Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings #9

 

It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts from one of my current reads with:

 

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

 This week's selection:

 

While We Were Watching Downton Abbey by Wendy Wax

Beginning:  Chapter One

As a child Samantha Jackson Davis loved fairy tales as much as the next girl.  She just hadn't expected to end up in one.

Every morning when her eyes fluttered open and every night before she closed them to go to sleep, Samantha marveled at her good fortune.  In a Disney version of the airline passenger held up in security just long enough to miss the plane that goes down, or the driver who runs back for a forgotten cell phone and barely avoids a deadly ten-car pileup, Samantha averted disaster in the once-upon-a-time way: she married the prince.

 

I have finally started reading this book, which I introduced last month in a Tuesday Intro/Teaser post.  Since the novel is also on my Summer Reading Challenge (and with summer flying by), I'm happy to be making progress on my reading list.   It's also a nice antidote for Downton Abbey withdrawal, given that the next season doesn't begin until January.

 

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Page 56:  "Claire swallowed the automatic protest, not wanting to diminish Hailey's pleasure in her contribution.  'Okay.  So tell me what's going on there.  I need some detail so I can picture what you're doing.'"

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Overview from barnesandnoble.com:

FROM THE AUTHOR OF TEN BEACH ROAD AND OCEAN BEACH, A NEW NOVEL OF FOUR FRIENDS—AND A SHARED PASSION THAT COULD CHANGE THEIR LIVES.

When the concierge of The Alexander, a historic Atlanta apartment building, invites his fellow residents to join him for weekly screenings of Downton Abbey, four very different people find themselves connecting with the addictive drama, and—even more unexpectedly—with each other…

Samantha Davis married young and for the wrong reason: the security of old Atlanta money—for herself and for her orphaned brother and sister. She never expected her marriage to be complicated by love and compromised by a shattering family betrayal.

Claire Walker is now an empty nester and struggling author who left her home in the suburbs for the old world charm of The Alexander, and for a new and productive life. But she soon wonders if clinging to old dreams can be more destructive than having no dreams at all.

And then there’s Brooke MacKenzie, a woman in constant battle with her faithless ex-husband. She’s just starting to realize that it’s time to take a deep breath and come to terms with the fact that her life is not the fairy tale she thought it would be.

For Samantha, Claire, Brooke—and Edward, who arranges the weekly gatherings—it will be a season of surprises as they forge a bond that will sustain them through some of life’s hardest moments—all of it reflected in the unfolding drama, comedy, and convergent lives of Downton Abbey.

 

Enjoy life with books...

Catherine

 

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Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings #9 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.