This isn’t a new idea – I do it every time I walk into a bookstore or browse eBooks online. I pick up and put down books based on first impressions, I look at the cover, I read the blurb and then I glance at page 1.
Who doesn’t do this?
So let’s do it here.
And the first book up is – The first time Lauren Pailing died by Alyson Rudd
COVER

I love the retro feel of the cover and I LOVE the colour choices used. I also really like the title, intriguing enough that I want to pick it up and I think it is rather on trend for the moment. I’m seeing a lot of full character names appearing in titles recently. I like it.
What do you think?
BLURB
Lauren Pailing is born in the sixties, and a child of the seventies. She is thirteen years old the first time she dies.
Lauren Pailing is a teenager in the eighties, becomes a Londoner in the nineties. And each time she dies, new lives begin for the people who loved her – while Lauren enters a brand new life, too.
But in each of Lauren’s lives, a man called Peter Stanning disappears. And, in each of her lives, Lauren sets out to find him.
And so it is that every ending is also a beginning. And so it is that, with each new beginning, Peter Stanning inches closer to finally being found…
Sounds great, right!?!
It certainly makes me want to pick it up and in fact I’m already a couple of chapters in and I have no intention of stopping any time soon!
Don’t you want to find out what is going on with Peter Stanning?!?!?!?
PAGE 1
Lauren Pailing lived in The Willows, a Cheshire cul-de-sac that was shaped like a dessert spoon and as warm and cosseting as any pudding. Every Wednesday morning, sometime between eleven and twenty-past eleven, a big cream van would park at the corner of The Willows and Ashcroft Road. Seconds later, Lennie, who drove the van, would spring out of the driver’s seat, open the double doors at the rear and lower the wooden steps so that the residents of The Willows and Ashcroft Road could climb in and choose their groceries.
P.1

I read the first page, the second and the whole first chpater before I took a moment. The opening captivated me and it starts with a bang. Chapter 1 has a dramatic cliffhanger.
The writing, the characters and the setting are all working for me. I can’t wait to find out what happens.
And I LOVE that feeling when you are excited by a book and don’t want to put it down. I’ve been really lucky in 2020 and I’ve read some amazing books so far!
Long may it continue!
Have you read this? Am I in for as big a treat as I think I am?

I really like that cover, too, Jules! It fits perfectly with the 60s!
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It does, doesn’t it!? Thanks for taking the time to read and comment 🙂
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This one is our book club choice for April so I’ll be reading it then!
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Yay! I wish I had a book club…
I hope you enjoy it when you April comes around.
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Nice autumn vibes on the cover!
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Now I want to know more!!! 🙈😂
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I’m about half way in and it is GOOD! Totally different to everything I have read lately.
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I was just trying to find it on amazon. Haven’t gotten it yet but I might be typing it incorrectly. Will try again.
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Got it. I was checking in Kindle editions… which they don’t seem to have.
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I thought I had seen it available for the kindle… maybe not thou!
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Oh dear, I’d have to add another book to my shelves 😄😄😄
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