TUESDAY INTROS/TEASERS: WHERE WE BELONG -- MAY 29

 

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by Should Be Reading.

Just grab your book and share the opening lines; then find another excerpt that “teases” the reader.

When I think about “guilty secrets,” my mind sometimes rambles along toward the other kind of secrets we sometimes read about.  Like the kind described in this opener to Where We Belong, by Emily Giffin.  My copy is an ARC, and therefore, final copy may differ slightly.

Intro:  I know what they say about secrets.  I’ve heard it all.  That they can haunt and govern you.  That they can poison relationships and divide families.  That in the end, only the truth will set you free.  Maybe that’s the case for some people and some secrets.  But I truly believed I was the exception to such portents, and never once breathed the smallest mention of my nearly two-decade-long secret to anyone.  Not to my closest friends in my most intoxicated moments or to my boyfriend, Peter, in our most intimate ones.  My father knew nothing of it—and I didn’t even discuss it with my mother, the only person who was there when it all happened, almost as if we took an unspoken vow of silence, willing ourselves to let go, move on.  I never forgot, not for a single day, yet I was also convinced that sometimes, the past really was the past.

I should have known better.  I should have taken those words to heart—the ones that started it all on that sweltering night so long ago:

You can run but you can’t hide.

***

Teaser:  “Dessert?”  I suggest, as we turn the corner.  We contemplate Magnolia’s cupcakes or Rocco’s cannolis, but decide we are too full for either, and instead walk in comfortable silence, wandering by cafes and bars and throngs of contented Villagers.  Then, moved by the wine and the weather and a whiff of his spicy cologne, I find myself blurting out, “How about marriage?”  p. 3

***

So…what do you think?  Is your curiosity and/or interest piqued?  I know mine is.  And now I’m eager to see what the rest of you are sharing.