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!

This week’s First Lines Fridays is one of my current reads. I picked it to fulfill a prompt for the Magical Readathon and have enjoyed the first five chapters. I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the story unfolds.

Today’s First Lines:

It started with the cry of a baby.
Swaddled in a crimson gown bold as blood, Signa Farrow was the most striking two-month-old at the party, and her mother intended to prove it.

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

Goodreads Synopsis

The  New York Times  bestselling author of  All the Stars and Teeth  brings to life a highly romantic, Gothic-infused world of wealth, desire, and betrayal. ​

Orphaned as a baby, nineteen-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each one more interested in her wealth than her well-being—and each has met an untimely end. Her remaining relatives are the elusive Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at Thorn Grove, an estate both glittering and gloomy. Its patriarch mourns his late wife through wild parties, while his son grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation, and his daughter suffers from a mysterious illness. But when their mother’s restless spirit appears claiming she was poisoned, Signa realizes that the family she depends on could be in grave danger and enlists the help of a surly stable boy to hunt down the killer.

However, Signa’s best chance of uncovering the murderer is an alliance with Death himself, a fascinating, dangerous shadow who has never been far from her side. Though he’s made her life a living hell, Death shows Signa that their growing connection may be more powerful—and more irresistible—than she ever dared imagine.

That’s it for this week’s First Lines Fridays! Have you read Belladonna? What did you think of the first lines? I’d love to see your opinions in the comments!