Friday 56 and Book Beginnings: Cursed (Beholder #1) by Christina Bauer

This is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice

These are the rules:

1. Grab a book, any book.

2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader.

3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.

4. Post it.

5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post.

Please join us over at RoseCityReader every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

Synopsis:

     Most days, Elea couldn’t care less about having Necromancer magick. Who needs to conjure skeletons and sprits when you’re a farm girl? Elea only uses her powers to speed up chores and scare off suitors. 

     Everything changes when the evil Necromancer Tsar curses Elea. Now, Elea has five years left before she burns as a ghost, tortured for all eternity. They say there’s nothing she can do, but Elea disagrees. She decides to embrace her Necromancer powers, train as a magickal assassin, and kill the Tsar… All before his curse kills her. Impossible as it may sound, Elea thinks she has it in the bag, but then everything goes horribly wrong. 

     That’s when a handsome mage named Rowan steps up to help. Elea wants an ally, but she doesn’t need all the mixed-up feelings that come along with Rowan’s crooked smile.

     An assassination mission is no time to fall in love, but Elea’s heart may have other ideas…

Book Beginning:

     My black cat, Lucy, tiptoed across the roof. I paused from hammering and gave her a hopeful smile.

"Hello, there. You here to keep me company?"

     Lucy shivered and leaped away. I frowned. Lucy's not afraid of me too, is she?

Thoughts:

Slightly weak opening, but I was very curious as to why anyone would be afraid of her.

56% on Tablet:

"Thank you, Mother," said Ada.

Marlene glared at Nan and me. "And you?"

"Thank you," we said in unison. The words felt like poison on my tongue.

Thoughts:

This is a bit ahead of where I am right now. I wonder who these new characters are and why they are kind of creepy.