Let’s take a peek at February Fever: Hot and Hilarious by Jess Lourey for Book Beginnings on Fridays.
Book Beginnings is a fun meme hosted by Rose City Reader blog. To participate, share the first sentence or so of a novel you are reading and your thoughts about it. When you are finished, add your URL to the Book Beginnings page linked above. Hope to see you there!
February Fever: Hot and Hilarious* (A Mira James Mystery) by Jess Lourey
(*Amazon Affiliate Link)
Summary: In a sly nod to Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, a trip to a conference for private investigators in Portland leaves Mira James trapped on a train with a murderer on board. It is soon apparent that some of the passengers are hiding their true identities. Will she be able to figure out who the killer is before someone else –possibly Mira herself — dies?
First Sentence:
The upright bass strings resonated, the notes deep and husky. In the background, the finger-snapping began. Peggy Lee’s voice threaded over the top of the rhythm. It was playful, hot, and full of delicious promise.
Discussion:
See the Hot and Hilarious subtitle? The novel starts with a steamy scene between Mira James and her boyfriend, giving the hot part.
Readers might expect the rest is going to be a steamy romance novel. It turns out, however, this is only an attention-grabbing hook. It doesn’t truly reflect the rest of the book, which is a solid mystery with some threads of humor and at times downright wackiness.
Have you read any novels where the hook pointed to a different genre than the rest of the book? Did you feel like it was a bait-and-switch device or did it work for you?
What do you think? Would you keep reading?
I would definitely keep reading! It does sound like an interesting attention-grabber! I can’t think of any books off-hand that have done this for me. I hope that you enjoy this one.
I do like the sound of this one. Thanks for sharing, and for visiting my blog.
Your book sounds like a lot of fun. Enjoy. My quotes from Ordinary Hazards