Jessica Spotswood > Quotes

“Reading is the perfect escape from whatever ails you.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“No matter how safe and beautiful it is, a cage is still a cage.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“What's the point of a book you don't enjoy?”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“The universe has yet to take my wishes under consideration.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“I am wicked in many ways.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“We don't get to choose who we love. Or stop loving them when they're difficult.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“He holds my gaze, and the look in his eyes is a love letter in itself. When he speaks, his voice is rough. "Will you marry me, Cate?"

I go still, the question hanging in the air. I have never felt more accepted 'for the girl I am, not the girl I want to be' never more loved and respected than I am in this moment. It's a choice, and it's mine to make.

"Yes," I breathe.

Finn slides the simple gold band onto my ring finger. I tilt it, and the ruby sparkles, catching the sunlight. He leans down and brushes his lips against mine, sealing the promise. 'I can't wait to make you my wife.'

'Cate Belastra.' I try it out and despite the solemnity of the moment, despite knowing what this will cost him, I can't help smiling.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“He may not have said the words, but I know my son. I saw the way he looked at you."
"How?"
"Like he'd do murder for you.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“I cannot imagine a life without books.
Without Father's stories of the ancient Greek gods and goddesses, without pirate stories and fairy tales and poems. Without the hope of another way, of freedom and adventure beyond what we have here and now. How dark life would be.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Star Cursed

“I just want to be me. Cate. Why isn’t that ever enough?”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“From my vantage point I can see the back of his neck flush pink beneath his collar. He's got freckles there, too. I wonder how many more freckle's he's got. Are they all over, or just where the sun's touched?
Good Lord, why am I thinking of Finn Belastra without his clothes on?”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“I feel us tilting toward each other like trees in a strong breeze. I've been craving the sight of him for days, but now its not enough. I'm not sure who moves first. The inches between us are erased until I'm in his arms and my mouth finds his.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“I can’t see any other reason he would shut down the bookshop, unless it was to help you somehow. He loves books.' She gives me a tiny, owlish smile. 'He must love you more.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Star Cursed

“Some things are worth the danger, aren’t they? I don’t believe anyone should be allowed to dictate what I read or who my friends are. It gives me pleasure t know that I can thwart the Brotherhood in some small way.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“I give Finn a wicked smile. "Don't you think a peg leg would be charming? Like a pirate? The first mate of the Calypso had one, didn't he?"
"It would add a certain rakish factor. Have you got a spare eye patch?"
"Be serious, you two. Gangrene is no laughing matter," Mrs. O'Hare scolds.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“Finns squares his shoulders—which have gotten a good deal sturdier since I last saw him. Or paid attention, at any rate. How long has it been since I actually looked? He's gotten awfully handsome; it can't have happened overnight.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“Brother Ralston smiles fondly, only too willing to believe in my womanly frailty. If it weren’t to my advantage, I’d slap the smile from his face.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“I have never been this close to a man before. Something stirs deep, pulsing through my body, and its quite like the tug of magic, buts its not the magic; this is something entirely different, just between Finn and me and this moment.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“We’ll tell the nurses she’s a new student with an interest in nursing. They’ll be charmed.'

Tess flips her braids over her should. 'I am particularly adorable today.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Star Cursed

“Finn lowers his voice to a confidential whisper. ‘Arabella was
my first literary infatuation. I had a mad crush on her.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“Get on with it," Mrs. O'Hare prompts, and I do, wrapping the bandage snugly over Finn's instep and up his calf― which is sinewy with muscle, covered in fine coppery hair and more freckles. I'm fascinated by the pattern they form over his skin. Do they go all the way up his leg?
I flush scarlet at the the thought.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“It's called Sunday school, but we are required to attend twice weekly: on Sunday before regular service and again on Wednesday evenings. There are two separate classes: one for children under ten, held in the classroom down the hall, to teach them basic prayers and the tenets of the Brotherhood's beliefs, and one for girls aged eleven to seventeen, to teach us about how wicked we are.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“Countries are forged by war; perhaps girls are, too. New England and I will be reborn together in this war between the witches and the Brothers. Between Maura and me.

I am newly wrought -- a girl of steel and snow and heartrending good-byes.

My magic is renewed by my heartbreak. It spills out my fingertips, swirling around me. The wind picks up, bitter cold now. The rain turns abruptly to snow, haloing the gas streetlamps like iron angels. Enormous snowflakes begin to fall -- fast, faster -- obscuring my sister, hiding her and Brenna and the carriage and the gray stone building that has become my home.

I am all alone in a sea of whirling white.

It feels right that it should be so.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Star Cursed

“You, in the moonlight, in this library, in this dress--" His eyes rove over me, from my frothy pink skirts embroidered with dark pink roses, past the swell of my breasts, up to the creamy skin of my neck. My breath comes fast as his gaze lingers on my lips. He's barely touching me, but it feels as though he's already undressed me with his eyes.
"Its the most beautiful thing. Like a dream." His voice is hoarse and full of wonder.
"Then its my dream, too," I confess as I claim his lips with mine,”
― Jessica Spotswood, Star Cursed

“We talk a bit, until Tess is sufficiently calm, and then I take her upstairs and see her snuggled back into bed with Cyclops and one of Maura’s romance novels. Strange bedfellows, but both seem to comfort her, and it serves to remind me again that she is a strange mix of woman and child, carrying a burden far too heavy for her.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Star Cursed

“It was the winter after Mother died, and Mrs. Corbett and some of the Brother's wives came to call. They kept bleating on about how sorry they were and my poor dear mother. It was infuriating. They didn't know Mother at all; she never liked any of them. They were just nosy, noisy sheep.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked

“I prefer to believe we have some hand in our fates, that our choices matter as much as our stars.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Star Cursed

“Cate, I cant say what you want to hear. Not yet. I want you to know that--when I do, I'll mean it. Completely. Irrevocably."
"When?" I ask, voice small but hopeful. "Not if?"
"When." He takes my cold hand in his. "I'm falling in love with you more every day. I don't know if they were the same things I loved about you before, but now--the bit of red in your hair. The way you tilt your chin when you get angry, like you're charging into battle. How fiercely protective you are of the people you care about. How big your capacity for forgiveness is. You are an amazing woman, Cate Cahill.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Sisters' Fate

“I fumble with the top button of his vest and, when it comes undone, tug at the next one. Finn catches my earlobes between his teeth. "Are you undressing me?"
I shiver at his breath against my ear, achieving a third button. "Do you object?"
"No." His voice a little hoarse as I remove his vest and toss it onto the floor along with his cloak.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Star Cursed

“Tess focuses on Cyclops’s placid, one-eyes face. He lost one of his black button eyes year ago, but she wouldn’t let Mrs. O’Hare replace it. She said it made him more interesting, and changed his name from Barnabus.”
― Jessica Spotswood, Born Wicked