First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

There are many legends about my mother. Some say she betrayed her husband, a great mortal warrior, stealing his Elixir of Immortality to become a goddess. Others depict her as an innocent victim who swallowed the elixir while trying to save it from thieves. Whichever story you believe, my mother, Chang’e, became immortal. As did I.
Friday’s Page 69 ~ Beasts and Beauty by Soman Chainani

Beware the parent who craves a child in order to mend a broken heart.
They often come with the best of intentions, as this one does, with his once rose-red hair turned gray and his sagging flesh and hump in his spine, a man once a boy, whose parents kept him in a tower and smothered him with love, hoarding him away, until it was too late to find love for himself.