Joyfully Retired

Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea asks us to share the first paragraph of a book we are reading. As you can see it’s called First Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday Intros. As readers we are often captivated or turned away by that first paragraph or two. Let’s see what you think about the first paragraph of my current read.

Kelly O’Connor McNees became one of my favorite authors when she wrote The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott. Now she has penned another story that I think is going to confirm my expectations. I’ve only read the first chapter, but I already love the character of Clara.

Set in the years after the Civil War, the story is about three women who move to a town in the “west,” actually Nebraska. The town is filled with nothing but men who have gone wild because there are no women to “guide” them. Don’t you love the premise of the story?!

Here’s the first paragraph:

The oak planks in the floor of Rathbone’s basement tavern, Clara knew, were lined with invisible cracks. The men who drank at the tavern brought the filth of Manhattan City in on their boots, manure from the street and muck from the floor of the omnibus, and the men’s careless steps ground the dirt into the floor. If Clara didn’t whisk it out quickly enough with her broom it would lodge in the cracks, and the planks would split down the middle. Mr. Rathbone would have to replace them — an expense that might make him think twice about how badly he needed a barmaid on his payroll.

What do you think? Would you keep on reading?