"Mother, please don't worry about use while we're gone." Felicity Merriman was trying her best to sound more confident than she felt.
She was standing with her father and his apprentice, Ben, outside their white clapboard house in Williamsburg.
The coach that was waiting to take Mother and the younger children away for two weeks was loaded with their trunks and bags. The driver was on top, and the horses were stamping their feet, eager to be off. Nan, William, and baby Polly were aboard, and so was Rose, the family servant, who was going along to help care for Polly. They were all going to visit Mother's elderly Aunt Prudence.
First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly book blog meme hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea in which participants share the first paragraph or two of a book they're planning to read soon!I went with two paragraphs again this week, as the first one didn't really do much for me. This opening doesn't particularly pique my interest, I must admit; there's nothing here but scaffolding. Felicity's mother, siblings, and servant leaving isn't really a plot development or even a premise; it's just a way to make sure that Felicity lacks the parental support of her mother as the plot unfolds, as well as providing her character a concrete reason to be so preoccupied with her responsibility.
I don't know about you, but when I read a book with "ghost" in the title, I expect a bit more from the opening than a character saying goodbye!
What about you? Does this opening make you want to read the rest of the book? If not, how would you improve it? Let me know in the comments below, and tune in next Tuesday for another book's first paragraph!
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