Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Beginnings/Endings

I've decided to jump on board with Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week the topic is: Top ten favorite beginnings or endings in books.

I feel like I used to be better at recalling more details from the books I've read. These days my brain is Swiss cheese. I've tried to avoid some of the usual suspects here (let's face it A Game of Thrones has a pretty rocking beginning!) and go with some of the books that I recall having particularly hooked me through the years.

1. Cell by Stephen King - I'm a gigantic fan of Stephen King's work and Cell is the absolute first time I can recall the action beginning so quickly in one of his tales. (If you haven't read it, it's King's zombie apocalypse novel and it's been rumored to be in movie production for ages.)

2. The Dark Tower by Stephen King - again I have to give another nod to King. The end of the Dark Tower series is probably a bit of a love or hate situation. I personally LOVED the ending. 

3. Feed by Mira Grant - what happens when you poke a zombie with a stick? You get this awesome opening!

4. Tell No One by Harlan Coben - it doesn't take long for the action to begin in Coben's breakout stand alone. This book is intense!

5. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton - Oh, this was in my opinion the most perfect beginning to a book! I knew I was in for a great ride when I started this one.

6. The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda - I was hooked with this beginning. Each book has a great ending as well, if you don't mind the whole cliffhanger thing :) Still waiting for the final book in the trilogy but as far as beginnings go, The Hunt nailed it! (I've had this book on the brain of late. It's so time for book three! Just a few more months to go to the November 5 release.)

7. The Visitant by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear - this was the first time I read the husband and wife team and it's also the first in their Anasazi Mystery trilogy. The prologue is a flashback that piqued my interest and the trilogy is still one of my favorites.

8. Gravity by Tess Gerritsen - back in the days when Gerritsen wrote stand alones, she wrote this gem: a space based medical thriller that I personally think is one of her best.

9. Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor - I feel like folks were really able to keep the details of this book under wraps for a very long time. Because of this, I had no idea what I was in for when I started this one. The first lines hooked me, though, and I quickly jumped on board the Laini Taylor bandwagon. 

10. Summer of Night by Dan Simmons - horror fans, this is one of the most perfect books beginning to end! I love everything about it from the first line to the last!