Anna > Anna's Quotes

“She’s not you.”

“What?”

“She. Isn’t. You.”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies

“Enemies-to-lovers—it’s our trope, Buxbaum.”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies

“I fell in love with teasing you in the second grade, when I first discovered that I could turn you cheeks pink with just a word. Then I fell in love with you.”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies

“She’s pretty, but her face doesn’t transform into sunlight when she talks about music.” He did that clench thing with his jaw and said, “She’s funny, but not spit-out-your-drink-in-astonishment funny.” It felt like my heart was going to explode as his eyes moved down to my lips under the glow of the buzzing streetlight. He moved his face a little closer to mine, looked into my eyes, and rumbled, “And when I see her, I don’t feel like I have to talk to her or mess up her hair or do something—anything—to get her to swing that gaze on me.”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies

“When I'm around you, I kind of feel like I'm on drugs. Not that I do drugs. Unless you do drugs, in which case, I do them all the time. All of them.”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies

“Do you realize we could’ve been doing this for years if you weren’t such a pain in the ass?”
“Nah—I didn’t like you until recently.”
“Enemies-to-lovers—it’s our trope, Buxbaum.”
“You poor, confused little love lover.” A giggle shimmied through me before I set my hands on his face and said as I pulled him back to me, “Just shut up and kiss me.”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies

“A girl will never forget the first boy she likes.” —He’s Just Not That into You “But she’ll also never forget the first boy she hates.” —Liz Buxbaum”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies

“But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.” —10 Things I Hate About You”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies

“Please don’t ever become a stranger Whose laugh I could recognize anywhere—”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies

“So you think that two enemies—in the real world—can magically get over their differences and fall madly in love?”
― Lynn Painter, Better Than the Movies

“Call us even. Call me crazy. I don’t care. Just…” His eyes are pleading, brimming with emotion. “Just call me yours.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“If she is Shadow, then I am Flame. This girl is the very thing I can’t seem to escape—can’t seem to go anywhere without the remnants of her following. Where I am, she is. Whether it’s in the flesh or in the fragments of my mind. And where there is a flame, there is always a shadow. She is my inevitable.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“It’s a good thing you’re not here,” he says softly, a tone I never thought I’d hear from him again. “Because I still haven’t found my courage.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“I’m tired of writing from the villain’s perspective.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“And then she smiles, bright and big like the night sky hanging above us. I fear she could rival the stars.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“I may be a monster, but if you cut me, I'll bleed. And if you break my heart, Pae, you'll break me. So, if even a sliver of your soul longs for mine, I'll spend the rest of my life trying to deserve it.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“I wanted to kill you," I whisper, forcing his eyes to open. "I wanted to be your undoing. But even then, I knew I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I had."
He inches toward me, head shaking and eyes roaming as though overwhelmed by what he is seeing. "Oh, but you are my undoing. My deliverance. my downfall disguised as a deity." Another slow step. "You are my ruin.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“You cannot be nothing when you are everything to someone else.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“Tell me you hate me, and I'll still count every heartbeat, every freckle, every shiver of your body, if only you say it with a smile.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“I think I would fall on my sword if it meant you mourned me,” he breathes. “And it’s terrifying to think you hold that much power over me.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“You asked me what my favorite color was once. I'd never even pondered the answer to that question before you. And yet, I realized in that moment that it was blue." He bends to brush a kiss to my temple, a murmur against my skin. "It is your eyes.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“You don't regret it?"
She shakes her head, her smile sad, "No."
"Good," I murmur. "Because I've always had a thing for short hair."
"Oh, really?" She laughs as I sway us in a circle.
"It's true. Among other things, of course." I shrug a shoulder. "Short hair. Ocean-blue eyes. Twenty-eight freckles. And"- I pause, examining her with a tilt of my head-"how tall are you?"
She blinks in confusion. "Umm, about five and a half feet?"
"Five and a half feet," I continue evenly. "The terrifying ability to kick a man's ass. Stunning smile. Ridiculously stubborn. Hair like molten silver. Quick to threaten me with a dagger." I smile down at her. "Should I go on?”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“She’s unbearable, really. But not in the way that makes it any easier to look away. No, everything about her is a bold sort of beauty, like a rose proudly displaying its thorns. She’s alluring in the way that most deadly things are. It’s captivating.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“Maybe you really are a poet," I whisper.
He smiles softly. "Only a fool for you."
"Pretend?"
My voice is small, soft like the breeze blowing through my short hair.
"Never."
"None of it?" I ask quietly.
"Darling"-he smiles- "I have never had to pretend to want you.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“You're not just a mission to me. You're not just another enemy for me to find. You're something even more terrifying."
Her voice is little more than a whisper. "And what is that?"
"A need."
We stare at each other, both surprised by the words that pushed their way past my lips. Sunlight is streaming through her hair, making her glow like something far too heavenly for me.
"I thought you had found your courage," she says softly.
I smile slightly. "Maybe I'm fine with being a fool. So long as it's for you.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“My blood is only useful if it can manage to stay inside my body. My mind is only useful if it can manage to not get lost. My heart is only useful if it can manage to not get broken. Well, it seems I’ve become utterly useless, then.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“I wanted her to be formidable. Recklessly bold. Powerful despite ability."
I stare at him, taking in each word.
"I am none of those things," I whisper.
He drops my hand to brush gentle fingers beneath my chin, raising my face up towards his. "You are much more than those things."
"You overestimate me."
"No. I just see you.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“He is my anchor, and I am willing to sink, so long as it is with him.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“I don’t regret it.” His words are a rush, a confession he’s clung to. “I don’t regret you, or what was between us. And I don’t regret kissing you on that roof. But I know I’ll regret what I have to do to you for the rest of my life.”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless

“What?” I grind out. She snorts. “Possessive, are we?” “I chained you to me. What do you think?”
― Lauren Roberts, Reckless