The first sentence of a book is critically important. It can be a writer's only chance to gain a reader. It sets the tone for the book and makes a promise that the following pages must deliver on.
Writing teachers call the first sentence "the hook." They recommend that authors lavish attention on it. Here, if anywhere, an author needs to be enticing.
That's quite a burden to bear!
I've been thinking about first sentences. How better to understand them than to gather some examples and take a closer look at them? As I was considering the project, I found this lovely sentence in Eloisa James' historical romance When Beauty Tamed the Beast, and I couldn't resist making it the first sentence to observe. Will it be the first of many? Time will tell.
I love this first sentence. It has rhythm – try it aloud, and it falls into these divisions: Beautiful girls / in fairy stories / are as common as / pebbles on the beach. Each of those, at least in my reading, has two strong syllables. It's a very breathable, rolling rhythm, with enough variation to sound natural and enough form to sound polished.
Then, the meanings: beautiful girls – ah, yes, that's what we come to read about in a romance; in fairy stories – oh! will this be a fairy tale then? Or will it show us how it is _not_ a fairy tale?; are as common as – a little self-awareness here, and an interesting tension – surely we would not be as interested in beauty if it was common; and finally, as pebbles on a beach – not the expected grains of sand on a beach, but pebbles – something fresher and also less comfortable. Look at how the earthy details of common pebbles contrast against the ethereal beautiful tales. There's a tension here, and I want to see how it resolves – all without directly mentioning any character who has a problem.
This is a subtle, beautiful example of a sentence that draws me in. Kudos to Eloisa James!