Friday Firsts is a new meme that runs every Friday over on Tenacious Reader. The idea is to feature the opening sentences/paragraphs of your current book and try and outline your first impressions as a result. This is a quick and easy way to share a snippet of information about your current read and to perhaps tempt others.   This Friday I’m reading : The Sisters Mederos by Patrice Sarath: This is the start of Chapter 1 (following the prologue):

Tesara pretended she didn’t hear the loud whispers as she browsed the open window display of Sturridges, on the Mile.  The fine gifts emporium was decorated for Saint Frey’s Day  It was filled with gilded ribbons and chocolates, delicate porcelain, and fragile silk scarves of yellow and green for Spring.  She cocked her head exactly as if she were contemplating the difference between a delicately painted blown-glass egg and a cameo brooch, and in the meantime, took in all the none-too-subtle gossip around her.  She and her sister had only been home two weeks, but the rumor engine of Port Saint Frey was nothing if not efficient.

“I can’t believe she shows her face in public.”

“Look at that bonnet. Can you imagine?”

“She’s gotten so worn.  I heard she and her sister were reduced to scrubbing floors at a school for paupers.”

Tesara schooled her face into a smile and turned to face her tormentors.   The cluster of merchant misses huddled near the door, and as one they gasped and fled inside the store, their skirts rustling as they whisked inside to safety, where she dared not follow.  She could look all she wanted, but she knew what would happen if she tried to enter.  Even worse than the gossip of her former peers would be the crossed arms and forbidding posture of the shop girl.  The humiliation of denied entry would finish what the misses had wrought – her complete and utter dismissal from society.  Once more alone, she turned back to her private contemplation of the lovely things she could no longer afford.

My First Impressions

Well, straight away it is apparent that the sisters family has lost it’s fortune and society is being less than kind.  This snippet, with the bullying and condescending attitude of the other ‘ladies’ immediately makes me feel defensive of Tesara.  I can’t really glean a lot from these first chapters but I do like the feel that this is going to be a ‘manners, bonnets and ribbons’ style story.

What you reading this Friday??  What are your first impressions??

*The above excerpt was taken from an advanced reader copy and it is possible that the final version may have further changes.