Jenny L. Howe > Quotes

“Happy endings aren’t life. That happily-ever-after doesn’t leave room for living. Life keeps going. Keeps changing… the true happy ending is the one that doesn’t stop.” ⁣”
― Jenny L. Howe, The Make-Up Test

“The language can feel hard, and the structure of the stories is very different from what you see in the modern novel, but once you adjust to these elements you'll discover that medieval literature and other older works are weird and fun and explore a lot of the same questions we are still asking today. Plus, without Beowulf, Chaucer and Sir Thomas Mallory we wouldn't have The Lord of the Rings, or Game of Thrones. Old English epics and medieval romance set the ground work for the whole fantasy genre.”
― Jenny L. Howe, The Make-Up Test

“This was all Haleigh wanted from life. To spend her days hanging out with animals and editing and reading books and to get paid for all of it.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“Sometimes, when she was feeling especially self-reflective, Allison wondered if her lack of relationships over the last few years had less to do with Colin, and more to do with Jed. Or at least with the scars he’d left her. When Colin broke up with her, it had activated something left festering from her father. This idea that she wasn’t enough, that she wasn’t worth the hassle of holding on to.”
― Jenny L. Howe, The Make-Up Test

“I have a fat body and that’s a reality. And there are people out there who are very not okay with that. I’ve worked hard to keep myself out of those situations on my own, and I don’t’ want any of you to inadvertently subject me to that.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“Jack was her happy place. Her home away from home.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“He reached for her hands, lacing his fingers in hers as he tugged her up the stairs. I always need you.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“It's hard when the people who should know you the best can't see you clearly.”
― Jenny L. Howe, On the Plus Side

“She remembered everything, as if their entire history had been carved into her bones.”
― Jenny L. Howe, The Make-Up Test

“She’d always loved the way his were so much bigger than hers, how her whole hand could disappear under his palm. It made her feel safe, like he was somewhere she could seek shelter.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“Because I belong to you. Not all those other people. Me. I’m yours.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“Jack was her person. Haleigh was his.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“Allison had once taken stock of every description she could think of for large bodies, and they were pretty much all food-related: pear-shaped, apple-shaped, juicy bottom, big melons, etc. It was disgusting. So, until everyone started referring to thin people as ‘asparagus-shaped,’ Allison would be curvy or plus-sized, or if she really wanted to watch people have a shock, fat.”
― Jenny L. Howe, The Make-Up Test

“Haleigh had discovered pretty early in life that video games were a great distraction from her anxious thoughts. With a controller in her hand, or a keyboard beneath her fingers, she got to decide how characters looked, what they did, how they died. She was the one who determined how much their day sucked, not some random force called chance. It helped her feel a little more in control of the rest of her world too.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“I know we’ve only officially been together a few months, but Haleigh, you’ve been my partner in every way that matters for most of my life. I want you to keep being my partner for the rest of it.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“Most of her memories included him. And he knew her. Inside out. Upside down. He’d seen her at her worst and her best and everything in between and he loved her anyway. Or maybe even loved her because of it.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“I don't want magic to make my wish come true. I want to do it myself.”
― Jenny L. Howe, Love at Full Tilt

“And for the first time in her life, Alison Avery kissed a knight.”
― Jenny L. Howe, The Make-Up Test

“This is not a fit. It's the truth Do you know what it was like to live with you? The constant remarks about my weight? The diet printouts everywhere? The way you'd buy junk food and stock the house with snacks and then shame me for eating what was available? The way you brushed aside everything I cared about?” Her fingers ached from their grip on the bed frame. “I guess I should thank you, since your disinterest motivated me. But there’s always been this part of me that was empty, a hole I couldn’t fill be cause it was yours.”
― Jenny L. Howe, The Make-Up Test

“The Jack-and-Haleigh special.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“It had always been Jack.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“For someone who could often barely function without considering (and planning for) every worst-case scenario, she could also be oddly compulsive.”
― Jenny L. Howe, The Make-Up Test

“Jack knew her face, her heart, her soul. So many tiny little threads wove them together, creating a tapestry that could bend and twist but never break.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“I’ve loved you my whole life.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“Her therapist often pointed out that Haleigh liked to climb to the top of a building without using the stairs. One step at a time.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“She loved reading, and she enjoyed making writing tighter, stronger, more engaging.”
― Jenny L. Howe, How to Get a Life in Ten Dates

“This is not a fit. It's the truth Do you know what it was like to live with you? The constant remarks about my weight? The diet printouts everywhere? The way you'd buy junk food and stock the house with snacks and then shame me for eating what was available? The way you brushed aside everything I cared about?” Her fingers ached from their grip on the bed frame. “I guess I should thank you, since your disinterest motivated me. But there’s always been this part of me that was empty, a hole I couldn’t fill because it was yours.”
― Jenny L. Howe, The Make-Up Test

“I know we can't go back." When he glanced up his eyes snagged hers. Their table was small enough that they had to concentrate from keeping their knees from bumping and so close Alison could see every glint of bronze and green in his irises. A cash of coins and emeralds. A trap like dead man's treasure. "But sometimes I" He was whispering and she had to lean in to hear it. " I wish we could go forward.”
― Jenny L. Howe, The Make-Up Test