Jess Ryder > Quotes

“Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.”
― Jess Ryder, The Good Sister

“I told her that Nick had changed the locks on the house and cancelled all my cards. ‘He’s done what?! You’re kidding me.’ Her voice hit the high notes. ‘Utter shit, utter, utter shit. Mind you, it doesn’t surprise me for one second. That’s why I just caved in when he wanted me to leave. I knew he’d play dirty if I fought him.”
― Jess Ryder, The Ex-Wife

“But two years on, replaying the moment in my head and knowing what I now knew, I realised I’d seen the truth that day. Nick hadn’t wanted a family, not one that included me, anyway. He’d just wanted a baby.”
― Jess Ryder, The Ex-Wife

“they’ll convince the rest of the world that justice has finally been done and he’ll be left to rot. But he won’t go quietly.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“didn’t do birthdays, as a rule.”
― Jess Ryder, The Girl You Gave Away

“Not with everyone’s luggage and the supplies”
― Jess Ryder, My Husband's Lover

“She's spent too much of her life puzzling over her relationship with Ryan. The sad truth is, it has never been right. There has always been something rotten at the heart of it, a bed smell lingering in her nostrils”
― Jess Ryder, My Husband's Lover

“I love you,’ I whispered, and I will never forget his clumsy reply: ‘And me you too, I think.’ Not a ringing endorsement, especially when I’d just given him my virginity, but I forgave him. I always forgave him. No matter what.”
― Jess Ryder, The Ex-Wife

“was a deep sadness at the core of him, I could sense it. At least, I thought I could. Now I realise I was using him as a mirror – I thought I was looking at him, but I was gazing at my own reflection.”
― Jess Ryder, The Ex-Wife

“I closed my eyes and let the train rattle my bones.”
― Jess Ryder, The Ex-Wife

“I call the office and tell my boss I’ve had a bad reaction to the dental anaesthetic. And although it’s a lie, that’s kind of how it feels. Like I’ve been drugged and the chemicals are still swirling around my system. The house is cold – no heating on during the day – and my body temperature starts to drop again, so I fill a hot-water bottle and climb into bed with all my clothes on, my dressing gown laid on top of the duvet as an extra layer.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“Sam had to be telling the truth. Why would he lie? He had nothing to gain from it and too much to lose. As the tears fell uncontrollably down my face, one of Mum’s warnings rang loudly in my ears. Never trust a man who cheats on his wife.”
― Jess Ryder, The Ex-Wife

“He’d never lie about something that serious.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“have moved back home with Dad until I got myself sorted out, but that felt like too much of a defeat.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“I'm confident she won't have given my name as a possible suspect. It won't even have occurred to her. No doubt when the police asked, as they always do, whether there was anyone who might want to do her harm, she wasn't able to think of a single person. Such a joke. Insensitive, entitled people like Amber never realise how many people hate them. They trample through the jungle of life without a thought for creatures like me who live in the undergrowth. Either they don't notice us at all, or they pick us up, use us and then have the cheek to call it friendship. Like we're supposed to be grateful they've spent any time with us at all”
― Jess Ryder, The Night Away

“She uses and abuses people for her own gain, doesn’t care who gets hurt as long as she gets what she wants.”
― Jess Ryder, The Night Away

“Your heart led you into this mess, but you’ll need your head to get you out.”
― Jess Ryder, The Ex-Wife

“Everybody lives in a secret world of one. I’ve learnt that from my experiences, if nothing else.”
― Jess Ryder, The Ex-Wife

“Secrets are the devil’s work, for sure. They grow invisibly under each other, like layers of fresh skin. They multiply like worms. Cut one wriggling secret in half and suddenly you have two. Do the same again and you have four, eight, sixteen – and so it goes on until you have a plague.”
― Jess Ryder, The Good Sister

“No! I mean,”
― Jess Ryder, The Girl You Gave Away

“The bell has rung again. Who is it this time? There have been numerous comings and goings this past hour - the front door opening and closing, unfamiliar voices in the hallway, heavy footsteps on the parquet flooring. Usually, this is a strictly take-your-shoes off house, but not today. Her mother hates visitors because they leave traces that she then has to eradicate - a toilet seat left up, a badly folded towel, stray hairs, human smells ... Will she cast these neuroses aside in the light of the current crisis, or will she cling to them more tightly than ever?”
― Jess Ryder, The Night Away

“Ultimately children need happy parents, regardless of whether they're together or apart”
― Jess Ryder, My Husband's Lover

“Men are genetically predisposed to scatter their seed as widely as possible, he told her. Whereas she, as a woman, only needed one partner - a strong man to build the shelter, bring home food and protect her and the children from attack. It was her responsibility to hold on to her husband while purely natural forces pulled him in the opposite direction. When he crossed the middle line in that tug-of-war, it was her fault”
― Jess Ryder, My Husband's Lover

“That video is… well, extraordinary,’ she says. ‘And I mean absolutely extraordinary. The first time I watched it, shivers went right through my spine. I couldn’t sleep all night for thinking about it.’ She lets out a trembling sigh and then leans forward across the table, so close that I can see her pores, clogged with deathly pale face powder. With the jet-black hair and scarlet lips, she looks more like a forgotten bride of Dracula than a forties movie star, which I imagine was the original intention. ‘Tell me,’ she says. ‘What was your first reaction? I mean, did it bring back any memories?’ I shake my head. ‘No. Not at all. But then, I was only four.’ ‘Hmm… That doesn’t surprise me.’ The waiter pours our wine and Isobel takes a generous glug. ‘Children usually forget their past lives once they reach five or six. That’s normal.’ It doesn’t sound normal to me, but Isobel leaves no space for my opinion, embarking on a mini lecture about reincarnation, as if it factually exists, like cancer or heart disease – or death itself, for that matter. I drink my wine and let her talk. Not all of us reincarnate, apparently; it only happens when there’s ‘unfinished business’. I assume by that she doesn’t mean incomplete kitchen extensions or not reaching your weight-loss target. She tells me that, despite being ‘very drawn’ to Buddhism, she doesn’t subscribe to the karmic interpretation – disabled people, for example, being punished for wrongdoings in former lives. She thinks that’s cruel and utterly ludicrous. Her jury’s out on whether people ever reincarnate as domestic pets and believes it probably only happens occasionally, in exceptional circumstances. But the notion of dead people’s spirits floating out of their bodies and wandering around the ether looking for new, unsuspecting hosts appears to make perfect sense. She’s talking a load of crap and yet I seem unable – unwilling even – to contradict her. I just sit there, listening and nodding. To my shame, I even interject the odd agreeing noise. Isobel Dalliday is enchanting me. I find her warm, funny and extremely entertaining. And I mustn’t forget, she’s paying for lunch.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“of them are real friends … Unable to face giving Mabel a bottle under their disapproving gaze, Amber makes her excuses and leaves the pub. No doubt they’ll be talking about her now, she thinks as she”
― Jess Ryder, The Night Away

“The moon was as thin as a nail clipping”
― Jess Ryder, The Ex-Wife

“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you react to it”
― Jess Ryder, My Husband's Lover

“She’s an actress – not a very good one, but Isobel casts her whenever there’s a suitable part, and sometimes when there isn’t.”
― Jess Ryder, Lie to Me

“Her body feels heavy, as if her thoughts are physically weighing her down”
― Jess Ryder, My Husband's Lover

“The front garden looks like a location shoot, littered with open metal boxes full of camera equipment, and hefty bearded guys muttering into their phones. The garden offers a safe haven; neither public nor press can touch them here. Two uniformed officers are guarding the gate, and a section of the street and park have been cordoned off with fresh plastic tape. The media have been forced back and are pushing against the tape like paparazzi waiting for a celebrity to emerge from the house”
― Jess Ryder, The Night Away