#OpeningSentence

A Merchant travelling into a foreign Country, fell extreamly in Love with a young Lady; but being a stranger in that Nation, and beneath her, both in Birth and Wealth, he could have but little hopes of obtaining his desire; however his Love growing more and more vehement upon him, even to the slighting of all difficulties, he resolved at last to Steal her away; which he had the better opportunity to do, because her Father's house was not far from the Sea, and she often using to gather shells upon the shore accompanied not with above two to three of her servants it encouraged him the more to execute his design.

— The description of a new world, called the blazing world and other writings by Margaret Cavendish

Agatha Panza von Sparkles settled into Needle’s pilot seat for the very first time.

— Sunward by William Alexander

I’m not eligible for parole for six months.

— Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto

The wind bit, the sun hid, and on the first day of class, when she ought to have been lecturing undergraduates about the dangers of using the Cartesian severance spell to revise without pee breaks, Alice Law set out to rescue her advisor’s soul from the Eight Courts of Hell.

— Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

The young woman, at times described as a wash of colors seeking rest, at times a stone soul, at times a witch, reached into a pocket of timespace, pulled her small journal from its air, and wrote while curtains of raindrops cooled the open space under her family’s covered patio.

— Amnandi Sails (The Khumalo Trilogy, #2.0)

The sun, as welcome on the back of the old man’s neck as a hot knife, sliced him as he told the unconscious woman, “In raising this cup to your lips, I bind you to me.”

— Breath, Warmth, and Dream by Zig Zag Claybourne

That summer was immortal.

— Luminous by Silvia Park

I do not enter cities; I steal into them.

— The Navigating Fox by Christopher Rowe

Selena picked her new home for no better reason than the dog laid down on the porch.

— Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher

Maybe it’s fucked up, but I prefer literally running from things to figuratively running.

— Space Dragons by Veo Corva (Space Dragons, #2)

At first Jace thought he’d chosen well.

— Litany for a Broken World by Karen Conlin, L. J. Cohen, Chris Howard (Entangled Realities, #1)

She ran from the gods, and fetched up under a tree.

— Wicked Problems by Max Gladstone

Faven Sythe was told two lies on the day her mother’s organs finished crystallizing.

— The Two Lies of Faven Sythe by Megan E. O'Keefe

In Kellner Books on the Upper East Side of New York City, a few minutes before his death, John Webber was reading The Count of Monte Cristo.

— Book of Doors by Gareth Brown

This isn’t the forest guardian’s usual haunt.

— When among Crows by Veronica Roth (Curse Bearer, #1)