First Chapter, First Paragraph & Tuesday Teaser: Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland

First Chapter, First Paragraph, is a meme hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.  Anyone can play — just copy the first paragraph of the first chapter (or prologue) and include a picture of the book cover. Leave your link at Bibliophile by the Sea.  Here’s the opening from Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland:

Love Enough

Cornelius Engelbrecht invented himself. Let me emphasize, straight away, that he isn’t what I would call a friend, but I know him enough to say that he did purposely design himself: single, modest dresser in receding colors, mathematics teacher, sponsor of the chess club, mild mannered acquaintance to all rather than a friend to any, a person anxious to become invisible. However, that exterior blandness masked a burning enter, and for some reason that became clear to me only later, Cornelius Engelbrecht revealed to me the secret obsession that lay beneath his orderly, controlled design.

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat.
Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here’s mine from the same book:

He’d wasted years in a miser’s clutch, protecting a father who had protected no one. He wanted more. For the first time, he imagined himself telling it all, the history and his father’s part of it, so Richard would believe, telling it with burning eyes right there in front of the painting and he would not die.  p. 21

Would you keep reading?  Leave a comment and link to your FCFP and TT.  I’d love to know what you think!