First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

Today’s First Lines:

“First-day-back assemblies are the most pointless practice ever.

And that’s saying a lot, seeing as Niveus Academy is a school that runs on pointlessness.

We’re seated in Lion Hall – named after one of those donors who give money to private schools that don’t need it – waiting for the principal to arrive and deliver his speech in the usual order:

1. Welcome back for another year-glad you didn’t die this summer

2. Here are your Senior Prefects and Head Prefect

3. School values

4. Fin“

Do you know which book this is from? Scroll down to find out!

Goodreads Synopsis

Gossip Girl meets Get Out in Ace of Spades, a YA contemporary thriller by debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé about two students, Devon & Chiamaka, and their struggles against an anonymous bully.

When two Niveus Private Academy students, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, are selected to be part of the elite school’s senior class prefects, it looks like their year is off to an amazing start. After all, not only does it look great on college applications, but it officially puts each of them in the running for valedictorian, too.

Shortly after the announcement is made, though, someone who goes by Aces begins using anonymous text messages to reveal secrets about the two of them that turn their lives upside down and threaten every aspect of their carefully planned futures.

As Aces shows no sign of stopping, what seemed like a sick prank quickly turns into a dangerous game, with all the cards stacked against them. Can Devon and Chiamaka stop Aces before things become incredibly deadly?

With heart-pounding suspense and relevant social commentary comes a high-octane thriller from debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé.

Thoughts & Comments

The beginning lines don’t really give much away about this book other than at least some of it takes place in a school. I’ve seen rave reviews about it, though, and I’m excited to finish it. I’m approximately half-way through the book at the time of writing this post, and, so far, I’m really enjoying it.

Does this book sound like something you would like? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments!