Kelly Bowen > Quotes

“It would seem that, years later, Heath Hextall still had the ability to make her feel safe and valuable and visible, just as he had done as a boy. He was, at this moment, and as he had always been, an anchor in the storms she’d never seen coming.”
― Kelly Bowen, You're the Earl That I Want

“She held his eyes with hers. 'Why are you so good to me?' she whispered.

'Because you are an extraordinary woman,' he said quietly. 'If you would only stop comparing yourself and your talents to those who will never matter, to those who do not truly care about you, you would see what I see.”
― Kelly Bowen, A Lady's Guide to Skirting Scandal

“I try not to look backwards, Elise. Makes is hard to see where you're going.”
― Kelly Bowen, A Duke to Remember

“A thrill of something he couldn’t quite identify shot through Noah’s gut. He wondered briefly at her sudden change of heart but realized he didn’t really care. The idea of having this woman in his house was making it hard to breathe. Hard to think.”
― Kelly Bowen, A Duke to Remember

“But the thing with secrets and lies... is that they have a habit of becoming complicated very quickly. They pile up, they become twisted and convoluted, until you can't remember what is real anymore”
― Kelly Bowen, A Duke to Remember

“The point of all this, Hextall, is that there will always be unfair obstacles in life that make it easy to fall into a trap of self-pity. But each person has to decide for themselves if they will embrace or overcome those excuses. Happiness is something you must choose. Sometimes it is not always an easy choice.”
― Kelly Bowen, You're the Earl That I Want

“August understood survival. He had done and continued to do what he needed to so that he would never have to go back. Back to a time when hunger and cold had been enemies, stalking him with a promise of death just as surely as the wraiths armed with knives and desperation had. Back to a time when he had lacked the power and ability to truly protect and take care of those he loved.”
― Kelly Bowen, A Duke in the Night

“Have you given any thought to the formula you would like me to run?"
Alex nearly lost his grip on the decanter. "I beg your pardon?"
"At least a few of your patrons will need to achieve moderate success, and the occasional player will need to achieve considerable success at the vingt-et-un table if you hope to attract those individuals whose pocket books match their greed and belief that the next hand will change their fortune. I will require instruction as to how you wish me to deal in order to maximize both prophets and popularity." She withdrew a small square of paper from a hidden pocket somewhere in the folds of her skirts and held it out to him.
"I've run some scenarios, allowing for a margin of error that I will not be able to avoid. It's all basic accounting worked into a matrix of probabilities, but I thought you might want to review it."
Alex very carefully replaced the heavy crystal on the surface of his desk struggling to draw a breath. This was not good at all. Forget his alarming charge into the fray on a white horse, he was rather afraid he had just fallen in love.”
― Kelly Bowen, Between the Devil and the Duke

“How was it this easy? When had Josephine Somerhall’s presence become something he required to find...happiness? Since when did he need to be in her company to find the burden of responsibility temporarily banished, the long-forgotten laughter and carefree joy of living reinstated with a single smile?”
― Kelly Bowen, You're the Earl That I Want

“Beauty can be found everywhere, should you only look. It is not a finite commodity. It changes with time and circumstance to become something new and different, but no less valuable. Your aunt is no less beautiful now than she was fifty years ago.”
― Kelly Bowen, Last Night with the Earl

“Everything he had ever done in his life he had done with careful consideration and evaluation of the consequences. This, this thing with Joss, was unlike anything he had ever encountered. He only knew it was right. And inevitable and inexplicable and he didn’t give a damn about anything other his utter need for this woman.”
― Kelly Bowen, You're the Earl That I Want

“You only meet the love of your life once. And if you're fool enough not to recognize that sort of love and treasure it for what it will become, then you never deserved it in the first place.”
― Kelly Bowen, The Paris Apartment

“Your mind, Rose, is what set you apart from any other woman I’ve ever known. Your intelligence, your abilities, your compassion, your convictions. I wouldn’t be much of a man if I couldn’t admire any of those things. If I were threatened by those things.”
― Kelly Bowen, Last Night with the Earl

“Only beware the man who does not talk and the dog that does not bark.”
― Kelly Bowen, The Paris Apartment

“He looked so capable and steady. So in control of his life. So sure of what he wanted. For just one moment, she wanted to know what that felt like.”
― Kelly Bowen, A Lady's Guide to Skirting Scandal

“And fourteen hours after she had become a wife, Sophie became a widow.”
― Kelly Bowen, The Paris Apartment

“Further Reading Atwood, Kathryn. Women Heroes of World War II (Chicago Review Press, 2011). Copeland, Jack. Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park’s Code-Breaking Computers (Oxford University Press, 2010). Cragon, Harvey. From Fish to Colossus: How the German Lorenz Cipher was Broken at Bletchley Park (Cragon Books, 2003). Edsel, Robert. The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (Hachette Book Group, 2009). Eisner, Peter. The Freedom Line (William Morrow, 2004). Helm, Sarah. A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE (Hachette UK Book Group, 2005). Hodges, Andrew. Alan Turing: The Enigma (Random House UK, 2014). Mazzeo, Tilar. The Hotel on Place Vendôme: Life, Death, and Betrayal at the Hotel Ritz in Paris (HarperCollins, 2015). Mulley, Clare. The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville (St. Martin’s Press, 2012). O’Keefe, David. One Day in August: The Untold Story Behind Canada’s Tragedy at Dieppe (Knopf Canada, 2013). Pearson, Judith. The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America’s Greatest Female Spy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005). Ronald, Susan. Hitler’s Art Thief (St. Martin’s Press, 2015). Rosbottom, Ronald. When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation 1940–1944 (Hachette Book Group, 2014). Sebba, Anne. Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved, and Died Under Nazi Occupation (St. Martin’s Press, 2016). Stevenson, William. Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins, the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II (Arcade Publishing, 2007). Vaughan, Hal. Sleeping With the Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret War (Random House, Inc., 2011). Witherington Cornioley, Pearl; edited by Atwood, Kathryn. Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent (Chicago Review Press, 2015).
From the Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee/Target Intelligence Committee (TICOM) Archives. NW32823—Demonstration of Kesselring’s “Fish Train” (TICOM/M-5, July 8, 1945).”
― Kelly Bowen, The Paris Apartment

“the world to judge.” The dancer’s voice softened. “I get it. Because it’s no different than what I do each night I step out on that stage and perform for an audience. No different than an author who tells a story, a composer who writes a concerto, an actor who portrays a character. All of us not knowing how we might be received.”
― Kelly Bowen, The Paris Apartment

“Are you mocking me again?' How did this man do it? How did he knock her off balance so easily? She might not know a great deal about kissing, but she certainly knew a great deal about conversation. And until she had met Mr. Shaw, she had considered herself quite accomplished at it.

'I'm not mocking you, my lady. I answered your question. If you want a better answer, then ask a better question. You're smarter than this.'

She realized she had no idea if he was insulting her or complimenting her.”
― Kelly Bowen, A Lady's Guide to Skirting Scandal

“Viola stood awkwardly, staring up at him. It annoyed her that he made her feel awkward. Viola Hextall was not awkward. Ever.”
― Kelly Bowen, A Lady's Guide to Skirting Scandal

“Estelle watched the travellers as they exited the train station, each moving with a grim swiftness that she had never seen before the war had started, because in the cheerful morning sunshine, the Gare du Nord was a terrifying place. It was a locale where the grey blight converged, a morass of Wehrmacht, SS, and Gestapo uniforms, all peppered with black spots of police. It was a place where tragedy and casual violence struck when one least expected it. To avoid attention, those who flowed around the occupiers were careful to keep their gaze on the ground, answered questions with single syllables only when necessary, and had their papers in a place from which they could be produced without delay. Only misfortune came from lingering in and around a Paris train station these days.”
― Kelly Bowen, The Paris Apartment

“But now he is no longer a child. Now he is desperate. And desperate men are dangerous men”
― Kelly Bowen, A Duke to Remember

“He loved her. More than he’d thought it possible to love someone. And it wasn’t a new love born of mere lust and attraction, the sort of infatuated love that skated over the polished surface and was afraid to look too closely at what might lie beneath. No, this was love that had started before he understood what it was. A love that had faced every difficult thing and had endured.”
― Kelly Bowen, Last Night with the Earl

“Your mind, Rose, is what set you apart from any other woman I've ever known. Your intelligence, your abilities, your compassion, your convictions. I wouldn't be much of a man if I couldn't admire any of those things. If I were threatened by those things.”
― Kelly Bowen, Last Night with the Earl

“One should never notice your cosmetics, Lia. Unless, of course, you only wish to be noticed but not seen.”
― Kelly Bowen, The Paris Apartment

“There was nothing but resolute determination stamped across her beautiful features. He felt something in his chest squeeze. This was the woman that he would have with him. The woman he would want by his side as he ventured forth into the unknown, armed with her wits and her determination.

And if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.”
― Kelly Bowen, A Lady's Guide to Skirting Scandal

“But experience has taught me that when one hears hooves, one does not generally look for zebras.”
― Kelly Bowen, The Paris Apartment

“There is something that one learns when one is an actress... Every night you go out on that stage. Every night you pretend to be someone you're not. But eventually the curtain is drawn, and your audience goes home, and the costumes and the face paints get put away... No one can pretend forever to be someone they're not.”
― Kelly Bowen, A Duke to Remember

“dismal place proved time was running out and desperation was beginning to eclipse good sense.”
― Kelly Bowen, I've Got My Duke to Keep Me Warm

“It shimmered where the candlelight danced across its surface, its rich crimson and sumptuous garnet hues swirling in the cascading lengths.”
― Kelly Bowen, Duke of My Heart