’ promotion….
🙂
Thanks Ashlyn. 🙂
Verity is on a scuba diving trip, and finds herself having to buddy up with the hero, her corporate nemesis, who’s gone into an underwater cave looking for crayfish.
And when he gets into trouble, she’s his only hope for survival….
Thanks for hosting this, Ashlyn. I love your name, btw. There are some great hooks here. So fun to read through them all!
Here’s mine for Mist, a supernatural thriller with strong romantic elements:
The only super natural thing in this salt-water town is the crazy lady on Center Street who claims she can predict the future. So, when I whip into a parking space at the speedy mart, almost hit a black dog roughly the size of a Dodge Neon, and it turns and stares at me with glowing red eyes, I say to myself, “Ridiculous, Dianne. You must be seeing things.”
I fumble through my camera bag. No one will believe this story without photographic evidence. Before I can pull out my Canon, the dog trots off into the November fog.
Mist is available in paperback and for Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Mist-ebook/dp/B009PR439S/
I could never write in first person, but you pulled it off! Very well done!
Thanks Deborah! I usually prefer first person. Although my WIP is in third. I’m sure you could do it, too.
Nice! I have your book, Danita. I can’t wait to read it. 🙂
Karen, I have one of yours too and ditto! This new one sounds interesting. Love the freak like me line. What a great hook.
Thanks for hosting this, Ashlyn! Here are my six sentences from my Dec. 24th release Rhapsody:
The promise of amusement brightened Finn’s mood as he leaned against a bamboo beam where orchids hung in terracotta pots, perfuming the air at the Caribbean resort. Veiled from mortal sight, he watched a woman’s sleek black hair whip across her bare shoulders as she danced. So relaxed. So at ease. So content in her packaged life. Not a hint of suspicion her vacation would soon take a turn.
Preorder Amazon link: http://www.amazon.ca/Rhapsody-Crimson-Romance-ebook/dp/B00AKERYLE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355086884&sr=1-1
Thank you, Ashlyn!
Oh, my goodness! It’s Finn! I loved him from your first novel and can’t wait to read about him again.
Hmmm. Your last line “Not a hint of suspicion her vacation would soon take a turn.” makes me wonder why Finn knows what will happen in the future.
Here’s the crux of Love’s Little Instruction Book, where the three male friends come to the conclusion that they’re going to have to actually READ romance books in order to discover what it is that women look for in a man:
Dave ran his hand over the back of his neck. “Okay, let’s just forget about the covers for a minute here, guys. Let’s just assume that I have absolutely nothing in common with these horny, muscle bound, bald-chested, long haired contortionists and take a look at what’s actually in the books, okay? We’re not going to learn anything just by looking at the pictures here. This isn’t kindergarten, we’re all going to have to actually open the books and read them. How about we each pick one book, take it home and we can compare notes next Saturday?”
That is a brilliant hook, Mary. Congrats!
This one sounds like fun!
This sounds hilarious. I’ll have to check it out. Maybe buy it for my husband who rather begrudgingly reads my work but no other romances.
Hi Mary – I loved the humor in this book. The guys when discussing romance novels had me chuckling and I’m still smiling about it months later!
Thank you everyone for stopping by and sharing your six sentences. It takes courage to put your work out there, even if it is only six sentences, lol. Sharon, I have your book and am looking forward to reading it. Rowena and Kathy, your books are in my Kindle, waiting for me. Sarina, yours is in my SW library. Mary, I loved your sweet Love’s Little Instruction Book! And everyone else, I will be returning to this post to eventually add your works to my to-be-read list. Again, thank you, and happy writing!
Here is my six sentences from my next release….One Hour To Midnight… due to be released on Amazon 12/20/2012
Leon tried to steady her, but she fell against him anyway and it was impossible not to notice that this hard body so close to hers belonged to a male in his prime, or that he too, was equally aware of her.
For one brief, fantastic moment, she imagined that the past had never happened. A fantasy in which the man standing oh-so-close to her was a stranger and she a woman he’d just met in a bar.
Veronica stepped back into the grim reality that this man—and his wife—had ripped the heart from her body, without anaesthetic.
“I need to talk to you, Ricki,” he said, grey eyes hooded and wary, “it’s impossible here. Can we go somewhere quieter?”
Fury surfaced, ripping away the veil of shock his presence triggered.
“My name’s Veronica,” she said through clenched teeth, “as for going anywhere with you, do I look freaking stupid?”
Very cool Shirley. Makes me wonder what’s going to happen at midnight?