You're right about that, Wendy. Absolutely gorgeous writing!

What a great post! I read both this one and your Last Line post that you posted today April 21st. Awesome!

I know you're asking for first lines but I wanted to mention these two first paragraphs
of White Oleander. I have always been struck by them:

“The Santa Anas blew in hot from the desert, shriveling the last of the spring grass into whiskers of pale straw. Only the oleanders thrived, their delicate poisonous blooms, their dagger green leaves. We could not sleep in the hot dry nights, my mother and I. I woke up at midnight to find her bed empty. I climbed to the roof and easily spotted her blond hair like a white flame in the light of the three-quarter moon.

“”Oleander time,” she said. “Lovers who kill each other now will blame it on the wind.” She held up her large hand and spread the fingers, let the desert dryness lick through. My mother was not herself in the time of the Santa Anas. I was twelve years old and I was afraid for her. I wished things were back the way they had been, that Barry was still here, that the wind would stop blowing.

Also, the last lines of this book, tie into these paragraphs. Beautiful way to poetically weave it into the book and end with it too.

"As a kid, Bucky never ran the fastest, jumped the farthest, or got the best grades."

It always makes me laugh, too, Fae--even first thing in the morning.