First Chapter: DIAMOND HEAD by Cecily Wong

First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted weekly by Bibliophile by the Sea. Share the first paragraph of your current read. Also visit Teaser Tuesdays meme hosted by Jenn.

Diamond Head by Cecily Wong
Published April 14, 2015 by Harper
Genre: historical novel
First chapter, first paragraph:

Inside the care, it smells like hibiscus. It was his mother's idea; something subtle, she told him, but fresh. Something alive. As the man pulls from his driveway he is grateful, just this once, for his mother's meddling. He breathes in. Already, the sweet smell is working on his nerves. 

Teaser: 

There are few things in life as beautiful as a fresh start," Frank whispered, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me into his chest, sheltering me from the wind off the ocean, pressing me into his eager heartbeat. "This will be ours."

Book description: At the turn of the nineteenth-century, Frank Leong, a wealthy shipping industrialist, moves his family from China to the island of Oahu. But something ancient follows the Leongs to Hawaii, haunting them. 

The parable of the red string of fate, the cord which binds one intended beloved to her perfect match, also punishes for mistakes in love, passing a destructive knot down the family line. 
Now the Leong’s survival rests with young Theresa, Frank Leong’s only grandchild, eighteen and pregnant, the heir apparent to her ancestors’ punishing knots. Told through the eyes of the Leong’s secret-keeping daughters and wives and spanning The Boxer Rebellion to Pearl Harbor to 1960s Hawaii, Diamond Head is a tale of tragic love, shocking lies, poignant compromise, aching loss, heroic acts of sacrifice and, miraculous hope. (publisher)

Based on the first paragraph, the teaser, and the book description, would you read on?

Sunday Salon: Reading in the Spring Garden

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also visit Mailbox Monday 

It has been raining almost every day and the grass is tall, the plants are green and lush, the leaves on the red and the green maples have filled out. We will have lots of zinnias again this year, which the bees and butterflies love. Annual flowers, like the marigolds above which deter rabbits from the flower beds, are waiting to be planted....

I have finished two books recently: 
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, an historical novel of two sisters surviving in France during WWII. Five stars.
Die Again by Tess Gerritsen, a thriller set in Boston and Botswana, Africa. Four stars. 

My current read is: 

Diamond Head by Cecily Wong, published April 14, 2015, an historical novel and family saga spanning four generations from China to Hawaii. 

New on my shelves: 

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman, to be published June 16, 2015 by Atria. A novel about a young girl whose grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters, sending her on a journey that brings to life the world of her grandmother's fairy tales. I read the author's previous novel, A Man Called Ove, and absolutely loved it.

The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell, to be published June 8, 2015 by Atria. 
In the early hours of a summer morning, a young woman steps into the path of an oncoming bus. A tragic accident? Or suicide? With psychological nuance that gets into the heart of its characters, The Third Wife is a story about a man seeking the truth behind his seemingly perfect marriage and the broken pieces left behind.

The Lake Season by Hannah Mckinnon, to be published June 2, 2015. Set in the weeks leading up to an idyllic New England wedding, this novel offers wry wit, romance, and long-kept family secrets.

Ripped from the Pages by Kate Carlisle, a Bibliophile mystery to be published June 2, 2015. Brooklyn Wainwright attends an excavation of the caves hidden deep under her parents’ commune—and the findings are explosive. A room is unearthed, and it contains a treasure trove of artwork, rare books, a chest of jewelry…and a perfectly mummified body.

What will you be reading this week?