Annie Reads

“Did it hurt?” “Sometimes. The skin is thin on the inside of the arms, the upper thighs, the ribs.” “No,” she said softly, mouthing the words instead of truly speaking. “Did it hurt to get your life story written into your skin for everyone to see? Does it hurt when people look at them and know?”
― Giana Darling, Caution to the Wind

“Here are Just a Few of the Benefits That Go Along With Bugging in Rather Than Bugging Out: Unless any of your priorities are under threat, home is the safest place for your family in most disasters. A well-stocked home provides shelter, safety, and all the essentials you need to survive. Staying home provides a sense of normalcy, which is particularly valuable if you have children. It is easier to get quality sleep at home (which can't be underestimated in a societal collapse). It is easier to detect threats at home.”
― Ted Riley, When Crisis Hits Suburbia: A Modern-Day Prepping Guide to Effectively Bug in and Protect Your Family Home in a Societal Collapse

“We’ve been trapped in this house for the last four years with no option to escape. He doesn’t allow me to have a phone, a bank account, or any of my own money. I can’t even go grocery shopping on my own. He takes care of that by ordering online and picking it up on his way home from work. I have no family and now no friends to run to for help and every person who has met my husband thinks he’s the most charming man and would never believe what he does to me behind these four walls. They see a hardworking, successful realtor and a generous man that volunteers his time. I see ugly put-downs, rage, hard fists, and the black and blue bruises he puts on my body. And now, I see my five-year-old daughter’s arm in a cast. Something I vow never to let happen again. It’s taken me months to accumulate that little amount of money by returning hundreds of his beer cans and liquor bottles to the depot between our house and the school and stealing change from his pockets whenever I think he won’t notice. Even then, it was a neighbor who made up the bulk of my savings by paying me twenty bucks twice to feed her cats while she was away for a couple of weekends. I had to sneak over to her place while he was at open houses so he wouldn’t know I was helping her. The only reason this will even be possible is because Chloe turned that magical age of five years old and that meant kindergarten. For the first time since we got married six years ago, I have my own car.”
― Reese Rivers, Unbreak Me

“Her love of books is passed down from our mother but for some reason, it skipped right past me. While Halle used to sneak out at midnight to buy the new Harry Potter books, I used to sneak out to parties or better yet, sneak boys in. Ten years later and not much has changed. Halle is still queuing up for books and I’m still getting my heart broken by immature men.”
― Karli Perrin, The Book Boyfriend