Outlawed, Anna North
And so I began my criminal career there in the house of God, with a leaky pen instead of a pistol and books instead of silver for my reward.
When He Was Wicked, Julia Quinn, x2
Michael wondered what the legal ramifications were for strangling a knight of the realm. Surely nothing he couldn't live with.
Legendborn, Tracy Deonn
I gaze hopefully down the hall as if someone might appear and rescue me from the Schrodinger's Cat of Conscious Boys scenario I find myself in, but it's empty and unhelpful.
These Violent Delights, Chloe Gong
There was a direct correlation between her willingness to be civil and the distance between them. With him several strides away, she wanted to commit homicide a little less.
Our Violent Ends, Chloe Gong
"Less than an hour ago, you wanted me dead."
"I said I wanted you dead," Roma confirmed. "I never said I didn't love you."
The Last Story of Mina Lee, Nancy Jooyoun Kim
What was the point of learning a language that brought you into the fold of a world that didn't want you?
Well Met, Jen DeLuca
I shifted around inside the costume, and while I was a little worried about getting dizzy again, I decided the best way to avoid that was to stop kissing pirates.
Half Sick of Shadows, Laura Sebastian
"I wonder what will be left of you," she muses, "when all the people you love have chipped away their pieces."
The Bride Test, Helen Hoang
He had a crying woman latched on to him like an octopus. He couldn't help recalling that the blue-ringed octopus was one of the most venomous animals in existence.
The Far Field, Madhuri Vijay
The pine tree swayed at the very end, tall, heavy with its dark, living fruit, the thieving intruders, snatchers of corn and chicks alike. They may have been frightened off for the moment, but they would not keep away for long. They would delay, patient, clever, biding their time. Soon they would return to consume everything.
Well Played, Jen DeLuca
"You're both nerds, you know that? In this century we don't go straight for a Cyrano reference. We call it catfishing."
Well Matched, Jen DeLuca
You around tonight?
Baseball practice till 6, he texted back almost right away. You asking me out, Mama?
Oh for fuck's sake.
Star Daughter, Shveta Thakrar
Her bones knew this place. They wanted to sink into it and forget everything else. Sheetal shook it off. Disloyal, two-timing bones.
Atomic Love, Jenni Fields
How easy it would be to let the overwhelming swirl of desire suck her down past reluctance. But she's aware he's both the siren and the unforgiving undertow. And she's no longer a girl willing to drown.
In a Book Club Far Away, Tif Marcelo
It was one thing to think about and want change, and it was another to actually admit it.
Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner
I remember these things clearly because that was how my mother loved you, not through white lies and constant verbal affirmation, but in subtle observations of what brought you joy, pocketed away to make you feel comforted and cared for without even realizing it.
The Girl with the Louding Voice, Abi Dare
She didn't old, my mama, only forty-something years of age before she die, and every day I feel a paining in my spirit for her quiet laugh and voice, for the soft of her arms, for her eyes that say more things than her mouth ever speak.
For Better and Worse, Margot Hunt
"It was on the coffee table, and it broke when Robert kicked it off the table. It was really loud. You didn't hear it?"
"I guess I was a little distracted by the fact that I was in the middle of killing him!"
The Anomaly, Michael Rutger
"Ah, the dreaded conspiracy at work once more."
"Make fun if you like. But to me it's the height of arrogance to dismiss thousands of years of folk knowledge through an evangelical adherence to scientific paradigms that remain theories rather than facts. Our species didn't suddenly start being smart a hundred years ago."
A Ladder to the Sky, John Boyne
"That line from Villete," said Dash quietly. "How does it go? Where is the use of caring for him so very much? He is full of faults."
"Funny," said Gore, laughing a little. "I was thinking about Wuthering Heights earlier, just before we met. You know you've gone off the deep end when you start obsessing about the Brontes."
Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane Moriarty
The word swooped about between Jessica and Ben like a frisky butterfly before it landed, quivering, on Tony's hand.
The Municipalists, Seth Fried
As I navigated our stolen Buick neatly between the painted lines of Visitor Parking 0001, OWEN looked around at the empty lot.
"You know," he said, "sometimes you exhibit what psychologists might call 'internalized oppression.'"
November Road, Lou Berney
She knew that he would shoot her. She didn't care. Charlotte saw him for what he was: a weak man, powerless to move her as long as she refused to budge.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo
One drunken evening, many years on, In-yo would say that the war was won by silenced and nameless women, and it would be hard to argue with her.
Stargate SG-1: Insurrection, Sally Malcolm
"Sounds like a plan to me."
"I am learning that you use the term 'plan' lightly," Sting observed.
Dear Edward, Ann Napolitano
It feels unkind that they are shoving their emotions at him when his own sadness and fear are so vast that he has to hide from them.
The Holdout, Graham Moore
Los Angeles was either an inspiring tribute to civilization's ability to withstand an infertile soil, or the withering edifice of a generation's best-laid plans to grow something that should not live.
Sixteenth Watch, Myke Cole
"Will I go to jail if I shoot this fucker?" Pervez asked. "Because I really really really want to shoot him."
"Please do not shoot the helpless prisoner," Oliver said.
Anna K: A Love Story, Jenny Lee
Steven replied with only the single character K, as there was no emoji to depict the grand scale of how fucked he truly was.
Untamed, Glennon Doyle
We all believe our religious beliefs were written on our hearts and in the stars. We never stop to consider that most of the memos we live by were actually written by highly motivated men.
Topics of Conversation, Miranda Popkey
What I mean is that Artemisia seemed to know herself. Seemed because Artemisia was less master of her fate, captain of her soul, than she was a clever gardener. Sequestered in a domestic plot, she worked with the tools at her disposal.
Miracle Creek, Angie Kim
Elizabeth didn't call or email. She just kept going to Starbucks every Thursday, sitting by the window, and waiting for her friend to walk in.
A Taste for Love, Jennifer Yen
Did we just have a heart-to-heart like I see on TV? The one where the mom hugs her daughter to the swell of touching music? I twist toward Mom with an expectant smile, my ears perked for the sound of a faint melody.
She recoils in her seat. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
The Age of Light, Whitney Scharer
"My art--it's not about choosing when I release the shutter. It's not about setting up a scene and making a picture of it. It's about being somewhere at the exact right moment and deciding it's a moment when no one else might think it's anything."
Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen
"You know, having been rejected twice, I'm thinking I might just stay home."
"What?" Leah shook her head. "That's a total quitter attitude."
"Twice," I said again, holding up two fingers. "In fifteen minutes, within a hundred feet of each other. What's next? An anvil on my head?"
A Woman is No Man, Etaf Rum
Five sets of eyes digging into her. What did they see? The shadow of a person circling the room? Maybe not even that. Maybe they saw nothing at all, a serving tray floating on its own, drifting from one person to the next until the teakettle is empty.
Early Riser, Jasper Fforde
'Where's Chief Logan?'
'Aurora killed him.'
'For kicks and giggles?'
'Does she kill people for kicks and giggles?'
'You don't get to ask questions, Consul.'
The Mars Room, Rachel Kushner
And if someone did remember them, someone besides me, that person's account would make them less real, because my memory of them would have to be corrected by facts, which are never considerate of what makes an impression, what stays in the mind after all these years, the very real images that grip me from the erased past and won't let go.
The Book of Longings, Sue Monk Kidd
She offered me nothing but a way to accept whatever came--Let life be life. There was a quiet relinquishment in the words.
How Not to Die Alone, Richard Roper
But two beers, though. Two! At lunchtime! What was he going to do next--throw a television out of a window? Ride a motorbike into a swimming pool?
The Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi
"The only real question is, who are the monsters?"
"They ask that question in every monster movie, you know. It's an actual trope."
"I know," Tom said. "What does it say about us that it's relevant every single time they ask it?"
Things in Jars, Jess Kidd
It takes Bridie several minutes to coax the baronet out of a hydrangea.
The Gilded Wolves, Roshani Chokshi
He might help Serverin steal, but the greatest thief of all was the Order of Babel, for they stole more than just objects...They stole histories, swallowed cultures whole, smuggled evidence of illustrious antiquity onto large ships and spirited them to indifferent lands.
"Indifferent lands," mused Enrique. "That's a good line for later."
"Tristan, my love," said Laila with dangerous calm. "If you get in the way of a woman's battle, you'll get in the way of her sword."
Queenie, Candice Carty-Williams
I looked first at Gina, then around the room to see if anyone was going to back me up. Instead, I was met with what I'd been trying to pretend hadn't always been a room full of white not-quite-liberals whose opinions, like their money, had been inherited.
Beautiful Country: A Memoir, Qian Julia Wang
Why were we expected to speak English perfectly while praising Americans for even the clumsiest dribble of Chinese?
If Only I Could Tell You, Hanna Beckerman
Slumping into the chair at her desk and burying her head in her hands, Lily felt her life begin to unravel, like a loose thread on an old sweater, a feeling she had first experienced almost thirty years before and which she had spent the next three decades trying to ensure she would never feel again.
Bringing Down the Duke, Evie Dunmore
"You proposed to Miss Archer," he said faintly.
"Yes."
"Proposed...marriage."
"Correct."
"Are you...sure?"
The Library of Legends, Janie Chang
"So have you given up on us," he'd said, "we mortals and our many failures?"
"Worse than that, Professor." A wry smile. "I've learned to hope."
A Burning, Meghan Majumdar
It is no small thing to buy a sweet, and that is enough today. This is how my life is going forward--some insult in my face, some sweet in my mouth.
Lost and Wanted, Nell Freudenberger
Arty carries the kind of suppressed excitement that you sometimes find in people who've just fallen in love, an almost maniacal focus on one thing, and a just barely concealed desire to turn any conversation to that subject.
Honey Girl, Morgan Rogers
"I was trying to be a supportive friend, but that's canceled now. Grace got drunk-married in Vegas."
"Asshole," Grace hisses, and Agnes grins with all her teeth.
The Perfect Mother, Aimee Molloy
But she's too afraid. Afraid that if she begins, she'll start to cry and never stop, that she'll be swallowed by her sadness, her fear, how overwhelmed she is, how certain she is that everything she has is slipping away.
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me, Adrienne Brodeur
Jack's instinct to protect himself might have been the most alien thing I'd ever encountered. I'd never had a wound--emotional or physical--that I didn't probe repeatedly.
The Family Upstairs, Lisa Jewell
Any situation involving four dead bodies is clearly far from ideal.
Get a Life, Chloe Brown, Talia Hibbert
She smiled a little bit, and his heart stammered. She looked so quietly, secretly pleased, so impossibly sweet, and he just--he couldn't--oh, for fuck's sake.
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy, Nova Jacobs
"Most people go around thinking that life is magical and mysterious, filled with all kinds of unknowns. Bullshit. Once you decide the universe is knowable, all kinds of answers become available to you."
The Book of Essie, Meghan Maclean Weir
"You're really enjoying this, aren't you?" I call after her and she turns back and throws her arms out to either side.
"You've seen my life up to this point. You, Roarke Richards, are one hundred percent the most interesting thing that has ever happened to me."
Anxious People, Fredrik Backman
He presses his thumbs hard against his eyebrows, as if he hopes they're two buttons and if he keeps them pressed at the same time for ten seconds he'll be able to restore life to its factory settings.
Ooof.
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