Every Tuesday, Bibliophile by the Sea athttp://bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.com/ hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where you share the first paragraph or sometimes two from a book you are reading or thinking about reading soon.

 

 

I am brushing Daisy’s hair at the kitchen table when the front door crashes open. The sound of gunfire and men shouting and children screaming comes in a tidal wave through the open door. Dropping the brush, I grab Daisy’ s hand and pull her into the nearest closet, fumbling for the lever that will open the false back. We huddle in the small space together and Daisy trembles in my arms.

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The Girl Before Paperback– August 9, 2016 by Rena Olsen

From the Publisher.In this powerful psychological suspense debut, when a woman’s life is shattered, she is faced with a devastating question: What if everything she thought was normal and good and true . . . wasn’t?

Clara Lawson is torn from her life in an instant. Without warning, her home is invaded by armed men, and she finds herself separated from her beloved husband and daughters. The last thing her husband yells to her is to say nothing.

In chapters that alternate between past and present, the novel slowly unpeels the layers of Clara’s fractured life. We see her growing up, raised with her sisters by the stern Mama and Papa G, becoming a poised and educated young woman, falling desperately in love with the forbidden son of her adoptive parents. We see her now, sequestered in an institution, questioned by men and women who call her a different name—Diana—and who accuse her husband of unspeakable crimes. As recollections of her past collide with new revelations, Clara must question everything she thought she knew, to come to terms with the truth of her history and to summon the strength to navigate her future.

 

 

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