Adrienne Tooley > Quotes

“Love is not something to be taken lightly.”
Tamsin laughed humorlessly, her expression wry. “I wouldn’t know.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Because when you’re near me, I smell lavender on your hair. When you smile, I catch a taste of honey. Your skin is warm against mine, and when you touch me, I feel more than magic.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Forgiveness takes time. But none of it will happen until you allow it to.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Living with the feeling that the world was on fire, Wren now knew, was nothing compared to watching it burn”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Your lack of self-appreciation. It’s very irritating. You have power most people can’t dream of. Start acting like it. You matter.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Tamsin wanted to count every single one, commit them all to memory so that even when she closed her eyes, she would see a constellation of Wren.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“And if you can’t be honest to a book with paper that can’t talk back, where can you be?”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“People always tried to exchange romantic love for unconditional love, as though the two were interchangeable. But there was a significant difference. Conditional love was fickle. Often it fizzled and stalled, burning out so quickly that Tamsin hardly got more than a handful of uses from it. A mother’s love for her child, however, could last her several months if she rationed it carefully.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“It wasn't the first time the two of them had kissed but it was the first time they were both aware of what it was. the act itself wasn't any different, still lips upon lips, capped and wet and warm. But the intention was. This kiss was a question, an answer, fingers crossed, and a promise kept. it was hope. it was possibility. It was sparks across Wren's skin and a flutter in her stomach. It was roving hands and soft touches and lingering heat. It was bark pressed against her. back. It was tiny gasps, Tamsin's mouth splitting into a smile that Wren matched with her own. Wren wanted to remember every second, wanted to be aware of every single sensation, but it was like trying to count the stars. Never before had she been so conscious of how many ways to was possible to feel. To want. to need.
The second kiss was much of the same.
The third was somehow even more.
After that, Wren stopped counting.
She focused instead on the way her skin shivered beneath the witch's touch, how she had never before considered the neck to be a place particularly suited for kissing (oh, how foolish she had been), how tender a tongue could be. Kissing the witch gave Wren the same sensation magic did. Kissing Tamsin made Wren feel like magic too.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Her mornings bled into afternoons that melted into evenings like fire turned to embers turned to dust”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“I don't take coins." - "I deal in love.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Love was a powerful and terrible creature. Wren refused to feed it. If she did not admit her feelings to herself, then she would not have to deny herself happiness.
Again.
Time after time Wren had kept herself from what she wanted based solely on what she thought others expected of her. she had sacrificed everything before anyone had asked, but even if that had helped them, it had destroyed her. Slowly but surely, Wren had become nothing but her sacrifices.
"Wren." Tamsin's hand was on her shoulder.
Wren stared at her desperately, wondering when she would finally allow herself to stop thinking and take what she wanted from the world.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Tamsin had always been afraid of forever. It was too broad, too all-encompassing. It left too much room for error and disappointment.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“The air smelled of freshly clipped lavender, the scent wafting across the morning in a purple haze. Of course, it wasn’t actually lavender Wren was smelling—it was magic.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“The world rebelled. But how else could the earth exist if not for the power it held just beneath the surface? It was magic that made the rain fall, magic that made the trees grow, magic that guided the winds. It was magic that made flowers bloom and birthed animals and caused the sun to shine.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Each time a star shot across the sky and her own heart glowed”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Tamsin gave a strangled cry, sweeping her arm across her cluttered tabletop, relishing the chaos and clatter of her belongings tumbling to the stone floor. A crystal splintered. Her mug shattered, scattering chunks of hardened clay across the room. Loose papers floated into the fire, the flames devouring the dark ink until the words no longer existed.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Which meant she was free to go. Free. What a strange concept, after dreaming of the word for so many years. It almost meant nothing, so great were the possibilities it encompassed”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“One must not dabble in death,” she told Tamsin, her lips quirking downward. “There is a rule of returns. It is a rule we witches cannot afford to break. For death is not kind. It does not understand. It only feeds.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“hat was the trouble with ordinary folk. They loved magic, but they were frightfully flippant about the consequences.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Letting go was the first step.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“What do you think a witch actually does?" "I don't know. Whatever they want?”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“It felt too simple. To move forward, carrying the weight of what she’d done without letting it hold her back. It was a delicate balance. Just like magic. Just like families and relationships and sisters who shared the same face but not the same heart.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“She was enchanted by the witch's lips.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Well. Wren had only been trying to help. But lately she had started to worry that being willing to offer help—a trait she’d always considered a strength—might actually be a weakness. When she had agreed to trade away her love for her father, she’d thought she was choosing to do something noble. Something good. But if her help always hurt, well, then what was she really doing?”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Fear was an animal, uninvited and unbidden, leaving destruction in its wake. She would not give in.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“What does that mean, ‘deserve’?” Wren squinted at her, as though she truly wanted an answer. “Will you spend your entire life feeling guilty for what you did? Or will you try to redeem yourself with actions and deeds? Healing takes time.” Wren glanced at Marlena, whose back was still to them, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. “Forgiveness takes time. But none of it will happen until you allow it to.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“Tamsin tucked the love into the left-hand corner of her rib cage, trying to corral it as best she could—although, of course, love could never truly be controlled. It was like trying to trap flies in a birdcage.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“What do you think a witch actually does? "I dom't know. Whatever they want?”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic

“What does that mean, 'deserve'?" Wren squinted at her, as though she truly wanted and answer. "Will you spend your entire life feeling guilty for what you did? Or will you try to redeem yourself with actions and deeds? healing takes time." Wren glanced at Marlena, whose back was still to them, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. "Forgiveness takes time. but none of it will happen until you allow it to."
Wren twisted a lock of fiery hair around her finger. "you told me to ask for what I wanted. And I want to stay. i hid from my magic for so long, fought against the pieces of me that weren't easy to explain. I want to know, now, who I am and what what I can be. I don't want to hold myself back."
She laughed a little through shining eyes. "I wish I could tell my father. i wish I could show him who I truly am. all those years I gave myself up to be what I thought he wanted. But this is the truth. This is me."
She reached forward to brush Tamsin's cheek with her thumb. "And this is you. You were a child. Lost and desperate and afraid. You made a mistake. but if you don't forgive yourself, no one else will either.”
― Adrienne Tooley, Sweet & Bitter Magic